General Harding's butler, with the assistance of the footman had just
carried out the supper-tray when there came a ring at the hall-door
bell, succeeded by a double knock. Neither were of the kind which the
butler would have called "obtropolous," but rather bashful and subdued.
For all that they were heard within the room where the General sat.
"Very odd, at this hour of night," remarked the General. "Ten o'clock,"
he said, consulting his chronometer. "Who can it be?"
No one made a reply, as all were engrossed in listening. They heard the
opening of the door, and then a parley between Williams upon the step,
and somebody outside in the porch. It lasted some time longer than need
have been necessary for a visitor who was a friend of the family. The
voice, too, answering the butler's, was evidently that of a stranger,
and, as the occupants of the dining-room thought, one who spoke with a
foreign accent.
The General bethought him, whether it might not be some of his old chums
freshly arrived home from India, and who had come down _sans ceremonie_
by a late train. But, then, he could think of none of them with a
foreign accent.
"Who is it, Williams?" asked he, as the latter appeared in the doorway
of the dining-room.
"That I can't tell, General. The gentleman, if I may so call 'im, will
neither give his name nor his card. He says he has most important
business, and must see you."
"Very odd! What does he look like?"
"Like a furraner, and a rum 'un at that. Certain, General, he arn't a
gentleman; that can be seen plain enough."
"Very odd!" again repeated the General. "Very odd! Says he must see
me?"
"Sayed it over and over, that it's important more to you than him.
Shall I show him in, General, or will you speak to him at the door?"
"Door be damned!" testily replied the old soldier. "I'm not going out
there to accommodate a stranger, without either name or card. May be
some begging-letter impostor. Tell him I can't see him to-night. He
may come back in the morning."
"I've told him so, General, already. He says no; you must see him
to-night."
"Must! The devil!"
"Well, General, if I'd be allowed to speak my opinion, he looks a good
bit like that same gentleman you've mentioned."
"Who the deuce can it be, Nigel?" said the old soldier, turning to his
son.
"I haven't the slightest idea myself," was Nigel's reply. "It wouldn't
be that Lawyer Woolet? He answers very well to the description Williams
gives of his late intruder."
"No, no, Master Nigel, it's not Mr Woolet. It's an article of
hoomanity even uglier than him; though certain he have got something o'
a lawyer's look about him. But then he be a furriner; I can swear to
that."
"By Jove!" exclaimed the General, using one of his mildest
asseverations. "I can't think of any foreigner that can have business
with me; but whether or no, I suppose I must see him. What say you, my
son?"
"Oh, as for that," answered the latter, "there can be no harm in it.
I'll stay in the room with you; and if he becomes troublesome, I
suppose, with the help of Williams here and the footman, we may be able
to eject him."
"Lor, Master Nigel, he isn't bigger than our page-boy. I could take him
up in my arms, and swing him hallway across the shrubberies. You
needn't have no fear 'bout that."
"Come, come, Williams," said the General, "none of this idle talking.
Tell the gentleman I'll see him. Show him in."