The attendant retired nonplussed. The rule specifically referred to smoking, not to carrying unlit cigars in the mouth.
At the end of five minutes, the attendant who had taken up John Dene's name returned, and whispered to the doorkeeper.
"If you will follow the attendant, sir, he will take you to see Sir Lyster's secretary, Mr. Blair."
"Mr.——" began John Dene, then breaking off he followed the man up the stairs, and along a corridor, at the end of which another frock-coated man appeared from a room with a small glass door. He in turn took charge of the visitor, having received his whispered instructions from the second attendant. John Dene was then shown into a large room with a central table, and requested to take a seat. He was still engaged in gazing about him when a door at the further end of the room opened and there entered a fair man, with an obvious stoop, a monocle, a heavy drooping moustache, and the nose of a duke in a novelette.
"Mr. John Dene?" he asked, looking at the slip of paper in his hand.
"Sure," was the response, as John Dene continued to twirl the cigar in his mouth, with him always a sign either of thought or of irritation.
"You wish to see the First Lord?" continued the fair man. "I am his secretary. Will you give me some idea of your business?"
"No, I won't," was the blunt response.
Mr. Blair was momentarily disconcerted by the uncompromising nature of the retort, but quickly recovered himself.
"I am afraid Sir Lyster is very busy this morning," he said, diplomatically. "If you——"