hat tricky spirit how he could take a joke and turn it on the
maker. Like Brer Rabbit he determined to lie low.

He withdrew into the bath room and sat down on the rush bottomed chair
by the table, his temper coiled, and ready to fly out like a spring. He
was seated like this, curling his toes and nursing his resolve, when the
Agile One, with an absolute gravity that disarmed all anger, entered
with the dressing gown. He stood holding it up, and Jones, rising, put
it on. Then the A. O. filled the bath, trying the temperature with a
thermometer, and so absorbed in his business that he might have been
alone.

The bath filled, he left the room, closing the door.

He had thrown some crystals into the water, scenting it with a perfume
fragrant and refreshing, the temperature was just right, and as Jones
plunged and wallowed and lay half floating, supporting himself by the
silver plated rails arranged for that purpose, the idea came to him
that if the practical joke were to continue as pleasantly as it had
begun, he, for one, would not grumble.

Soothed by the warmth his mind took a clearer view of things.

If this were a jest of Rochester's, as most certainly it was, where lay
the heart of it? Every joke has its core, and the core of this one was
most evidently the likeness between himself and Rochester.

If Rochester were a Lord and if this were his house, and if Rochester
had sent him--Jones--home like a bundle of goods, then the extraordinary
likeness would perhaps deceive the servants and maybe other people as
well. That would be a good joke, promising all sorts of funny
developments. Only it was not a joke that any man of self respect would
play. But Rochester, from those vague recollections of his antics, did
not seem burdened with self respect. He seemed in his latter
developments crazy enough for anything.

If he had done this, then the servants were not in the business; they
would be under the delusion that he, Jones, was Rochester, doped and
robbed and dressed in another man's clothes and sent home.

Rochester, turning up later in the morning, would have a fine feast of
humour to sit down to.

This seemed plain. The born practical joker coming on his own twin image
could not resist making use of it. This explanation cleared the
situation, but it did not make it a comfortable one. If the servants
discovered the imposition before the arrival of Rochester things would
be unpleasant. He must act warily, get d