equipped.) 'How very strange to have all these directions, and

only three or four notes! O, here's another with some more. Andante

patetico.' And she began to glance over the music. 'O dear me,' she

thought, 'he must be terribly modern! It all seems discords to me. Let's

try the air. It is very strange, it seems familiar.' She began to sing

it, and suddenly broke off with laughter. 'Why, it's "Tommy make room

for your Uncle!"' she cried aloud, so that the soul of Gideon was filled

with bitterness. 'Andante patetico, indeed! The man must be a mere

impostor.'

And just at this moment there came a confused, scuffling sound from

underneath the table; a strange note, like that of a barn-door fowl,

ushered in a most explosive sneeze; the head of the sufferer was at

the same time brought smartly in contact with the boards above; and the

sneeze was followed by a hollow groan.

Julia fled to the door, and there, with the salutary instinct of the

brave, turned and faced the danger. There was no pursuit. The sounds

continued; below the table a crouching figure was indistinctly to be

seen jostled by the throes of a sneezing-fit; and that was all.

'Surely,' thought Julia, 'this is most unusual behaviour. He cannot be a

man of the world!'

Meanwhile the dust of years had been disturbed by the young barrister's

convulsions; and the sneezing-fit was succeeded by a passionate access

186

The Wrong Box