Raffle's boots.

"Oh, ah, yes; Rafferty, bring me my boots."

"Anything else to say?" asked Eames.

"No, nothing else. Of course you'll be careful to leave everything
straight behind you."

"Oh, yes; I'll leave it all straight." Then Eames withdrew, so that
he might not be present at the interview between Sir Raffle and his
boots. "He'll not do," said Sir Raffle to himself. "He'll never do.
He's not quick enough,--has no go in him. He's not man enough for the
place. I wonder why the earl has taken him by the hand in that way."

Soon after the little episode of the boots Eames left his office,
and walked home alone to Burton Crescent. He felt that he had gained
a victory in Sir Raffle's room, but the victory there had been easy.
Now he had another battle on his hands, in which, as he believed, the
achievement of victory would be much more difficult. Amelia Roper was
a person much more to be feared than the Chief Commissioner. He had
one strong arrow in his quiver on which he would depend, if there
should come to him the necessity of giving his enemy a death-wound.
During the last week she had been making powerful love to Cradell,
so as to justify the punishment of desertion from a former lover. He
would not throw Cradell in her teeth if he could help it; but it was
incumbent on him to gain a victory, and if the worst should come to
the worst, he must use such weapons as destiny and the chance of war
had given him.

He found Mrs Roper in the dining-room as he entered, and immediately
began his work. "Mrs Roper," he said, "I'm going out of town the day
after to-morrow."

"Oh, yes, Mr Eames, we know that. You're going as a visitor to the
noble mansion of the Earl De Guest."

"I don't know about the mansion being very noble, but I'm going down
into the country for a fortnight. When I come back--"

"When you come back, Mr Eames, I hope you'll find your room a deal
more comfortable. I know it isn't quite what it should be for a
gentleman like you, and I've been thinking for some time past--"

"But, Mrs Roper, I don't mean to come back here any more. It's just
that that I want to say to you."

"Not come back to the crescent!"

"No, Mrs Roper. A fellow must move sometimes, you know; and I'm sure
I've been very constant to you for a long time."

"But where are you going, Mr Eames?"

"Well; I haven't just made up my mind as yet. That is, it will depend
on what I may do,--on what friends of mine may say down in th