ne looked at me with an utterly bored face.

"Hallo," I said, "hallo--hallo."

She picked up a monkey-nut and ate it languidly.

"Hallo," I went on, "hallo, hallo ... hallo, _hallo_, HALLO, HALLO ...
hallo, hallo----"

She dropped her nut and roused herself for a moment.

"Number engaged," she snapped, and took another nut.

. . . . .

You needn't believe this. The others didn't when I told them.

THE SPREADING WALNUT TREE

We were having breakfast in the garden with the wasps, and Peter was
enlarging on the beauties of the country round his new week-end cottage.

"Then there's Hilderton," he said; "that's a lovely little village, I'm
told. We might explore it to-morrow."

Celia woke up suddenly.

"Is Hilderton near here?" she asked in surprise. "But I often stayed
there when I was a child."

"This was years ago, when Edward the Seventh was on the throne," I
explained to Mrs. Peter.

"My grandfather," went on Celia, "lived at Hilderton Hall."

There was an impressive silence.

"You see the sort of people you're entertaining," I said airily to
Peter. "My wife's grandfather lived at Hilderton Hall. Celia, you should
have spoken about this before. It would have done us a lot of good in
Society." I pushed my plate away. "I can't go on eating bacon after
this. Bring me peaches."

"I should love to see it again."

"If I'd had my rights," I said, "I should be living there now. I must
put my solicitor on to this. There's been foul play somewhere."

Peter looked up from one of the maps which, being new to the country, he
carries with him.

"I can't find Hilderton Hall here," he said. "It's six inches to the
mile, so it ought to be marked."

"Celia, our grandfather's name is being aspersed. Let us look into
this."

We crowded round the map and studied it anxiously. Hilderton was there,
and Hilderton House, but no Hilderton Hall.

"But it's a great big place," protested Celia.

"I see what it is," I said regretfully. "Celia, you were young then."

"Ten."

"Ten. And naturally it seemed big to you, just as Yarrow seemed big to
Wordsworth, and a shilling seems a lot to a baby. But really----"

"Really," said Peter, "it was semi-detached."

"And your side was called Hilderton Hall and the other side Hilderton
Castle."

"I don't believe it was even called Hilderton Hall," said Peter. "It was
Hilderton Villa."

"I don't believe she ever had a grandfather at a