"You shall go alone—and go to-day."
Prosper came in with the coffee; he, too, was beaming, and the servants below-stairs were all agog. Waring was a hero.
"Prosper," said his master, in French, "will you, after you have served breakfast, go out to the market quarters and see if you can discover for me a medium-sized, very well-proportioned little Christmas tree? Fetch it home with you."
Waring smiled faintly.
Bulstrode smiled too, and more comprehendingly, and Prosper smiled and said:
"Mais certainement, monsieur."