d that old Doby is rapturously happy and takes the
meerschaum to bed with him, but only smokes it on Sundays--sitting at
his window blowing great clouds when his neighbours are coming from
church. It was a clever girl who knew that an old fellow might secretly
like his old pipe best."

"It was a deliciously clever girl," said Lord Dunholm. "One wants to
know and make friends with her. We must drive over and call. I confess,
I rather congratulate myself that Anstruthers is not at home."

"So do I," Westholt answered. "One wonders a little how far he and his
sister-in-law will 'foregather' when he returns. He's an unpleasant
beggar."

A few days later Mrs. Brent, returning from a call on Mrs. Charley
Jenkins, was passed by a carriage whose liveries she recognised half way
up the village street. It was the carriage from Dunholm Castle. Lord and
Lady Dunholm and Lord Westholt sat in it. They were, of course, going
to call at the Court. Miss Vanderpoel was beginning to draw people. She
naturally would. She would be likely to make quite a difference in the
neighbourhood now that it had heard of her and Lady Anstruthers had been
seen driving with her, evidently no longer an unvisitable invalid, but
actually decently clothed and in her right mind. Mrs. Brent slackened
her steps that she might have the pleasure of receiving and responding
gracefully to salutations from the important personages in the landau.
She felt that the Dunholms were important. There were earldoms AND
earldoms, and that of Dunholm was dignified and of distinction.

A common-looking young man on a bicycle, who had wheeled into the
village with the carriage, riding alongside it for a hundred yards or
so, stopped before the Clock Inn and dismounted, just as Mrs. Brent
neared him. He saw her looking after the equipage, and lifting his cap
spoke to her civilly.

"This is Stornham village, ain't it, ma'am?" he inquired.

"Yes, my man." His costume and general aspect seemed to indicate that he
was of the class one addressed as "my man," though there was something a
little odd about him.

"Thank you. That wasn't Miss Vanderpoel's eldest sister in that
carriage, was it?"

"Miss Vanderpoel's----" Mrs. Brent hesitated. "Do you mean Lady
Anstruthers?"

"I'd forgotten her name. I know Miss Vanderpoel's eldest sister lives at
Stornham--Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughter."

"Lady Anstruthers' younger sister is a Miss Vanderpoel, and she is
visiting at Stornham