which will doubtless be on every bookshelf as soon as his lordship gets it finished.
Give me time to mention these few facts and I am done.
Have you ever had a what-do-you-call it? What's the word I want? One of those things fellows get sometimes."
"Headaches?" hazarded George.
"No, no. Nothing like that. I don't mean anything you get—I mean something you get, if you know what I mean."
"Measles?"
"Anonymous letter. That's what I was trying to say.
Absolutely not! That was the rummy part of it. He looked as like you as your twin brother."
"I haven't a twin brother."
"No, I know what you mean, but what I mean to say is he looked just like your twin brother would have looked if you had had a twin brother.
"If I might speak freely, sir . . .?" said Keggs.
"Sure. Shoot!"
"I beg your pardon, sir?"
"I mean, yes. Go ahead!"
Exactly. When you visited the castle last Thursday, there was a young lady with you."
Not realizing that the subject had been changed, George was under the impression that the other had shifted his front and was about to attack him from another angle. He countered what seemed to him an insinuation stoutly.
"We merely happened to meet at the castle. She came there quite independently of me."
Lord Marshmoreton looked alarmed. "You didn't know her?" he said anxiously.
"Certainly I knew her. She is an old friend of mine. But if you are hinting . . ."
"Not at all," rejoined the earl, profoundly relieved. "Not at all. I ask merely because this young lady, with whom I had some conversation, was good enough to give me her name and address. She, too, happened to mistake me for a gardener."
"It's those corduroy trousers," murmured George in extenuation.
"I have unfortunately lost them."
"You can always get another pair."
"Eh?"
"I say you can always get another pair of corduroy trousers."
"I have not lost my trousers. I have lost the young lady's name and address."
"Oh!"
"You are causing a great deal of trouble and annoyance."
"So did Romeo."
"Eh?"
"I said—So did Romeo."
"I don't know anything about Romeo."
"Albert, you're one of the great thinkers of the age. I could get into the castle as a waiter, and you could tell Lady Maud I was there, and we could arrange a meeting. Machiavelli couldn't have thought of anything smoother."
"Mac Who?"
"One of your ancestors. Great schemer in his day. But, one moment."
An orful row! Shoutin' and yellin' and cussin' all over the shop. About you and Lidy Maud."
"And you drank it in, eh?"
"Pardon?"
"I say, you listened?"
"Not 'arf I listened. Seeing I'd just drawn you in the sweepstike, of course, I listened—not 'arf!"
George did not follow him here.
"The sweepstike? What's a sweepstike?"
"Why, a thing you puts names in 'ats and draw 'em and the one that gets the winning name wins the money."
"Oh, you mean a sweepstake!"
"That's wot I said—a sweepstike."
"I can help yer. I know the ropes."
"And smoke them," said George, wincing.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing."
