“You must excuse us,” said the Governor, “for giving a lesson to your coachman yesterday.”
The Councillor, quite in the dark, looked puzzled.
“He drove into my carriage yesterday. Well, you understand, if he did it to me, then ...”
“But, Your Excellency, my wife and I spent the evening at home, and the coachman was not out at all.”
“What’s the meaning of this?” asked the Governor.
But the inspector was not taken aback.
“The fact is, Your Excellency, I had such a press of business yesterday that I quite forgot about the coachman. But I confess I did not venture to mention to Your Excellency that I had forgotten. I meant to attend to his business at once.”
“Well, there’s no denying that you are the right man in the right place!” said the Governor.
§8
Side by side with this bird of prey I shall place the portrait of a very different kind of official—a mild and sympathetic creature, a real sucking dove.