r. Rayne was accompanied on that journey to Yorkshire by the pretty
dark-eyed girl who was his daughter Lola, and by his valet, a very
silent, stiff-necked, morose individual, whose personality did not
attract me. He seemed, however, to be an exceptionally efficient
person, so far as his duties were concerned, and on our arrival at the
little wayside station about twelve miles beyond Thirsk, where we had
changed trains, he proceeded to take charge of the luggage, all but
the suit-case which I still carried.

Outside the little station a magnificent Rolls limousine, colored a
dull gray, awaited us, and when the luggage had all been put on it,
Mr. Rayne surprised me by asking me to take the wheel then and there.

"My chauffeur left last week, but Paul will show you the road," he
said, as the valet seated himself beside me. "Overstow is about ten
miles off."

I don't know why it was, but that girl's dark eyes seemed to haunt me.
She was just behind me with her father, and twice when I had occasion
to look round to ask Mr. Rayne some question or other, I found her
gaze fixed on mine, which, foolishly I will admit, disconcerted me.

Mr. Rayne himself addressed me only once of his own accord during the
drive, and that was to ask me again if I sang.

"Why the dickens does he want to know if I sing?" was my mental
comment when I had replied that I sang a little, without reminding him
that he had put the same question to me on the previous day. For an
instant the thought flashed across me that perhaps my new employer had
some kink in his brain to do with singing; and yet, I reflected, that
seemed hardly likely to be the case with a man who in all other
respects appeared to be so exceptionally sane.

I was still cogitating this, when the car sped round a wide curve in
the road and beyond big lodge gates a large imposing mansion of modern
architecture came suddenly into view about half a mile away, partly
concealed by beautiful woods sloping down to it from both sides of the
valley. Slackening speed as we came near the lodge, I was about to
stop to let Paul alight to open the gates, beyond which stretched the
long winding avenue of tall trees, when a man came running out of the
lodge and made haste to throw the gates open.

My first surprise on our arrival at Overstow Hall--and I was to have
many more surprises before I had been long in Mr. Rayne's service--was
at finding that though my employer had quite a large staff of