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THE SIEGE
65

morning coat, the elbows of that coat are shiny, and in places it will be green."

He looked at Pollyooly to see whether she was grasping these important details and found her regarding him with an air of grave and concentrated attention.

He gathered that she was grasping them, and went on, "His trousers are nearly sure to be of the hue which colorists describe as pepper and salt—dark speckled trousers, Mrs. Bride. His cravat will be a flat, black plaster, slightly greenish; and he will wear a bowler hat. Do you think you will know one when you see him?"

"Oh, yes, sir," said Pollyooly with assured conviction.

"Well, then, you keep the oak always shut; and when any one knocks on it, you go to it gently, and peep at them through the slit of the letter-box. When you see a common bailiff on the landing, you leave him there. If I'm at home you tell me; and if I'm not at home, and he waits for me on the landing, you hang a towel out of my bedroom window, and, like Orion, I slope slowly to the West and remain there till the shades of night have fallen fast,