here he reached behind a curtain), "I leave it here," and he pulled it out.
It was no more than an easy mackintosh without arms. He put it on his unresisting friend, who simply said—
"What are you going to do, Charles?"
"I am going to take orders," said Charles Kirby, suddenly pulling out from his pocket a square of fine, black silk, and neatly adjusting it over his shirt front. "I haven't got a parsons dog collar on, but a man can walk the streets in this. After all, some of the clergy still wear the old-fashioned collars and white tie, don't they? "
John Brassington smiled palely.
"Oh, it 's in the house!" he said. "It 's sure to be in the house somewhere!"
"Now, John," said Charles Kirby firmly, "don't make a fool of yourself. Don't ask for that coat. It 's the one way not to get it. Stay where you are, and I 'll bring you news."
He went out, and in five minutes he came back with news.
"Fifty people went out before we got up, John. No one knows who they were. The idiot at the door could only remember the Quaker lot and My-lord, and Perkin 's so fussed that he can do nothing but swear, and
