"Hallo! have you come in for that thing?" exclaimed Mr. Sellwood, who was in the mood to hail with delight any target for hostile criticism. "I always thought you intended it for Claude, my dear Caroline?" "It turned out to be a little too small for Claude," replied her Ladyship sweetly. "Claude, you've had an escape," said the Home Secretary. "Jack, my boy, you have my sympathy." "I don't require it, thank you, sir," laughed the Duke. "I'm proud of myself, I tell you! This'd knock 'em up at Jumping Sandhills, wouldn't it, Mr. Dalrymple?" "It would indeed: so the cap goes with the coronet, does it?" added the squatter, but with such good-humour that it was impossible to take open umbrage at his words. "I wonder how it would fit me?" And he lifted the thing off Jack's head by the golden tassel, and dropped it upon his own. "Too small again," said Jack: indeed the purple monstrosity sat upon the massive hairless head like a thimble on a billiard-ball. "And it doesn't suit you a bit," added Olivia, who was once more in a simmer of indignation with her lover's exasperating friend. "No more would the coronet," replied Dalrymple, replacing the smoking-cap on its owner's head. "By the way, Jack, where do you keep your coronet?" "Where do I keep my coronet?" asked the Duke of his major-domo. "I've never set eyes on it." "I fancy they have it at the bank," said Claude. "And much good it does you there!" exclaimed Dalrymple. "Shall I tell you what I'd do with it if it were mine?" "Yes, do," said Jack, smiling in advance. "Then come outside and you shall hear. I am afraid I have shocked your friends sufficiently for one night. And there's a very fascinating moon." CHAPTER XIX THE CAT AND THE MOUSE "You're a lucky fellow," said the squatter as they sauntered down the drive. "Give me another of those cigars; they are better than mine, after all." "They ought to be," replied Jack complacently. "I told old Claude to pay all he could for 'em." "He seems to have done so. What an income you must have!" "About fifteen bob a minute, so they tell me." "After a pound a week in the bush!" "It does sound rummy, doesn't it? After you with the match, sir." "It's incredible." "Yet it's astonishing how used you get to it in time--you'd be surprised! At first the whole thing knocked me sideways; it was tucker I couldn't digest. But once you take to the soft tack, there's nothing like it in the world. You may guess who's made me take to it quicker than I might have done!" Dalrymple shrugged his massive shoulders, and raised a contemplative eye to the moon, that lay curled like a silver shaving in the lucid heavens.