veneer, or whether in an unguarded moment, on a previous visit, the major
gave way to some such outburst as he would have inflicted upon the
domestics of his own establishment, forgetting for the time the superior
position to which Jefferson's breeding and education entitled him, I
cannot say, but certain it is that while to all outward appearances
Jefferson served the major with every indication of attention and
humility, I could see under it all a quiet reserve which marked the line
of unqualified disapproval. This was evident even in the way he carried
the major's bag,--holding it out by the straps, not as became the handling
of a receptacle containing a gentleman's wardrobe, but by the neck, so to
speak,--as a dog to be dropped in the gutter.

It was this bag, or rather its contents, or to be more exact its lack of
contents, that dulled the fine edge of Jefferson's politeness. He unpacked
it, of course, with the same perfunctory care that he would have bestowed
on the contents of a Bond Street Gladstone, indulging in a prolonged
chuckle when he found no trace of a most important part of a gentleman's
wardrobe,--none of any pattern. It was, therefore, with a certain grim
humor that, when he showed the major to his room the night of his
arrival, he led gradually up to a question which the unpacking a few hours
before had rendered inevitable.

"Mr. Hardy's orders are that I should inform every gentleman when he
retires that there's plenty of whiskey and cigars on the sideboard, and
that"--here Jefferson glanced at the bag--"and that if any gentleman came
unprepared there was a night shirt and a pair of pajams in the closet."

"I never wore one of 'em in my life, Jefferson; but you can put the
whiskey and the cigars on the chair by my bed, in case I wake in the
night."

When Jefferson, in answer to my inquiries as to how the major had passed
the night, related this incident to me the following morning, I could
detect, under all his deference and respect toward his master's guest, a
certain manner and air plainly implying that, so far as the major and
himself were concerned, every other but the most diplomatic of relations
had been suspended.

The major, by this time, was in full possession of my friend's home. The
only change in his dress was in the appearance of his shoes, polished by
Jefferson to a point verging on patent leather, and the adoption of a
black alpaca coat, which, although it wrinkled at the seams