"  Not  I !  "

"Then  let  me  get  my  things."

"  Your  things !  You  can  come  and  get  them  to-morrow,"  was
the  contemptuous  answer.  "  You  do  not  go  down  into  the  kit-
chen to  chatter  to-night,  which  is  what  you  would  be  at.  You
are  a  mean  cur,  James,  that  is  what  you  are!  "

"  I  would  not  talk  of  curs  in  that  house,  if  I  were  you,"  re-
torted James  spitefully.     "  People  who  live  in "


192  A  Party  of  Four

He  did  not  finish.  His  taunt,  which  seemed  to  me  harmless
enough,  seemed  quite  otherwise  to  the  butler.  The  latter  sprang
down  the  steps,  swelling  like  a  turkey-cock,  and  would  certainly
have  fallen  upon  the  offender  had  not  the  young  man,  with  a
faint  cry  of  alarm,  fled  and  disappeared  in  the  darkness.
"  What  is  the  matter,  butler  ?  "  I  asked,  as  he  remounted  the
steps.
He  eyed  me  sharply.  "  Oh,  only  a  servant  that  would  be
master,"  he  answered.  "  Pretty  short-handed  he  has  left  me,
too,  hang  him  1  "

"  With  a  party  on  your  hands  ?*'  I  said,  sympathetically.
"  Party  of  four,"  he  answered,  shortly,  his  hand  on  the  door;
and  he  again  looked  me  over,  in  doubt,  I  think,  whether  he
should  add  "  sir  "  or  not.  I  was  wearing  an  old  overcoat  above
my  evening  clothes,  and,  instead  of  an  opera  hat,  had  carelessly
put  on,  the  evening  being  damp,  a  low-crowned  black  hat  I
interpreted  his  glance,  and  suddenly  saw  a  way  in  which  I  might
gratify  my  curiosity.
