. . . good-evening, Mrs.
Greeve; did you wish to speak to me? Oh!--to Captain Selwyn. Of course."

"If _you_ please," said Mrs. Greeve ominously, so Lansing continued
upward; Selwyn descended; Mrs. Greeve waved him into the icy parlour,
where he presently found her straightening her "front" with work-worn
fingers.

"Captain Selwyn, I deemed it my duty to set up in order to inform you of
certain special doin's," she said haughtily.

"What 'doings'?" he inquired.

"Mr. Erroll's, sir. Last night he evidentially found difficulty with the
stairs and I seen him asleep on the parlour sofa when I come down to
answer the milkman, a-smokin' a cigar that wasn't lit, with his feet on
the angelus."

"I'm very, very sorry, Mrs. Greeve," he said--"and so is Mr. Erroll. He
and I had a little talk to-day, and I am sure that he will be more
careful hereafter."

"There is cigar-holes burned into the carpet," insisted Mrs. Greeve,
"and a mercy we wasn't all insinuated in our beds, one window-pane
broken and the gas a blue an' whistlin' streak with the curtains blowin'
into it an' a strange cat on to that satin dozy-do; the proof being the
repugnant perfume."

"All of which," said Selwyn, "Mr. Erroll will make every possible amends
for. He is very young, Mrs. Greeve, and very much ashamed, I am sure. So
please don't make it too hard for him."

She stood, little slippered feet planted sturdily in the first position
in dancing, fat, bare arms protruding from the kimona, her work-stained
fingers linked together in front of her. With a soiled thumb she turned
a ring on her third finger.

"I ain't a-goin' to be mean to nobody," she said; "my gentlemen is
always refined, even if they do sometimes forget theirselves when young
and sporty. Mr. Erroll is now a-bed, sir, and asleep like a cherub, ice
havin' been served three times with towels, extra. Would you be good
enough to mention the bill to him in the morning?--the grocer bein'
sniffy." And she handed the wadded and inky memorandum of damages to
Selwyn, who pocketed it with a nod of assurance.

"There was," she added, following him to the door, "a lady here to see
you twice, leavin' no name or intentions otherwise than business affairs
of a pressin' nature."

"A--lady?" he repeated, halting short on the stairs.

"Young an' refined, allowin' for a automobile veil."

"She--she asked for me?" he repeated, astonished.

"Yes, sir. She wanted to see your rooms. But havin' no order