stiff, perhaps, but then I am only an acquaintance--almost a stranger."

"But," Jervis persisted, "what is she like, in appearance I mean. Short?
fat? sandy? Give us intelligible details."

I made a rapid mental inventory, assisted by my recent cogitations.

"She is about five feet seven, slim but rather plump, very erect in
carriage and graceful in movements; black hair, loosely parted in the
middle and falling very prettily away from the forehead; pale, clear
complexion, dark grey eyes, straight eyebrows, straight, well-shaped
nose, short mouth, rather full; round chin--what the deuce are you
grinning at, Jervis?" For my friend had suddenly unmasked his batteries
and now threatened, like the Cheshire Cat, to dissolve into a mere
abstraction of amusement.

"If there is a copy of that will, Thorndyke," he said, "we shall get it.
I think you agree with me, reverend senior?"

"I have already said," was the reply, "that I put my trust in Berkeley.
And now let us dismiss professional topics. This is our hostelry."

He pushed open an unpretentious glazed door and we followed him into the
restaurant, whereof the atmosphere was pervaded by an appetising
meatiness mingled with less agreeable suggestions of the destructive
distillation of fat.

It was some two hours later when I wished my friends adieu under the
golden-leaved plane trees of King's Bench Walk.