on, that a considerable saving could be effected in this
way. His debts to the garage were being duly entered amongst Toffy's
liabilities at this moment as he lay on the sofa in the vast cold
drawing-room.

The drawing-room was not often used now. But it was the custom of his
housekeeper to air the rooms once a week; and, this being Wednesday,
she had lighted a fire there, while Lydia, a young housemaid and
general factotum, had allowed all other fires to go out. There was a
palpable sense of chilliness about the room, and in one corner of it
the green-and-gold wall-paper showed stains of damp. Long gilded
mirrors between tall windows occupied one side of the room, and had
marble shelves beneath them upon which were placed ornate Bohemian
glass vases and ormolu clocks and candlesticks. Some uncovered and
highly polished mahogany tables imparted a hard and somewhat undraped
look to the apartment. The windows, with their aching lines of
plate-glass, were draped with rep curtains of vivid green, while the
floor was covered with an Aubusson carpet exquisite in its colour and
design. And between the green woollen bell-ropes on each side of the
fireplace and above the cold hideousness of the marble mantelpiece hung
a portrait by Romney of a lady as beautiful as a flower.

Sir Nigel had endeavoured to eat for lunch part of a chicken which
his housekeeper had warmed up with a little grey sauce; and he was
now wondering as he lay on the sofa whether any one would come if
he were to tug at the green bell-rope over his head, or whether he
could make his own way upstairs to his bedroom and get some fresh
pocket-handkerchiefs. He had had a temperature for the greater part
of the week, and he was now feeling as if his legs did not altogether
belong to him; while, to make up for their feebleness and lightness,
his head was most insistently there, and felt horribly hot and heavy.

He had just decided that he had better mount the long stairs to his
room, for not only was there the consideration of handkerchiefs; there
was medicine too which the doctor had told him to take, but which he
always forgot at the right moment. He thought the journey had better
be made now, and he could do the two things at one and the same time.
He walked with uneven steps to the window and looked out upon some
stretches of field which were euphemistically termed the Park, and
watched a flock of sheep huddled together to protect themselves from
the