and looked back. "You must have
come directly down through The Dials."

"_The Dials_?" the American helplessly repeated. "Do you mean the old
house and garden?"

Bulstrode's manner and speech were rarely curt and evasive, but he
seemed this time embarrassed and taken unawares. As the two men sat in
the motor which waited for the Duke down the road, Westboro' fixed his
glass in his eye and looked hard for a second at his friend.
Bulstrode's cheerful face was distinctly disturbed.

"I'm thinking something of buying The Dials," Westboro', after a
moment, said against the wind.

Poor Jimmy. If the house had not sufficiently up till now materialized
out of his fancy as a possession, it declared itself at once, without
doubt, as something he must look after. It was only a little bit of
England, luckily----

"Well," he exclaimed, "to be frank, old man, I've, too, been thinking I
should like to buy that property. You could surely spare me this
little corner of Glousceshire."

"Spare it!" cried Westboro', "my dear chap, fancy how ripping to have
you a landlord here! To catch and hold you so! We'll go over the
whole place together. My agent shall put the matter through for you."

"Good God, no!" said Bulstrode, "don't let your man have wind of any
such a deal. The place would go up like a rocket in price. If you
really yourself care to withdraw as much as possible, that's the most
you can do. But for God's sake keep off the place, like a good fellow."

Behind his long moustaches the Duke covered a smile, but he conciliated
his agitated friend.

"I'll keep off the grass until the turf is all your own, my dear
Bulstrode."

"Thanks!" said the other cordially, and sat back with a sigh of relief.
"There," he reflected peacefully, "my presence is explained--it's quite
perfect. I shall be a landowner in England. At all events, it's lucky
the property is sympathetic. I'm glad I didn't get balled up in this
affair in, let us say, _New Jersey_, and find myself forced to purchase
the Hackensack Meadows.

"Did the old house look deserted?" asked the Duke wickedly.

"Oh, rather!" replied the other gentleman.

"Really!" wondered Westboro'. "Why, they tell me that it is let to a
Donna Incognita--a foreign lady."

Bulstrode, whether at his own lie or at the shock of his companion's
knowledge, blushed, and his friend saw him redden. And the Duke, in
whom candor was a charm, stared at his friend, half-opened his