"Torquay!" I cried aghast. "Good Heavens!" "What did I say?" said Berry. My sister rose in some trepidation. "Two hundred miles is nothing. Have another hunk of toast. It was only made on Sunday, so I can recommend it." Daphne hastened from the room, with Jill twittering at her heels, and in some dudgeon I cut myself a slice of bread. Berry turned his attention to the Sealyham. "Nobby, my lad, come here." Signifying his delight at this restoration to favour by an unusually elaborate rotatory movement of his tail, the terrier emerged from his cover and humbled himself at his patron's feet. The latter picked him up and set him upon his knee. "My lad," he said, "this is going to be a momentous day. Cooks, meet to be bitten, are due to arrive in myriads. Be ruthless. Spare neither the matron nor the maid. What did Mr. Henry say in 1415?-- This day is call'd the feast of Sealyham: She that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will sit with caution when this day is named. And shudder at the name of Sealyham. She that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the razzle feast her neighbours, And say, 'To-morrow is Saint Sealyham': Then will she strip her hose and show her scars, And say, 'These wounds I had on Nobby's day.' Old cooks forget; yet all shall be forgot, But she'll remember with a flood of talk What feats you did that day." Nobby licked his face enthusiastically. Then came a swift rush across the hall, and Daphne and Jill pelted into the room. "She's coming up for an interview to-morrow," panted the latter. "Six years in her last place, but the people are going abroad. If we engage her, she can come on Monday. Sixty pounds a year." Daphne was beaming. "I must say I liked the sound of her. Very respectful she seemed. Her name's rather unusual, but that isn't her fault. Pauline Roper. I fancy she's by way of being an expert. She's got a certificate from some institute of cookery, and her sister's a trained nurse in Welbeck Street. That's why she wants to be in London. What's the return fare from Torquay?" she added. "I said I'd pay it, if I took up her reference." "Oh, something under five pounds," said Berry. "What!" "My dear," said her husband, "if the expenditure of that sum were to ensure me a breakfast the very sight of which did not make my gorge rise, I should regard it as a trustee investment." Reference to a time-table showed that the price of Pauline Roper's ticket would be two pounds nine shillings and fourpence halfpenny. Somewhat to our surprise and greatly to our relief, the day passed without another application for the post of cook, personal or otherwise. To celebrate the solitary but promising response to our S.O.S. signal, and the prospect which it afforded of an early deliverance from our state, we dined at the _Berkeley_ and went to the play. On returning home we found a telegram in the hall. It had been handed in at Paris, and ran as follows: