u, Mervyn, or on the off-chance
of meeting old Woodville, but simply to try the new Daimler before
lunching in it--at least, not exactly lunching _in_ it, but _with_
it,--no, no, not _with_ it, you know what I mean--with the dearest old
gentleman who lives in the wilds of West Kensington. He's simply devoted
to me. Why, I can't think. But he's got a sort of idea that I saved his
life on a hill near Hastings. What really happened was, that his idiot
of a chauffeur had utterly smashed up the car, and he and the old
gentleman were sitting on the Downs with every probability of remaining
there for the rest of their natural lives!"

"And this, I suppose, is where you came in," said Woodville.

"Rather! I was spinning along from Brighton, and I saw those poor
creatures in their pitiable position. To hop out of the motor, have an
explanation with the old gentleman (who was stone deaf, by the way), to
persuade him to come with me, to drive him to his _intensely_
comfortable and charming country house in the heart of Hastings, and to
send for a surgeon to attend to the internal injuries of the car, was,
for me, the work of a moment! I made up quite a romance about the old
gentleman. You're a reading man, Woodville, and so you know, from books,
that the slightest politeness to an eccentric millionaire sets you up in
gilded luxury for life, don't you? I expected, of course, that he would
cut off his family with a shilling, and would leave me at the _very_
least L20,000 a year. Isn't it funny, my being wrong? It turned out that
he neither could nor would do anything of the sort. He was neither
eccentric nor a millionaire--though he was very well off and very
clever. But, perhaps you ask yourself, had he a lovely daughter, whose
hand he would offer me in marriage? Not he! He has only a hideous
married son and daughter-in-law who live in Manchester, and all I've
got out of the adventure, so far, is lunching with him, and talking to
him, and heaps of practice in shouting; he's so deaf. Besides, he's a
dear."

"What a wonderful chap you are! The last time I saw you, weren't you
secretary to a foreign Duke, with a brilliant diplomatic future before
you, or something?" said Woodville, while Mervyn appeared to be lost in
thought.

"I know, but that was _last_ season! Lots of people are just as keen as
I am, you know. Broughton, for instance, has actually invented a car of
his own. I once permitted myself to speak rather disrespectfull