d plan for him or them at the time.'

'Did you tell him so?' asked Sir Rupert.

'Well, I did drop him a hint or two of my ideas, but he wasn't the sort
of man to take ideas from anybody. Not that I mean at all that my ideas
were of any importance, but he wasn't that sort of man.'

'What sort of man was he, Mr. Borringer?' said Helena impetuously. 'What
was he like, mentally, physically, every way? That's what we want to
know.'

Hiram knitted his eyebrows, as he always did when he was slightly
puzzled. He did not greatly enjoy haranguing the whole company in this
way, and he partly regretted having confessed to any knowledge of the
Dictator. But he was very fond of Helena, and he saw that she was
sincerely interested in the subject, so he went on:

'Well, I seem to be spinning quite a yarn, and I'm not much of a hand at
painting a portrait, but I'll do my best.'

'Shall we make it a game of twenty questions?' Mrs. Selwyn suggested.
'We all ask you leading questions, and you answer them categorically.'

Everyone laughed, and Soame Rivers suggested that they should begin by
ascertaining his age, height, and fighting weight.

'Well,' said Hiram, 'I guess I can get out my facts without
cross-examination.' He had lived a great deal in America, and his speech
was full of American colloquialisms. For which reason the beautiful
Duchess liked him much.

'He's not very tall, but you couldn't call him short; rather more than
middling high; perhaps looks a bit taller than he is, he carries himself
so straight. He would have made a good soldier.'

'He did make a good soldier,' the Duke suggested.

'That's true,' said Hiram thoughtfully. 'I was thinking of a man to whom
soldiering was his trade, his only trade.'

'But you haven't half satisfied our curiosity,' said Mrs. Selwyn. 'You
have only told us that he is a little over the medium height, and that
he bears him stiffly up. What of his eyes, what of his hair--his beard?
Does he discharge in either your straw-colour beard, your orange tawny
beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French crown-coloured beard,
your perfect yellow?'

Hiram looked a little bewildered. 'I beg your pardon, ma'am,' he said.
The Duke came to the rescue.

'Mrs. Selwyn's Shakespearean quotation expresses all our sentiments, Mr.
Borringer. Give us a faithful picture of the hero of the hour.'

'As for his hair and beard,' Hiram resumed, 'why, they are pretty much
like most people's hair and