He pondered for a while over the paper, and then looked at his watch. It was five o’clock! The first train to Augsburg was to start at six. There was little time, consequently, to take the steps necessary to arrest a person on suspicion; for he should first of all have to communicate with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who should afterwards back his application to the Prefect of Police. The case was one for detail, and for what the Germans insist upon, much writing--and there was very little time to do it in. L., however, was not one to be easily defeated. If baffled in one road, he usually found out another. He therefore wrote a brief note to the Minister, stating that he might require his assistance at a later hour of the evening, and at a time not usually official. This done, he despatched another note to Captain E. F., saying familiarly it was scarcely worth while trying to catch the mail-train that night, and that perhaps instead he would come over and take a _tétè-à-tête_ dinner with him at the Legation. F. was overjoyed as he read it! No man ever felt a higher pleasure in good company, nor knew better how to make it profitable. If he had been asked to choose, he would infinitely rather have had the invitation to dine than the twenty pounds he had pocketed in the morning. The cognate men of the world--and all members of the diplomatic career are to a certain extent in this category--were in F.’s estimation the “trump cards” of the pack, with which he could “score tricks” innumerable, and so he accepted at once; and, in a very few minutes after his acceptance, made his appearance in a correct dinner-dress and a most unexceptionable white tie. “Couldn’t refuse that pleasant offer of yours, L.” (he was familiar at once, and called him L.), “and here I am!” said he, as he threw himself into an easy-chair with all the bland satisfaction of one who looked forward to a good dinner and a very enjoyable evening. “I am happy to have secured you,” said L., with a little laugh to himself at the epigram of his phrase. “Do you like caviar?” “Delight in it!” “I have just got some fresh from St Petersburg, and our cook here is rather successful in his caviar soup. We have a red trout from the _Tegen See_, a saddle of Tyrol mutton, and a pheasant--_voilà votre diner!_ but I can promise you a more liberal _carte_ in drinkables; just say what you like in the way of wine!”