usation serious."

"Do you mean to say that you have simply ignored it?"

Now this happened to be an awkward question; and Brother Copas,
seeking to evade it, jumped (as they say) from the frying-pan into
the fire.

"Tut, sir! The invention of some poisonous woman!"

"You are sure the letter was written by a woman?"

Brother Copas was sure, but had to admit that he lacked evidence.
He did not confess to having laid a small plot which had failed him.
He had received no less than eleven tenders for his weekly laundry,
but not one of the applicants had written the 'W' in 'Washing List'
with that characteristic initial curl of which he was in search.

"Then you _have_ made some investigations? . . . Nay, I don't wish
more of your confidence than you choose to give me. So long as I
know that you are not treating the business as negligible--"

"I don't promise to inquire one inch farther."

"But you will, nevertheless," concluded Mr. Colt with the patronising
laugh of one who knows his man.

"Damn the fellow!" thought Copas. "Why cannot he be always the fool
he looks?"

"And now," pursued Mr. Colt blithely, "I want to engage your interest
in another matter--I mean the Pageant."

"Oh!" said Brother Copas. "Is that still going forward?"

"Settled, my dear sir! When Mr. Bamberger once puts his hand to the
plough. . . . A General Committee has been formed, with the
Lord-Lieutenant himself for President. The guarantee fund already
runs to 1,500 pounds, and we shall get twice that amount promised
before we've done. In short, the thing's to come off some time next
June, and I am Chairman of the Performance Committee, which (under
Mr. Isidore Bamberger) arranges the actual Pageant, plans out the
'book,' recruits authors, performers, _et cetera_. There are other
committees, of course: Finance Committee, Ground and Grand Stand
Committee, Costume Committee, and so on; but ours is the really
interesting part of the work, and, sir, I want you to join us."

"You flatter me, sir; or you fish with a narrow mesh indeed."

"Why, I dare swear you would know more of the past history of
Merchester than any man you met at the committee-table."

Brother Copas eyed him shrewdly.

"H'm! ... To be sure, I have been specialising of late on the
Reformation period."

"I--er--don't think we shall include any episode dealing specially
with that period."

"Too serious, perhaps?"

"Our--er--object is to sweep broadly down th