'I've never seen him before,' said the parlourmaid.
I looked at the girl with positive loathing. How she could have inspired affection in anyone, even a French cook, beat me. Not that she was a bad-looking girl, mind you. Not at all. On another and happier occasion I might even have thought her rather pretty. But now she seemed one of the most unpleasant females I had ever encountered.
'No,' I said. 'You have never seen me before. But I'm an old friend of the family.'
'Then why didn't you ring at the front door?'
'I didn't want to give any trouble.'
'It's no trouble answering front doors, that being what you're paid for,' said the parlourmaid virtuously. 'I've never seen him before in my life,' she added, perfectly gratuitously. A horrid girl.
'Well, look here,' I said, with an inspiration, 'the undertaker knows me.'
'What undertaker?'
'The cove who was waiting at table when I dined here the night before last.'