even from Bozzle.  The man acknowledged that he was employed by Mr Trevelyan.  Any letter or parcel left with him for Mr Trevelyan should be duly sent to that gentleman.  If Sir Marmaduke wanted Mr Trevelyan’s address, he could write to Mr Trevelyan and ask for it.  If Mr Trevelyan declined to give it, was it likely that he, Bozzle, should betray it?  Sir Marmaduke explained who he was at some length.  Bozzle with a smile assured the governor that he knew very well who he was.  He let drop a few words to show that he was intimately acquainted with the whole course of Sir Marmaduke’s family affairs.  He knew all about the Mandarins, and Colonel Osborne, and Gregg’s Hotel—­ not that he said anything about Parker’s Hotel—­and the Colonial Office.  He spoke of Miss Nora, and even knew the names of the other two young ladies, Miss Sophia and Miss Lucy.  It was a weakness with Bozzle, that of displaying his information.  He would have much liked to be able to startle Sir Marmaduke by describing the Government House in the island, or by telling him something of his old carriage-horses.  But of such information as Sir Marmaduke desired, Sir Marmaduke got none.

And there were other troubles which fell very heavily upon the poor governor, who had come home as it were for a holiday, and who was a man hating work naturally, and who, from the circumstances of his life, had never been called on to do much work.  A man may govern the Mandarins and yet live in comparative idleness.  To do such governing work well a man should have a good presence, a flow of words which should mean nothing, an excellent temper, and a love of hospitality.  With these attributes Sir Rowley was endowed; for, though his disposition was by nature hot, for governing purposes it had been brought by practice under good control.  He had now been summoned home through the machinations of his dangerous old friend Colonel Osborne, in order that he might give the results of his experience in governing before a committee of the House of Commons.  In coming to England on this business he had thought much more of his holiday, of his wife and children, of his daughters at home, of his allowance per day while he was to be away from his government, and of his salary to be paid to him entire during his absence, instead of being halved as it would be if he were away on leave; he had thought much more in coming home on these easy and pleasant matters, than he did on the work that was to be required from him when he arrived.  And then it came to pass that he felt himself almost injured, when the Colonial Office demanded his presence from day to day, and when clerks bothered him with questions as to which they expected ready replies, but in replying to which Sir Marmaduke was by no means ready.  The working men at the Colonial Office had not quite thought that Sir Marmaduke was the most fitting man for the job in hand.  There was a certain Mr Thomas Smith at another set of islands in quite another part