s piece of extra refinement struck me as actually
touching. A third box standing on end and spread with another towel,
proclaimed itself a dressing-table by virtue of at least half a looking
glass, lurking in one corner of a battered frame, like a sinister,
partially extinguished eye. Other furnishings were a kitchen chair and a
small clothes-horse, to compensate for the absence of wall-hooks or
wardrobe. On the bare floor--oh, height of luxury!--lay the fleecy white
rug whose high mission it was to warm the toes of Lady Turnour when
motoring. On the floor beside the box wash-hand stand, a small kettle
was pleasantly puffing, doing its best to heat the room with its gusty
breath; and the clothes-horse had a saddle of towels which I shrewdly
suspected had been intended for her ladyship or some other guest of
importance in the house.

How these wonders had been accomplished in such a short space of time,
and by a man, too, would have passed my understanding, had I not begun
to know what manner of man the chauffeur was. And to think that there
was a woman in the world who had known herself loved by him, yet had
been capable of sending him away! If he would do such things as these
for an acquaintance, at best a "pal," what would he not do for a woman
beloved? I should have liked to duck that creature under the pump in the
court, on just such a nipping night as this.

He had not forgotten my dressing bag, which was on the bed, but I could
not stop to open it. I had to run down to the kitchen again, and tell
him what I thought of his miracles. He was not there, but, at the sound
of my voice, he appeared at the door of the court, drying his hands,
having doubtless been making his toilet at the accommodating pump. In
the crude light of unshaded paraffin lamps with tin reflectors, he
looked tired, and I was sharply reminded of the nervous strain he had
gone through in that ordeal on the mountains, but he smiled with the
delight of a boy when I burst into thanks.

"It was jolly good exercise, and limbered me up a bit, after sitting
with my feet on the brake for so long," said he. "May I have my dinner
with you?"

My answer was rather enthusiastic, and that seemed to please him, too.
A quarter of an hour later I came down again, having made myself tidy
meanwhile, in the room which he had retrieved from the jungle. Had the
landlady but had the ordering of the change, my quarters would have been
fifty per cent. less attractive,