The General knows, of course, that a Baronet takes precedence at a ceremony.

I may be a Baronet some day myself, and have to know these things.
The clerk took the key which his master handed to him, opened the tin box, and took from it a bundle of papers tied with red tape.

This he placed before the attorney, and put the empty box behind him on the floor.

Then he and the other man sat at the far end of the table; the latter took out a big notebook and several pencils, and put them before him.

He was evidently a shorthand-writer.