Mrs. Fitz   By: J. C. Snaith

[Frontispiece: Assassination of the King of Illyria]

MRS. FITZ

BY

J. C. SNAITH

HODDER & STOUGHTON'S

SEVENPENNY LIBRARY

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

1912

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

ACCORDING TO REUTER

CHAPTER II

TRIBULATIONS OF A M.F.H.

CHAPTER III

THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION

CHAPTER IV

THE MIDDLE COURSE

CHAPTER V

ABOUNDS IN SENSATION

CHAPTER VI

EXPERT OPINION

CHAPTER VII

COVERDALE'S REPORT

CHAPTER VIII

PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN

CHAPTER IX

ON THE EVE

CHAPTER X

ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS

CHAPTER XI

THE ORDERS FOR THE DAY

CHAPTER XII

THE MAN OF DESTINY

CHAPTER XIII

FURTHER PASSAGES AT NO. 300 PORTLAND PLACE

CHAPTER XIV

A DEPLORABLE INCIDENT

CHAPTER XV

AN INTERNATIONAL ISSUE

CHAPTER XVI

HORSE AND HOUND

CHAPTER XVII

A GLARE IN THE SKY

CHAPTER XVIII

MRS. ARBUTHNOT BEGINS TO TAKE NOTICE

CHAPTER XIX

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS RECEIVES A LETTER

CHAPTER XX

A LITTLE DIPLOMACY

CHAPTER XXI

THE EXPECTED GUEST

CHAPTER XXII

A VISIT TO BRYANSTON SQUARE

CHAPTER XXIII

PROVIDES AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE THEORY THAT THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM

CHAPTER XXIV

HIS ILLYRIAN MAJESTY FERDINAND THE TWELFTH

CHAPTER XXV

THE FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE

CHAPTER XXVI

A WALK IN THE GARDEN

CHAPTER XXVII

PROVIDES A LITTLE FEMININE DIVERSION

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

CHAPTER XXIX

THE CAST OF THE DIE

CHAPTER XXX

REACTION

CHAPTER XXXI

NEWS FROM ILLYRIA

CHAPTER XXXII

MORE ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS

CHAPTER XXXIII

IN THE BALANCE

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE CREATURES OF PERRAULT

CHAPTER I

ACCORDING TO REUTER

"It is snowing," said Mrs. Arbuthnot.

"Worse luck!" growled I from behind my newspaper. "This unspeakable climate! Why can't we sack the Clerk of the Weather?"

"Because he is a permanent official," said Joseph Jocelyn De Vere Vane Anstruther, who was coming into the room. "And those are the people who run the benighted country."

Joseph Jocelyn De Vere Vane Anstruther was in rather smart kit. It was December the First, and the hounds there is only one pack in the United Kingdom were about to pay an annual visit to the country of a neighbour. With conscious magnificence my relation by marriage took a bee line to the sideboard. He paused a moment to debate to which of two imperative duties he should give the precedence: i.e. to make his daily report upon the personal appearance of his host, or to find out what there was to eat. The state of the elements enabled Mother Nature "to get a cinch" on an honourable æstheticism. Jodey began to forage slowly but resolutely among the dish covers.

"Kedgeree! Twice in a fortnight. Look here, Mops, it won't do."

Mrs. Arbuthnot was perusing that journal which for the modest sum of one halfpenny purveys the glamour of history with only five per cent. of its responsibilities. She merely turned over a page. Her brother, having heaped enough kedgeree upon his plate to make a meal for the average person, peppered and salted it on a scale equally liberal and then suggested coffee.

"Tea is better for the digestion," said Mrs. Arbuthnot, with her natural air of simple authority.

"I know," said Jodey, "that is why I prefer the other stuff."

"Men are so reasonable!"

"Do you mind 'andin' the sugar?"

"Sugar will make you a welter and ruin your appearance."

A cardinal axiom of my friend Mrs. Josiah P. Perkins, née Ogbourne, late of Brownville, Mass., is "Horse sense always tells." Among the daughters of men I know none whose endowment of this felicitous quality can equal that of the amiable participator in my expenditure. It told in this case.

"Better give me tea."

"Without sugar?" said Mrs. Arbuthnot, with great charm of manner.

"A small lump," said Jodey as a concession to his force of character.