CHAPTER XIV
JERSEY CITY INTERFERES
At ten o'clock that Saturday morning Lord Harrowby was engrossed in the ceremony of breakfast in his rooms. For the occasion he wore an orange and purple dressing-gown with a floral design no botanist could have sanctioned—the sort of dressing-gown that Arnold Bennett, had he seen it, would have made a leading character in a novel. He was cheerful, was Harrowby, and as he glanced through an old copy of the London Times he made strange noises in his throat, under the impression that he was humming a musical comedy chorus.
There was a knock, and Harrowby cried: "Come in." Mr. Minot, fresh as the morning and nowhere near so hot, entered.
"Feeling pretty satisfied with life, I'll wager," Minot suggested.
"My dear chap, gay as—as—a robin," Harrowby replied.
"Snatch your last giggle," said Minot. "Have one final laugh, and make it a good one. Then wake up."
"Wake up? Why, I am awake—"
"Oh, no—you're dreaming on a bed of roses. Listen! Martin Wall didn't go north with the impostor after all. Changed his mind. Look!"
And Minot tossed something on the table, just abaft his lordship's eggs.