"Trailing him across the scent as she does all of you, one after the other. Excuse my comparing you to so many red herrings. You each have your turn; only _his_ seems repeated, poor dear, till he's quite worn out with it." I kept for a little this image in my eye. "I can see of course that his whole situation must be something of a strain for him; for I've not forgotten what you told me yesterday of his service with Lady John. To have to work in such a way for two of them at once"--it couldn't help, I admitted, being a tax on a fellow. Besides, when one came to think of it, the same man couldn't be _two_ red herrings. To show as Mrs. Server's would directly impair his power to show as Lady John's. It would seem, in short, a matter for his patronesses to have out together. Mrs. Brissenden betrayed, on this, some annoyance at my levity. "Oh, the cases are not the same, for with Lady John it amuses him: he thinks he knows." "Knows what?" "What she wants him for. He doesn't know"--she kept it wonderfully clear--"that she really doesn't want him for anything; for anything except, of course"--this came as a droll second thought--"himself." "And he doesn't know, either"--I tried to remain at her level--"that Mrs. Server does." "No," she assented, "he doesn't know what it's her idea to do with him." "He doesn't know, in fine," I cheerfully pursued, "the truth about anything. And of course, by your agreement with me, he's not to learn it." She recognised her agreement with me, yet looked as if she had reserved a certain measure of freedom. Then she handsomely gave up even that. "I certainly don't want him to become conscious." "It's his unconsciousness," I declared, "that saves him." "Yes, even from himself." "We must accordingly feed it." In the house, with intention, we parted company; but there was something that, before this, I felt it due to my claim of consistency to bring out. "It wasn't, at all events, Gilbert Long behind the tree!" My triumph, however, beneath the sponge she was prepared to pass again over much of our experience, was short-lived. "Of course it wasn't. We shouldn't have been treated to the scene if it _had_ been. What could she possibly have put poor Briss there for but just to show it wasn't?" VI