r example!"

"But did she call on me?"

"She called. I'm surprised you didn't hear. And she was all in a flurry
for going on.... Did you come down, Mr. Brumley, to see if Lady Harman
was ill?"

"That weighed with me."

"Well,--you see she isn't," said Sir Isaac and brushed a stray crumb
from his coat....

Mr. Brumley was at last impelled gateward and Sir Isaac saw him as far
as the high-road.

"Good-bye!" cried Mr. Brumley with excessive amiability.

Sir Isaac with soundless lips made a good-bye like gesture.

"And now," said Sir Isaac to himself with extreme bitterness, "now to
see about getting a dog."

"Bull mastiff?" said Sir Isaac developing his idea as he went back to
Lady Harman. "Or perhaps a Thoroughly Vicious collie?"

"How did that chap get in?" he demanded. "What had he got to say to
you?"

"He came in--to look at the garden," said Lady Harman. "And of course he
wanted to know if I had been well--because of Lady Viping's party. And I
suppose because of what you told Lady Beach-Mandarin."

Sir Isaac grunted doubtfully. He thought of Snagsby and of all the
instructions he had given Snagsby. He turned about and went off swiftly
and earnestly to find Snagsby....

Snagsby lied. But Sir Isaac was able to tell from the agitated way in
which he was cleaning his perfectly clean silver at that unseasonable
hour that the wretched man was lying.

Sec.8

Quite a number of words came to the lips of Mr. Brumley as he went
unwillingly along the pleasant country road that led from Black Strand
to the railway station. But the word he ultimately said showed how
strongly the habits of the gentlemanly _litterateur_ prevailed in him.
It was the one inevitable word for his mood,--"Baffled!"

Close upon its utterance came the weak irritation of the impotent man.
"What the _devil_?" cried Mr. Brumley.

Some critical spirit within him asked him urgently why he was going to
the station, what he thought he was doing, what he thought he had done,
and what he thought he was going to do. To all of which questions Mr.
Brumley perceived he had no adequate reply.

Earlier in the day he had been inspired by a vague yet splendid dream of
large masterful liberations achieved. He had intended to be very
disinterested, very noble, very firm, and so far as Sir Isaac was
concerned, a trifle overbearing. You know now what he said and did. "Of
course if we could have talked for a little longer," he said. From the
stormy dis