r people gathered round that comfortable
fire--the rector, his wife, his son, and last, but not least, Jane
herself. Mr. Beach dropped the cup sufficiently to allow himself to
stare at his visitor along its length, for all the world as though he
were covering him with a silver blunderbuss. His wife, an active little
woman, turned round as if she moved upon wires, exclaiming, "Good
gracious, who'd have thought it?" while the son, a robust young man
of about Leonard's own age and his college companion, said "Hullo! old
fellow, well, I never expected to see _you_ here to-day!"--a remark
which, however natural it may have been, scarcely tended to set his
friend at ease.

Jane herself, a tall and beautiful girl with bright auburn hair, who was
seated on a footstool nursing her knees before the fire, and paying
very little heed to her father's lecture upon ancient plate, did none of
these things. On the contrary, she sprang up with the utmost animation,
her lips apart and her lovely face red with blushes, or the heat of the
fire, and came towards him exclaiming, "Oh, Leonard, dear Leonard!"

Mr. Beach turned the silver blunderbuss upon his daughter and fired a
single, but most effective shot.

"Jane!" he said in a voice in which fatherly admonition and friendly
warning were happily blended.

Jane stopped in full career was though in obedience to some lesson which
momentarily she had forgotten. Then Mr. Beach, setting down the flagon,
advanced upon Leonard with an ample pitying smile and outstretched hand.

"How are you, my dear boy, how are you?" he said. "We did not expect--"

"To see me here under the circumstances," put in Leonard bitterly. "Nor
would you have done so, but Tom and I understood that it was only to be
a three days' sale."

"Quite right, Leonard. As first advertised the sale was for three days,
but the auctioneer found that he could not get through in the time. The
accumulations of such an ancient house as Outram Hall are necessarily
_vast_," and he waved his hand with a large gesture.

"Yes," said Leonard.

"Hum!" went on Mr. Beach, after a pause which was beginning to grow
awkward. "Doubtless you will find it a matter for congratulation that on
the whole things sold well. It is not always the case, not by any
means, for such collections as those of Outram, however interesting and
valuable they may have been to the family itself, do not often fetch
their worth at a country auction. Yes, they sold d