. Parable. "I
shall come out all the fresher after a fortnight's complete rest and
change."

Cook leaves the door with a smile on her face that made her look quite
beautiful, and, taking some paper from the dresser drawer, began to
write a letter.

They went on talking in the other room for another ten minutes, and
then Mr. Parable lets them out himself, and goes a little way with
them. When he came back we could hear him walking up and down the
other room.

She had written and stamped the envelope; it was lying on the table.

"'Joseph Onions, Esq.,'" I says, reading the address. "'Auctioneer and
House Agent, Broadway, Hammersmith.' Is that the young man?"

"That is the young man," she says, folding her letter and putting it in
the envelope.

"And was he your fiance?" I asked.

"No," she says. "But he will be if he does what I'm telling him to do."

"And what about Mr. Parable?" I says.

"A little joke that will amuse him later on," she says, slipping a
cloak on her shoulders. "How once he nearly married his cook."

"I shan't be a minute," she says. And, with the letter in her hand,
she slips out.

Mrs. Meadows, we understand, has expressed indignation at our
publication of this interview, she being under the impression that she
was simply having a friendly gossip with a neighbour. Our
representative, however, is sure he explained to Mrs. Meadows that his
visit was official; and, in any case, our duty to the public must be
held to exonerate us from all blame in the matter.

* * *

Mr. Joseph Onions, of the Broadway, Hammersmith, auctioneer and house
agent, expressed himself to our representative as most surprised at the
turn that events had subsequently taken. The letter that Mr. Onions
received from Miss Comfort Price was explicit and definite. It was to
the effect that if he would call upon a certain Mr. Quincey, of
Harcourt Buildings, Temple, and acknowledge that it was he who began
the row at the Earl's Court Exhibition on the evening of the
twenty-seventh, that then the engagement between himself and Miss
Price, hitherto unacknowledged by the lady, might be regarded as a fact.

Mr. Onions, who describes himself as essentially a business man,
decided before complying with Miss Price's request to take a few
preliminary steps. As the result of judiciously conducted inquiries,
first at the Vine Street Police Station, and secondly at Twickenham,
Mr. On