"Why the dickens does he want to know if I sing?" was my mental comment when I had replied that I sang a little, without reminding him that he had put the same question to me on the previous day. For an instant the thought flashed across me that perhaps my new employer had some kink in his brain to do with singing; and yet, I reflected, that seemed hardly likely to be the case with a man who in all other respects appeared to be so exceptionally sane. I was still cogitating this, when the car sped round a wide curve in the road and beyond big lodge gates a large imposing mansion of modern architecture came suddenly into view about half a mile away, partly concealed by beautiful woods sloping down to it from both sides of the valley. Slackening speed as we came near the lodge, I was about to stop to let Paul alight to open the gates, beyond which stretched the long winding avenue of tall trees, when a man came running out of the lodge and made haste to throw the gates open. My first surprise on our arrival at Overstow Hall--and I was to have many more surprises before I had been long in Mr. Rayne's service--was at finding that though my employer had quite a large staff of servants, there was not a woman amongst them! Several guests were staying in the house, including a middle-aged lady, called Madame, whose position I could not exactly place, though she appeared to be in charge of the establishment, in charge also of Lola. Towards ten o'clock next morning the footman came to tell me that Mr. Rayne wanted to see me at once in the library. "He's in one of his queer moods this morning," the young man said, "so you had better be careful. His letters have upset him, I think." I thanked the lad for his hint, but on my way to the library, a room I had not yet been in, I missed my bearings, entered a room under the impression that it might be the library, and had hardly done so when the sound of men's voices in a room adjoining came to me--the door between the rooms stood partly open. "Are you certain, Rudolph," one of the men was saying, "that this new chauffeur of yours is the man for the job?" "Have I ever made a mistake in summing up a man?" I heard Rayne answer. "I always trust my judgment when choosing a new hand." Where, before, had I heard the first speaker's voice? I knew that voice quite well, yet, try as I would, I could not for the life of me place it. "Yes," the first speaker replied; "but, remember, in this case we are running an enormous risk. If the least hitch should occur----" They lowered their voices until their talk became inaudible, and presently I heard one of them go out of the room. After waiting a minute longer I left the room and went along the short passage, which I now knew must lead to the room where I had heard them talking. Rayne was alone, standing on the hearthrug with his back to the big, open firegrate. "Did you send for me, sir?" I inquired.