ways had the run of
the Dartwood stables. They were an interesting pair, but it was the
younger whom I regarded as a friend, and that was why I was anxious to
find out if I had stumbled across his son. As you may have heard,
Captain Fourtenay-Carew, the father, was killed in the hunting-field
and his wife died within the year. The two boys, then quite babies,
were adopted by Richard Carew and brought up as his own sons."

He paused and studied Ailsa's face gravely. She was almost breathless
with interest, and he seemed a little taken aback by it. She saw the
question in his eyes, and hastened to add frankly, "I cannot tell you
how interested I am to hear this. My husband and I think there is no
one in the world like Major Carew; in fact, in some vague, distant way
I believe we are related. But he never speaks of his past life at all.
For some reason he seems to regard it as a closed book; he even
persists in calling himself a Rhodesian, and resolutely ignores the
fact that he is anything else as well."

"Ah!..." and the thin, scholarly face of her companion looked as if he
were obtaining a clue he wanted. There was a pause, and each seemed to
be weighing something in his and her mind. Then Ailsa spoke: "I
conclude he has some reason for his extreme reticence, and I hope I
should be one of the last to pry into anyone's secrets; but for a
reason I can hardly explain, I should be very glad to know something
now that might possibly help me to do a special service for him. I
shall see him in Salisbury."

"What I know is no secret in a general sense," said Delcombe, speaking
with grave deliberation; "but the facts of it were cleverly hushed up
by his uncle, and you will easily understand that Major Carew would
never speak of it now. My own interest in the matter is because of my
regard for his father, and, I think I may say, admiration for himself.
Anyone seeing the two brothers together as I did--that is, the younger
men--must have felt deeply drawn to the elder and repulsed by the
younger. A finer young fellow than Peter Fourtenay-Carew never
stepped. The other brother was good-looking also, but he was cunning
and crafty and little liked. Yet, such are the mysterious ways of
Providence, the younger brother, by an unlooked-for turn of events,
became the possessor of wealth and place and influence, and the elder
went out from his country penniless, exiled, and alone. As far as I
can judge, no one in England has ever heard