office this afternoon. Have you leisure to listen? Good! Please
try one of these cigars. If, while I am talking, you should hear
any one moving in the garden, just tap quietly on the table. Tell
me, have you, before to-day, ever heard of the Corporation for the
Perpetuation of Happiness?"

"Never," replied Bleak, kindling a magnifico of remarkably rich,
mild flavor.

"That is as I expected," rejoined Quimbleton. "We have campaigned
incognito, partly by choice and partly (let me be candid) by
necessity. But the time is come when we shall have to appear in
the open. The last great struggle is on, and it can no longer be
conducted in the dark. In the course of my remarks I may be
tempted to forget our present perils. I beg of you, if you hear
any sounds that seem suspicious, to notify me instantly."

"Pardon me," said Bleak, a little uneasily; "it was my intention
to catch the 9.30 train for Mandrake Park."

The fantastic cascade of false white hair wagged gravely in the
dusk.

"My dear sir," said Quimbleton solemnly, "I fancy you are to be
gratified by a far higher destiny than catching the 9.30. Do me
the honor of filling your glass. But be careful not to clink the
decanter against the tumbler. There is every probability that
vigilant ears are on the alert."

There was a brief silence, and Bleak wondered (a trifle wildly) if