atest man in the
world nowadays is the strongest."

Andrew smiled as he settled down in the armchair which his friend had
wheeled towards him.

"You do not believe in your own doctrines," he remarked. "You would not
part with a tenth part of your brains for all my muscle."

The Duke paused to think.

"It is not only the muscle," he said. "It is this appearance of
splendid physical perfection. You have but to show yourself in a London
drawing-room, and you will establish a cult. Do you want to be
worshipped, friend Andrew--to wear a laurel crown, and have beautiful
ladies kneeling at your feet?"

"Chuck it!" Andrew remarked good humouredly. "I didn't come here to be
chaffed. I came here on a serious mission."

The Duke nodded.

"It must indeed have been serious," he said, "for you to have had your
hair cut and your beard trimmed, and to have attired yourself in the
garments of civilization. You are the last man whom I should have
expected to have seen in a coat which might have been cut by Poole, if
it wasn't, and wearing patent boots."

"Jolly uncomfortable they are," Andrew remarked, looking at them.
"However, I didn't want to be turned away from your doors, and I still
have a few friends in town whom I daren't disgrace. Honestly, Berners,
I came up to ask you something."

The Duke was sympathetic but silent.

"Well?" he remarked encouragingly.

"The fact is," Andrew continued, "I wonder whether you could help me to
get something to do. We have decided to let the Red Hall, Cecil and I.
The rents have gone down to nothing, and altogether things are pretty
bad with us. I don't know that I'm good for anything. I don't see, to
tell you the truth, exactly what place there is in the world that I
could fill. Nevertheless, I want to do something. I love the villager's
life, but after all there are other things to be considered. I don't
want to become quite a clod."

The Duke produced a cigar box, passed it to Andrew, and deliberately
lighted a cigar himself.

"Friend Andrew," he said, "you have set me a puzzle. You have set me a
good many since I used to run errands for you at Eton, but I think that
this is the toughest."

Andrew nodded.

"You'll think your way through it, if any one can," he remarked. "I
don't expect anything, of course, that would enable me to afford cigars
like this, but I'd be glad to find some work to do, and I'd be glad to
be paid something for it."

The Duke was silent for a momen