d threatened day
by day to ingulf that of the husband. Once or twice in every year
exposure and ruin seemed imminent, and Harry kept trotting round to all
sorts of furnishers' shops, telling small fibs, and paying small
advances on the gross amount, until another term was tided over, and the
lady and her faithful secretary breathed again. For Harry, in a double
capacity, was heart and soul upon that side of the war; not only did he
adore Lady Vandeleur and fear and dislike her husband, but he naturally
sympathized with the love of finery, and his own single extravagance was
at the tailor's.

He found the bandbox where it had been described, arranged his toilet
with care, and left the house. The sun shone brightly; the distance he
had to travel was considerable, and he remembered with dismay that the
general's sudden interruption had prevented Lady Vandeleur from giving
him money for a cab. On this sultry day there was every chance that his
complexion would suffer severely; and to walk through so much of London
with a bandbox on his arm was a humiliation almost insupportable to a
youth of his character. He paused, and took counsel with himself. The
Vandeleurs lived in Eaton Place; his destination was near Notting Hill;
plainly, he might cross the Park by keeping well in the open and
avoiding populous alleys; and he thanked his stars when he reflected
that it was still comparatively early in the day.

Anxious to be rid of his incubus, he walked somewhat faster than his
ordinary, and he was already some way through Kensington Gardens when,
in a solitary spot among trees, he found himself confronted by the
general.

"I beg your pardon, Sir Thomas," observed Harry, politely falling on one
side; for the other stood directly in his path.

"Where are you going, sir?" asked the general.

"I am taking a little walk among the trees," replied the lad.

The general struck the bandbox with his cane.

"With that thing?" he cried; "you lie, sir, and you know you lie!"

"Indeed, Sir Thomas," returned Harry, "I am not accustomed to be
questioned in so high a key."

"You do not understand your position," said the general. "You are my
servant, and a servant of whom I have conceived the most serious
suspicions. How do I know but that your box is full of teaspoons?"

"It contains a silk hat belonging to a friend," said Harry.

"Very well," replied General Vandeleur. "Then I want to see your
friend's silk hat. I have," he added,