Towards dawn the pigling fell into a happy slumber, and Latimer might have followed its example, but at about the same time Stupor Hartlepooli gave a rousing crow, clattered down to the floor and forthwith commenced a spirited combat with his reflection in the wardrobe mirror. Remembering that the bird was more or less under his care Latimer performed Hague Tribunal offices by draping a bath-towel over the provocative mirror, but the ensuing peace was local and short-lived. The deflected energies of the gamecock found new outlet in a sudden and sustained attack on the sleeping and temporarily inoffensive pigling, and the duel which followed was desperate and embittered beyond any possibility of effective intervention. The feathered combatant had the advantage of being able, when hard pressed, to take refuge on the bed, and freely availed himself of this circumstance; the pigling never quite succeeded in hurling himself on to the same eminence, but it was not from want of trying. Neither side could claim any decisive success, and the struggle had been practically fought to a standstill by the time that the maid appeared with the early morning tea. “Lor, sir,” she exclaimed in undisguised astonishment, “do you want those animals in your room?” _Want_! The pigling, as though aware that it might have outstayed its welcome, dashed out at the door, and the gamecock followed it at a more dignified pace. “If Miss Vera’s dog sees that pig—!” exclaimed the maid, and hurried off to avert such a catastrophe. A cold suspicion was stealing over Latimer’s mind; he went to the window and drew up the blind. A light, drizzling rain was falling, but there was not the faintest trace of any inundation. Some half-hour later he met Vera on the way to the breakfast-room. “I should not like to think of you as a deliberate liar,” he observed coldly, “but one occasionally has to do things one does not like.” “At any rate I kept your mind from dwelling on politics all the night,” said Vera. Which was, of course, perfectly true. THE UNKINDEST BLOW