Smithson."
"I'm not proud," said Mr. Milsom. "I like a convivial evening, whether
it's in the housekeeper's room or the servants'-hall."
"Then I'll ask leave to-night," answered James Harwood.
He sent a little scrawl to Milsom next day, by the hands of a stable-
boy, inviting that gentleman to a social rubber and a friendly supper
in the servants'-hall that evening at seven o'clock.
To spend a few hours inside Raynham Castle was the privilege which
Black Milsom most desired, and a triumphant grin broke out upon his
face, as he deciphered James Harwood's clumsy scrawl.
"How easy it's done," he muttered to himself; "how easy it's done, if a
man has only the patience to wait."
The servants'-hall was a pleasant place to live in, but if Mrs.
Smithson, the housekeeper, was liberal in her ideas she was also
strict, and on some points especially severe; and the chief of these
was the precision with which she required the doors of the castle to be
locked for the night at half-past ten o'clock.
On more than one occasion, lately, Mrs. Smithson had a suspicion that
there was one offender against this rule. The offender in question was
Matthew Brook, the head-coachman, a jovial, burly Briton, with
convivial habits and a taste for politics, who preferred enjoying his
pipe and glass and political discussion in the parlour of the "Hen and
Chickens" public-house to spending his evenings in the servants'-hall
at Raynham Castle.
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