I had made on the occasion of my last visit. I then placed the doctor's new hat I had repudiated in the hat-box ready for removal.
The full mystery was still unsolved, while the butler stood in the hall like a hypnotized sphinx. I said, in a light and casual way, "And what about Lord Andrew? Did his lordship answer the note?" The butler replied, with extreme emphasis, "He did indeed!" Poor duchess, I thought, what a pity she had been so violent and so hasty.
Still the dirty hat remained shrouded in mystery, so, pointing to it, I said to the butler, "By the way, whose hat is that?" "That hat, sir," he replied, adopting the manner of a showman in a museum, "that hat is the duke's. It is the hat His Grace always wears when he goes out in the morning." "But then," I asked, "why did you not tell the duchess so yesterday?" He replied, "What, sir! After Her Grace had said that the hat was enough to poison the house! Not me!"
Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C.4.
F. 35.1222
