"What's the matter?" he asked.

I subsided. "The idea struck me so forcibly," said I. "Jolly clever,
isn't it?"

"It's a fake, of course," said Terry. "No fellow would be ass enough to
advertise himself like that in earnest. Probably the thing's been put in
for a bet, or else it's a practical joke."

I had been aware that this, or something like it, would come, but now
that the crisis was at hand I felt qualmish. Terry--known to strangers
as Lord Terence Barrymore--is the best and most delightful chap in the
world, as well as one of the best looking, but like several other
Irishmen he is, to put it mildly, rather hard to manage, especially when
you want to do him a good turn. I had been trying to do him one without
his knowing it, and in such a way that he couldn't escape when he did
know. But the success of my scheme was now being dandled on the knees of
the gods, and at any instant it might fall off to break like an egg.

"I believe it's genuine," I began gingerly, almost wishing that I hadn't
purposely put the pink paper where Terry would be sure to pick it up.
"And I don't see why you should call the advertiser in my paper an ass.
If you were hard up, and had a motor-car--"

"I am hard up, and I have a motor-car."

"What I was going to say is this: wouldn't it be much better to turn
your car into the means of making an honest living, and at the same time
having some rattling good fun, rather than sell the thing for less than
half cost, and not only get no fun at all, but not know how to get out
of the scrape in which you've landed yourself?"

It was Terry's turn to laugh now, which he did, though not uproariously,
as I had. "One would think the ass was a friend of yours, by your
enthusiasm in defending him," said he.

"I'm only putting the case to you in the way I thought you'd see it most
clearly," I persisted mildly. "But, as a matter of fact, the 'ass' as
you call him, _is_ my friend, a very intimate friend indeed."

"Didn't know you had any intimate friends but me, anyhow owners of
motor-cars, you old owl," remarked Terry. "I must say in your defence,
though, it isn't like you to have friends who advertise themselves as
titled couriers."

"If you're obliged to start a shop I suppose it's legitimate to put your
best goods in the windows, and arrange them as attractively as you can
to appeal to the public," I argued. "This is the same thing. Besides,
my friend isn't advertising himself. Somebody is 'r