"Perfectly, thank you," said the young man. "If you will be good enough to stand aside and make room at the top of the ladder," he added, with a grin. Mr. Chambers also grinned. "There's a difference between walking on air and standing on it," said he, and hurriedly went down the steps. Presently they were all grouped at the foot of the ladder. Mr. Bramble was busily engaged in brushing the dust and cobwebs from the excited young lady's gown. M. Mirabeau rattled on at a prodigious rate. He clapped Trotter on the back at least half-a-dozen times, and, forgetting most of his excellent English, waxed eloquent over the amazing turn of affairs. The literal, matter-of-fact Mr. Bramble after a time succeeded in stemming the flow of exuberance. "If you don't mind, Mirabeau, I have a word I'd like to get in edgewise," he put in loudly, seizing an opportunity when the old Frenchman was momentarily out of breath. M. Mirabeau threw up his hands. "At a time like this?" he gasped incredulously. "And why not?" said Mr. Bramble stoutly. "It's time we opened that last bottle of Chianti and drank to the health of Lord Eric Temple,--and the beautiful Lady Jane." "The most sensible thing that has been uttered this evening," cried M. Mirabeau, with enthusiasm. Lord Temple took this occasion to remind them,--and himself as well,--that he was still Thomas Trotter and that the deuce would be to pay with Mrs. Millidew. "By George, she'll skin me alive if I've been the cause of her missing a good dinner," he said ruefully. "That reminds me,--" began Mr. Bramble, M. Mirabeau and Mr. Chambers in unison. Then they all laughed uproariously and trooped into the dining-room, where the visible signs of destruction were not confined to the floor three feet back of the chair lately occupied by the man from Scotland Yard. A very good dinner had been completely wrecked. Mrs. O'Leary, most competent of cooks, was already busily engaged in preparing another! "Now, Mr. Chambers," cried Jane, as she set her wine glass down on the table and touched her handkerchief to her lips, "tell us everything, you dear good man." Mr. Chambers, finding himself suddenly out of employment and with an unlimited amount of spare time on his hands, spent the better part of the first care-free hour he had known in months in the telling of his story. In a ruthlessly condensed and deleted form it was as follows: Lord Fenlew, quietly, almost surreptitiously, had set about to ascertain just how much of truth and how much of fiction there was in the unpublished charges that had caused his favourite grandson to abandon the Army and to seek obscurity that inevitably follows real or implied disgrace for one too proud to fight. His efforts were rewarded in a most distressing yet most satisfactory manner. One frightened and half-decent member of the little clique responsible for the ugly stories, confessed that the "whole bally business" was a put-up job.