e."

Agatha sighed: "Well, I suppose we shall have to be nice to him. I'll
tell Mother."

Sir William smiled.

"Ann will see to that," he said.

Ann was seeing to that.

Seated in the embrasure of the window behind the looking-glass, where
Lady Valleys was still occupied, she was saying:

"He fell out of the window because of the red pepper. Miss Wallace says
he is a hostage--what does hostage mean, Granny?"

When six years ago that word had first fallen on Lady Valleys' ears, she
had thought: "Oh! dear! Am I really Granny?" It had been a shock, had
seemed the end of so much; but the matter-of-fact heroism of women, so
much quicker to accept the inevitable than men, had soon come to her aid,
and now, unlike her husband, she did not care a bit. For all that she
answered nothing, partly because it was not necessary to speak in order
to sustain a conversation with little Ann, and partly because she was
deep in thought.

The man was injured! Hospitality, of course--especially since their own
tenants had committed the outrage! Still, to welcome a man who had gone
out of his way to come down here and stump the country against her own
son, was rather a tall order. It might have been worse, no doubt. If;
for instance, he had been some 'impossible' Nonconformist Radical! This
Mr. Courtier was a free lance--rather a well-known man, an interesting
creature. She must see that he felt 'at home' and comfortable. If he
were pumped judiciously, no doubt one could find out about this woman.
Moreover, the acceptance of their 'salt' would silence him politically if
she knew anything of that type of man, who always had something in him of
the Arab's creed. Her mind, that of a capable administrator, took in all
the practical significance of this incident, which, although untoward,
was not without its comic side to one disposed to find zest and humour in
everything that did not absolutely run counter to her interests and
philosophy.

The voice of little Ann broke in on her reflections.

"I'm going to Auntie Babs now."

"Very well; give me a kiss first."

Little Ann thrust up her face, so that its sudden little nose penetrated
Lady Valleys' soft curving lips....

When early that same afternoon Courtier, leaning on a stick, passed from
his room out on to the terrace, he was confronted by three sunlit
peacocks marching slowly across a lawn towards a statue of Diana. With
incredible dignity those birds moved, as if n