"I'm almost as good as a 'quick-change artist.'" He drew aside to let Howard follow the butler between the two footmen drawn up beside the door, and they entered the dining-room.
It was of choice American walnut, and lit by rose-shaded electric lights, in which the plate and the glass, the flowers and the napery glowed softly: an ideal room which must have filled the famous decorator who had designed it with just pride and elation.

The table had been reduced to a small oval; and the servants proceeded to serve a dinner which told Howard that Sir Stephen had become possessed of a _chef_ who was a _cordon bleu_.

The wines were as choice as the _menu_; but Sir Stephen watered his Chateau claret, and ate but little, excusing himself in the middle of a sentence with: "I'm setting you a bad example.

But there's always a skeleton at my feast--a rather common one nowadays; they call him Gout.

And so you drove down?
That must have been pleasant! It's a pretty country--so I'm told.