or the worst to follow. I
promised myself that he should not be disappointed; and the better to
complete my task, I turned to ascend the stairs.

The situation, as I groped my way to the first floor, appealed to me
suddenly by my strong sense of humour. Here was I, the owner of the
house, burglariously present in its walls; and there, in the
dining-room, were two gentlemen, unknown to me, seated complacently at
supper, and only saved by my promptitude from some surprising or deadly
interruption. It were strange if I could not manage to extract the
matter of amusement from so unusual a situation.

Behind this dining-room there is a small apartment intended for a
library. It was to this that I cautiously groped my way; and you will
see how fortune had exactly served me. The weather, I have said, was
sultry: in order to ventilate the dining-room and yet preserve the
uninhabited appearance of the mansion to the front, the window of the
library had been widely opened and the door of communication between the
two apartments left ajar. To this interval I now applied my eye.

Wax tapers, set in silver candlesticks, shed their chastened brightness
on the damask of the tablecloth and the remains of a cold collation of
the rarest delicacy. The two gentlemen had finished supper, and were now
trifling with cigars and maraschino; while in a silver spirit-lamp,
coffee of the most captivating fragrance was preparing in the fashion of
the East. The elder of the two, he who had first arrived, was placed
directly facing me; the other was set on his left hand. Both, like the
man in the butler's pantry, seemed to be intently listening; and on the
face of the second I thought I could perceive the marks of fear. Oddly
enough, however, when they came to speak, the parts were found to be
reversed.

"I assure you," said the elder gentleman, "I not only heard the slamming
of a door, but the sound of very guarded footsteps."

"Your highness was certainly deceived," replied the other. "I am endowed
with the acutest hearing, and I can swear that not a mouse has rustled."
Yet the pallor and contraction of his features were in total discord
with the tenor of his words.

His highness (whom, of course, I readily divined to be Prince Florizel)
looked at his companion for the least fraction of a second; and though
nothing shook the easy quiet of his attitude, I could see that he was
far from being duped. "It is well," said he: "let us dismiss the to