Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/119

 it is or what the business is. Further complications, eh?"

"Yes, sir. I'd say advertise, Mr. Gordon."

"But how the dickens— Look here, I can't say 'If the gentleman named Peggy, last name unknown, will—'" The butler's expression of surprise, momentary but acute, brought Gordon to a stop and a hurried explanation. "Yes, funny name, isn't it? It's just—just a nickname, you see."

"Yes, sir," replied Hurd, expressionless now of face and voice. "It would be difficult in that case, sir." "Damned difficult! Supposing, then, we cut out the advertising project. Then what?"

Hurd set the flowers on the sideboard the better to give his full mind to the problem. Hurd's father, an estimable English gardener, now deceased, would have scratched his head frankly and inelegantly. Hurd, quite as estimable and more polished, stroked his chin, thereby perhaps supplying the same stimulus.

"Does—does the gentleman want to be found, sir?"