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338 "Neither do I, Mr. Preston, but when you are there we will discuss the cook."

Quite impossible, Lord Stranleigh. Thank you all the same."

"Oh, well, if between now and then you change your mind I shall hope to see you."

He laid a card on the General Manager's desk, took a pen, and wrote the address of his house on it.

"Thank you very much for your courtesy in receiving us. I always feel an interloper in a business office, and therefore my gratitude goes out to those who bear with me in such an unaccustomed place. Good morning, Mr. Preston."

"Good morning, Lord Stranleigh."

As the old and the young man very dejectedly descended the stairs of the Great Southern Railway offices, Lord Stranleigh hurried up behind them and flung an arm over each shoulder.

"Cheer up!" he cried. "My motor is waiting outside, and we will make a dash through the fog to the Corinthian Club. I need a refresher, as our legal friends put it. I also want to thaw out. Peter, why don't you say 'I told you so!'?"

"He's a hard man," growled Mackeller.

"He is an outrageous beast," exploded Sir Phillip Sanderson, apparently glad to find expression at last. "An overbearing, brow-beating brute who knows he's got us under his heel, and I