"And what about Alec and Brasset and me?" The earnestness of my relation by marriage was wistful.
"O'Mulligan will leave four minutes after Coverdale and Arbuthnot. He will merely give his name as Captain Forbes, who desires to fix an appointment with von Arlenberg upon a private matter of importance. He won't be able to fix it; but they will send a chap to talk to you, O'Mulligan. You must be very long-winded and you must use your best English, and you must waste as much time as you can. Understand?"
O'Mulligan beamed like a seraph.
"And Brasset and me?" said the pleading voice.
"Brasset will leave four minutes after O'Mulligan. He will be Mr. Bonser, a messenger from the Foreign Office, with a letter for von Arlenberg. Here you are, Brasset, here is the letter for von Arlenberg."
With a matter-of-factness which was really inimitable, Fitz tossed across the tablecloth the missive in question, copiously daubed with red sealing-wax.
"Brasset," said Fitz, "you will be careful not to give this most important letter into the keeping of anybody save and except his Excellency, Baron von Arlenberg, Ambassador and Plenipotentiary Extraordinary to his Majesty the King of Illyria, at the Court of Saint James."
"I hope the superscription is correct," said I, misguidedly.
Fitz looked me down with the eye of a Frederick. The sympathy of the table was with him entirely.
"Somebody will want to take it to the Ambassador," said Fitz. "But Brasset, your instructions are that you deliver this document to his Excellency in person."