"Perhaps I am speaking prematurely," he qualified. "Things are only evolving at the moment, and I don't suppose that there will be anything at all doing during the next few weeks. I have even sent Miss Lisle off on a holiday." "Noticed the fair Irene's empty chair," said Freddy. "For long?" "I told her to take a fortnight. She can have longer if she wants." "Wish Sir John could spare me; but simply won't hear of it. Don't fancy you find girl much good, though." "Oh, she is painstaking," put in her employer tolerantly. "No initiative," declared Tantroy solemnly. "No idea of rising to the occasion or of making use of her opportunities." "You noticed that?" To Freddy's imagination it seemed as though Salt was regarding him with open admiration. He wagged his head judicially. "I knew you'd like me to keep eye on things while you were away," he said, "so I looked in here occasionally as I passed. Don't believe she had any idea what to do. Invariably found her sitting here in gilded idleness at every hour of the day. If I were you, should sack her while she is away." Salt thought it as well to change the subject. "By the way," he remarked, "I came across what seemed to me a rather good thing in cigarettes at Cardiff, and I wanted to ask your opinion about them. It's a new leaf--Bolivian with a Virginian blend, not on the market yet. I wish you'd try one now." There was nothing Freddy Tantroy liked better than being asked to give his opinion on tobacco from the standpoint of an expert. He took the case held out to him, selected a cigarette with grave deliberation, and leaned back in his chair with a critical air, preparing to deliver judgment. Salt returned the case to its compartment in the desk. "It has a very distinctive aroma," announced Freddy sagely, after he had drawn a few whiffs, held the cigarette under his nose, waved it slowly in the air before him, and resorted to several other devices of connoisseurship. "I thought so too," agreed Salt. He had bought a suitable packet of some obscure brand in a side street, as he walked to the office two days before. "Cardiff," mused Tantroy. "Variety grotesque holes you seem to have explored, Salt."