hat the tyrant was tolerated merely because she was a
channel for the most far-reaching, fresh and sensational gossip. But
let us hope that this was a malignant libel!

Highfield Cottage was old, two-storied and solid; elsewhere than
Tadpool it might have ventured to pose as a villa residence, but
Tadpool, a fine, sixteenth century, self-respecting and historical
village, tolerated no villas. If such abodes ventured to arise, they
sprouted timidly in the fields beyond its boundaries. Moreover, the
age and history of Highfield Cottage were too widely known for any
change of name. The cottage was connected with the high road by a prim
little garden and a red-tiled footpath; eight long narrow windows
commanded a satisfactory outlook--including Littlecote Hall--a square
white mansion withdrawn in dignified retirement behind elms and
beeches, in age the contemporary of its humbler _vis-a-vis_.

Here resided Edward Shafto, late Fellow of St. John's, Oxford, his wife
Lucilla, and his son Douglas. Ten years previously the family had
descended on Tadpool as from the skies--or as a heavy stone cast into
some quiet mill pond. No one in the neighbourhood could discover
anything about them--although Jane Tebbs's exertions in the matter were
admittedly prodigious and unwearied. The house agent proved
disappointingly vague, and could only inform her that a gentleman who
happened to hear of the place had come down from London, inspected the
house, liked its lofty, spacious rooms with their old mahogany doors
(it recalled his home), was much taken with the gardens--and promptly
signed the lease! Certainly it was an audacious step to invade a
strange neighbourhood without a social sponsor or reference. However,
the community breathed more freely when they beheld the new tenant of
"Littlecote," a middle-aged, distinguished-looking individual; and Miss
Jane discovered, or pretended to discover, that he was one of the
Shaftos of Shafton Court.

Mrs. Shafto (who looked surprisingly young to be the mother of a tall
lad of ten) had a pretty figure, quantities of lightish red hair, an
animated manner, and a pair of hard blue eyes. She was fashionably
turned out, and her hat of a remarkable shape was discussed in the
village for weeks.

The arrival of furniture vans, horses, carriages and a number of
servants, afforded unqualified interest to the Misses Tebbs; and
moreover advertised the fact that the new-comers were well-to-do; an