"They look like consumptives," I suggested. "Like as not they hare!" he returned. "Look at this muss, Brown! What do you make of it?" He held up a huge bowl of cream into which a hundred different species of nuts had been grated. "This is what they take for sweets," he said with a shiver. "It tastes 'orrible!" "Perhaps it is medicine." "May be. I spose you didn't make out hanything they said, Brown?" "They spoke in French, Butts," I replied. He shrugged his shoulders, and we waited for the bell. When it rang I took in the bowl of nut cream. "Do you understand French, Brown?" demanded my master as soon as the door closed behind me. "Not a word, sir." "Very good. Serve the sweets, please." A murmur of approval went round the table. The gentlemen ate their cream in silence, and washed it down with champagne. I refilled their glasses with the dexterity of an expert waiter, and I was about to resume my old place behind my master's chair, when he fixed me with his eyes, and addressed me suddenly in French. "Brown!" cried he, "leave the room this instant!" I halted and looked at him with a stupid air. "Beg pardon, sir. Did you speak to me, sir?" He smiled and answered in English. "Yes, Brown, fill my glass please. I forgot that you do not understand French!" "You should have tested the fellow beforehand," said Sir Charles Venner in French. "The closer you approach your tomb, Dagmar, the more careless you become!" "What does it matter," said my master wearily. "Pardoe, kindly present your report!" Mr. Pardoe got slowly to his feet, and I marvelled to see for the first time, his lean ungainly frame. A bag of skin and bone it was, no more. A frightful fit of coughing preluded his speech. When he had recovered, he put his right foot on a chair, and leaning on his bony knee, began as follows:-- "Gentlemen, this is our seventeenth monthly gathering since the initiation of our order, and we are all, seven of us, still above ground, although we were all condemned as incurable before we first foregathered. During the period I have indicated not one of us has flinched from his bargain, and as your latest secretary, gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that I have duly and regularly received from each member the weekly contribution fixed by our rules. The amount at present standing to my credit in trust for the order is £7,000." He took a small pass-book from his pocket, and handed it to his nearest neighbour, who glanced at its contents and passed it up the table to Sir William. "You will find in that book, gentlemen, a cheque for the amount named marked 'good' by the Bank. I have the honor now to tender you my resignation. Mr. Cavanagh should, I believe, be my successor." He sat down again, coughing terribly. Sir William nodded. "It is your turn, Cavanagh," he said quietly. "You will hold office for the current month."