ery excuse!) and I saw
that she started ever so slightly when he called her by her first name.
This pleased me--I must confess it. It showed that they had not played
this farce of brother and sister together before, and already I had
begun to dislike a little the idea that they were old and intimate
confederates. I also fancied that it showed she did not quite enjoy
the familiarity. But she got her own back again instantly.

"It is my one desire to enlighten you, Alexander," she replied with a
very serious air.

I could not help laughing aloud, and I must confess that Tiel laughed
frankly too.

The next question that I remember our discussing was one of very
immediate and vital interest to us all. It began with a remark by
Eileen (as I simply must call her behind her back; 'Miss Burnett'
smacks too much of Tiel's disguises--and besides it is too British).
We were talking of the English, and she said--

"Well, anyhow they are not a very suspicious people. Look at this
little party!"

"Sometimes I feel that they are almost incredibly unsuspicious," I said
seriously. "In Germany this house would surely be either visited or
watched!"

Tiel shook his head.

"In Kiel or Wilhelmshaven an English party could live just as
unmolested," he replied, "provided that not the least trace of
suspicion was aroused _at the outset_. That is the whole secret of my
profession. One takes advantages of the fact that even the most wary
and watchful men take the greater part of their surroundings for
granted. The head of any War Office--German, French, English, or
whatever it may be--doesn't suddenly conceive a suspicion of one of his
clerks, unless something in the clerk's conduct calls his attention.
If, then, it were possible to enter the War Office, looking and
behaving exactly like one of the clerks, suspicion would not _begin_.
It is the beginning one has to guard against."

"Why don't you enter the British War Office, then?" asked Eileen with a
smile.

"Because, unfortunately, they know all the clerks intimately by sight.
In this case they expected a minister whom nobody knew. The difficulty
of the passport with its photograph was got over by a little
ingenuity." (He threw me a quick grim smile.) "Thus I was able to
appear as a person fully expected, and as long as I don't do anything
inconsistent with the character, why should any one throw even so much
as an inquisitive glance in my direction. Until suspicion _