Mr.Flexen gathered that Mr.Manley had fought in France with a brilliant intrepidity which had not met with the public recognition it deserved, and learned that he had been invalided out of the Army owing to the weakness of his heart.

This common failure of health was a bond of sympathy between them, and made them well disposed to one another.
There came a pause in this personal talk, and either of them addressed himself to the consumption of the wing of a chicken with a certain absorption in the occupation.

It was not uncharacteristic of Mr.Manley that his high sense of the fitness of things had not prevailed on him to accord the liver wing to the guest.

He was firmly eating it himself.
Then Mr.Flexen said: "I suppose you came across Hutchings, the butler, pretty often.

What kind of a fellow was he ?" "He was rather more like his master than if he had been his twin brother, except that he wore whiskers and not a beard," said Mr.Manley, in a tone of hearty dislike.
"He does not appear to have been at all popular with the other servants," said Mr.Flexen.
"He certainly wasn't popular with me," said Mr.Manley dryly.
"What did Lord Loudwater discharge him for ?" "A matter of a commission on the purchase of some wine," said Mr.Manley.
Then in a more earnest tone he added: "Look here: the trenches knock a good deal of the nonsense out of one, and I tell you frankly that if I could help you in any way to discover the criminal, I wouldn't.