ing.

"Why sir, there do be some evolutions as a man ain't so nat'rally
adapted for as a fe-male so, thinks I sir, I'll ask Mrs. Agatha----"

CHAPTER XXI

OF CRIMINATIONS

"Zebedee," said the Major, staring down at his empty desk, "what's
become of my manuscript and papers?"

"I' the orchard, sir."

"The orchard--why there?"

"Why sir, seeing the day s'fine, the sun s'warm and the air s'balmy I
took 'em out into the arbour, your honour."

"And who the plague told you to?"

"Mrs. Agatha, sir, and seeing 'tis quiet there wi' none to disturb,
d'ye see, I took same, hoping what wi' the sun so warm and the air so
balmy and your History o' Fortification in ten vollums you
might--capture a wink or so o' sleep, p'r'aps, you not having closed a
optic all last night, your honour."

"Ha!" growled the Major and, limping to the open casement, scowled out
upon the sunny garden.

"And you was ever fond o' the orchard, sir."

"Damn the orchard!"

"Heartily, sir, heartily if so commanded, though 'tis for sure a
pleasant place and if you, a-sitting there so snug and secluded, could
nod off to sleep for an hour or so, what with the sun so warm and the
air so balmy, 'twould do you a power o' good, sir, you being a
bit--strange-like to-day, d'ye see."

"Strange? How?"

"Your temper's a leetle shortish and oncertain-like, sir."

"Aye," nodded the Major grimly, "belike it is, Zeb." He turned and
limped slowly to the door but paused there, staring down at the
polished floor. "Zebedee," said he suddenly, without lifting his
frowning gaze, "what a plague gave you to think there was--there could
be aught 'twixt my lady and me?"

"Observation, sir." The Major's scowl grew blacker:

"And--Mrs. Agatha?" he enquired, "does she know?"

"Being a woman, sir, she do--from the very first."

"Ha!" exclaimed the Major bitterly, "and the maids--I suppose they
know, and the footmen, and the grooms, and the gardeners and every
peeping, prying----"

"Sir," said the Sergeant fervently, "I'll lay my life there's no one
knows but Mrs. Agatha and me--her by nat'ral intooitions and me by
observation aforesaid."

"Do I----show it so----plainly, Zeb?"

"No, sir, but Mrs. Agatha's a remarkable woman--and I've learned to
know you in all these years, to know your looks and ways better than
you know 'em yourself, sir, wherefore I did ventur' to put two and two
together and made 'em five, it seems. For (I argufies to myself) it
a