"Both, your Excellency."
The Minister leaned back in his chair, rested his elbows on the arms, and bringing the first fingers of each hand together, held them at the level of his face and gazed attentively at their point of contact. It was a favourite attitude which the Secretary understood, and he at once gave a concise account of all the circumstances concerning Madame Darcy.
The Minister heard him out in perfect silence, and after taking a moment or two to ponder over his words, remarked quietly:
"It's a small world, Mr. Stanley."
"You mean the fact that Señor De Costa and my father were friends before they quarrelled, and that his daughter——"
"No, I do not mean that."
The Secretary thought it better policy not to ask what he did mean, though he much wished to know; and silence again reigned.
Presently the Minister sat up to his desk and ran his hand through the mass of papers upon it; finally unearthing one in particular, which he submitted to a careful scrutiny.
"Your report of your visit to the Foreign Office yesterday," he said—"a very important communication, Mr. Stanley."
If his Chief had a disagreeable trait, and he was on the whole an exceedingly amiable man, it was an assumed seriousness of speech and demeanour, which he intended for sarcasm, and which invariably misled his victims to their ultimate discomfiture.