ly good-humored way. In ten minutes his luggage was
ready, and in five minutes more he had given the crew their directions
for taking the yacht back to Somersetshire. The steamer to Liverpool was
alongside of us in the harbor, and I had really no choice but to go on
board with him or to let him go by himself. I spare you the account of
our stormy voyage, of our detention at Liverpool, and of the trains we
missed on our journey across the country. You know that we have got here
safely, and that is enough. What the servants think of the new squire's
sudden appearance among them, without a word of warning, is of no great
consequence. What the committee for arranging the public reception may
think of it when the news flies abroad to-morrow is, I am afraid, a more
serious matter.

"Having already mentioned the servants, I may proceed to tell you that
the latter part of Mrs. Blanchard's letter was entirely devoted to
instructing Allan on the subject of the domestic establishment which
she has left behind her. It seems that all the servants, indoors and out
(with three exceptions), are waiting here, on the chance that Allan
will continue them in their places. Two of these exceptions are readily
accounted for: Mrs. Blanchard's maid and Miss Blanchard's maid go abroad
with their mistresses. The third exceptional case is the case of the
upper housemaid; and here there is a little hitch. In plain words,
the housemaid has been sent away at a moment's notice, for what Mrs.
Blanchard rather mysteriously describes as 'levity of conduct with a
stranger.'

"I am afraid you will laugh at me, but I must confess the truth. I have
been made so distrustful (after what happened to us in the Isle of Man)
of even the most trifling misadventures which connect themselves in any
way with Allan's introduction to his new life and prospects, that I have
already questioned one of the men-servants here about this apparently
unimportant matter of the housemaid's going away in disgrace.

"All I can learn is that a strange man had been noticed hanging
suspiciously about the grounds; that the housemaid was so ugly a woman
as to render it next to a certainty that he had some underhand purpose
to serve in making himself agreeable to her; and that he has not as yet
been seen again in the neighborhood since the day of her dismissal. So
much for the one servant who has been turned out at Thorpe Ambrose. I
can only hope there is no trouble for Allan brewing in