"I hate to have a good meal spoiled." They were an old-looking couple.

Mr.Sabin quietly but faultlessly attired in the usual evening dinner garb, Mr.Skinner ill-dressed, untidy, unwashed and frowsy.

But here at least Mr.Sabin's incognito had been unavailing, for he had stayed at the hotel several times--as he remembered with an odd little pang--with Lucille, and the head-waiter, with a low bow, ushered them to their table.

Mr.Skinner saw the preparations for their repast, the oysters, the cocktails in tall glasses, the magnum of champagne in ice, and chuckled.

To take supper with a duke was a novelty to him, but he was not shy.