'What new caper's this?'
'It's a caper that's going to show you just where the laugh comes in, if you're ready.'
'James, you're not going to leave us?'
'You have tea upon that table at five o'clock; a good tea, mind; and I'll be back for it; back for good. There seems to be some little game going on over in St. James's Square which I'm going to take a hand at. You remember my telling you about a man Jones saw who might have sat for me? Looks as if he had come to life again, and was making trouble. Now trouble of that kind is a thing I don't mean to have come into the life which, from this time forward, you and I are going to live together. So I'm going along with Fitz till tea-time to see that it don't.'
As the two men went side by side along the pavement, Mr. FitzHoward kept glancing at his companion as if he found something about him which was not only strange but altogether beyond his comprehension. Presently he asked a question.
'Well! What's the game now?'
'The game?' Mr. Merrett regarded the other with a glance of innocent inquiry. 'That's what I'm after; that's what I'm going to find out--what the game is.'
They went some little distance before Mr. FitzHoward ventured on another remark.
'You have a face!'
'I hope so. I hope you have one too--even if it's not such an ornament as mine.'