d life
in the outer darkness of Guildford Street, Bloomsbury, with a household
consisting of a maid-of-all-work and a boy in buttons, with an
occasional interregnum of charwoman; and for whom all the length and
breadth of Harley Street was now much too small.

Sir Jasper was only decently civil to this haughty matron, who on the
strength of a card for a ball or a concert at the palace once in a
season affected to be on the most intimate terms with Royalty, and knew
everything that happened, and every fluctuation of opinion in that
charmed circle. The great lawyer's left ear was listening greedily for
any word of meaning that might fall from the lips of Lady Maulevrier;
but no such word fell. She talked delightfully, with a touch-and-go
vivacity which is the highest form of dinner-table talk, not dwelling
with a heavy hand upon any one subject, but glancing from theme to theme
with airy lightness. But not one word did she say about the governor of
Madras; and at this juncture of affairs it would have been the worst
possible taste to inquire too closely after his lordship's welfare.

So the dinner wore on to its stately close, and just as the solemn
procession of flunkeys, long as the shadowy line of the kings in
'Macbeth,' filed off with the empty ice-dishes, Lady Maulevrier said
something which was as if a shell had exploded in the middle of the
table.

'Perhaps you are surprised to see me in such good spirits,' she said,
beaming upon her host, and speaking in those clear, perfectly finished
syllables which are heard further than the louder accents of less
polished speakers, 'but you will not wonder when I let you into the
secret. Maulevrier is on his way home.'

'Indeed!' said Lord Denyer, with the most benignant smile he could
command at such short notice. He felt that the muscles round his eyes
and the corners of his mouth were betraying too much of his real
sentiments. 'You must be very glad.'

'I am gladder than I can say,' answered Lady Maulevrier, gaily. 'That
horried climate--a sky like molten copper--an atmosphere that tastes of
red-hot sand--that flat barren coast never suited him. His term of
office would expire in little more than a year, but I hardly think he
could have lived out the year. However, I am happy to say the mail that
came in to-day--I suppose you know the mail is in?' (Lord Denyer
bowed)--'brought me a letter from his Lordship, telling me that he has
sent in his resignation, and taken his