The Club of Queer Trades
but what you ask is impossible. I don't know any one I would sooner oblige than you; but the rules of the agency are strict. The adventures are confidential; you are an outsider; I am not allowed to let you know an inch more than I can help. I do hope you understand—"
"There is no one," said Brown, "who understands discipline better than I do. Thank you very much. Good-night."
And the little man withdrew for the last time.
He married Miss Jameson, the lady with the red hair and the green garments. She was an actress, employed (with many others) by the Romance Agency; and her marriage with the prim old veteran caused some stir in her languid and intellectualized set. She always replied very quietly that she had met scores of men who acted splendidly in the charades provided for them by Northover, but that she had only met one man who went down into a coal-cellar when he really thought it contained a murderer.
50
