I wrote Mr .-- yes, Mr.Groves a note thanking him on your behalf, and I sent him some dry sherry which Stenson here"-- he smiled at the butler--"tells me is rather good, eh, Stenson ?" The solemn gravity of Stenson's face did not relax in the slightest, as he murmured: "Count de Meza's '84, sir." "Right! So long as it was the best we had.

You approve, Stafford, eh ?" Stafford nodded with something more than approval.
"Thank you, sir," he said, simply.

"We admired Mr.Groves's port." "He's a good fellow.

I hope he'll enjoy the sherry.

I shall take the first opportunity of calling and expressing my sense of his kindness--No more?
Shall we have the coffee with the cigars in the billiard room ?" The footmen escorted them through the billiard-room to the smoking-room, only divided from it by a screen of Eastern fret-work draped by costly hangings.