tion that we do not
appreciate the foreigner. Indeed, we are the only nation in the world
that extends a cordial welcome to him, rich or poor.'

'_Certainement_, my lord, I should be deeply disappointed did you not
take me at my proper valuation, but I cherish no delusions regarding
the contempt with which Higgins will regard me. He will look upon me
as a sort of simpleton to whom the Lord had been unkind by not making
England my native land. Now, Higgins must be led to believe that I am
in his own class; that is, a servant of yours. Higgins and I will
gossip over the fire together, should these spring evenings prove
chilly, and before two or three weeks are past I shall have learned a
great deal about your uncle that you never dreamed of. Higgins will
talk more freely with a fellow-servant than with his master, however
much he may respect that master, and then, as I am a foreigner, he
will babble down to my comprehension, and I shall get details that he
never would think of giving to a fellow-countryman.'

* * * * *

The young earl's modesty in such description of his home as he had
given me, left me totally unprepared for the grandeur of the mansion,
one corner of which he inhabited. It is such a place as you read of in
romances of the Middle Ages; not a pinnacled or turreted French
chateau of that period, but a beautiful and substantial stone manor
house of a ruddy colour, whose warm hue seemed to add a softness to
the severity of its architecture. It is built round an outer and an
inner courtyard and could house a thousand, rather than the hundred
with which its owner had accredited it. There are many stone-mullioned
windows, and one at the end of the library might well have graced a
cathedral. This superb residence occupies the centre of a heavily
timbered park, and from the lodge at the gates we drove at least a
mile and a half under the grandest avenue of old oaks I have ever
seen. It seemed incredible that the owner of all this should actually
lack the ready money to pay his fare to town!

Old Higgins met us at the station with a somewhat rickety cart, to
which was attached the ancient cob that the late earl used to shoe. We
entered a noble hall, which probably looked the larger because of the
entire absence of any kind of furniture, unless two complete suits of
venerable armour which stood on either hand might be considered as
furnishing. I laughed aloud when the door was shut