Wootton to extend the same favour to myself?"

But at that moment Mrs. Wootton in person appeared behind the counter.
"Time, please, gentlemen," she said; "it is gone half-past two."

"What!" exclaimed Mr. Camber, rising. "What is that? You decline to
serve me, Mrs. Wootton?"

"Why, not at all, Mr. Camber," answered the landlady, "but I can serve
no one now; it's after time."

"You decline to serve me," he muttered, his speech becoming slurred.
"Am I, then, to be insulted?"

I caught a glance of entreaty from the landlady. "My dear sir," I said,
genially, "we must bow to the law, I suppose. At least we are better
off here than in America."

"Ah, that is true," agreed Mr. Camber, throwing his head back and
speaking the words as though they possessed some deep dramatic
significance. "Yes, but such laws are an insult to every intelligent
man."

He sat down again rather heavily, and I stood looking from him to the
landlady, and wondering what I should do. The matter was decided for
me, however, in a way which I could never have foreseen. For, hearing a
light footfall upon the step which led up to the bar-parlour, I turned
--and there almost beside me stood a wrinkled little Chinaman!

He wore a blue suit and a tweed cap, he wore queer, thick-soled