re getting deeper and deeper," said Norwood, turning over the
bills. "Contardo, the wine-merchant, and Frisani, table-decker, are both
large claimants. If pine-apples were the daily food of the servants'
hall, they could scarcely cut a more formidable figure in the reckoning,
indeed, if the whole establishment did nothing but munch them during all
their leisure hours, the score need not be greater. Do you know, Hester,
that the rogueries of the Continent are a far heavier infliction than
the income-tax, and that the boasted economy of a foreign residence is
sensibly diminished by the unfortunate fact that one honest tradesman
is not to be found from Naples to the North Pole? They are Spartans in
deceit, and only disgraced whenever the rascality is detected. Now, it
is quite absurd to read such an item as this: 'Bonbons and dried fruits,
three hundred and seventy crowns!' Why, if your guests were stuffed with
marrons glaces, this would be an exaggeration."

"You are very tiresome, Norwood," said she, peevishly. "I don't want to
be told that these people are all knaves; their character for honesty is
no affair of mine; if it were, Buccellini could easily mesmerize any one
of them and learn all his secrets. I only wish to get rid of them, it
's very distressing to hear their dreadful voices, and see their more
dreadful selves in the court beneath."

"The task is somewhat more difficult than I bargained for," said
Norwood, thoughtfully. "I fancied a few 'hundreds' would suffice, but we
must read 'thousands' instead. In any case, I 'll hold a conference with
them, and see what can be done."

"Do so, then, and lose no time, for I see Midchekoff s chasseur below,
and I 'm sure the Prince is coming."

Norwood gave her a look which made her suddenly become scarlet, and then
left the room without speaking.

If he had not been himself a debtor with the greater number of those who
waited below, few could have acquitted themselves more adroitly in such
a mission. He was an adept in that clever game by which duns are foiled
and tradesmen mollified; he knew every little menace and every flattery
to apply to them, when to soothe and when to snub them. All these
arts he was both ready and willing to exercise, were it not for the
unpleasant difficulty that his own embarrassments rendered him a
somewhat dubious ambassador. In fact, as he himself phrased it, "it was
playing advocate with one leg in the dock."

He lingered a little, t