the version I struck," said Delavoye, producing his museum note-book.
"One or two I couldn't help taking down. 'In obedience to the custom of
the times,' for instance, 'the young lord proceeded to perform the grand
tour; and it is reported that having sailed from Naples to
Constantinople, he there imbibed so great an admiration for the manners
of the Turks, that on his return to England in 1766, he caused an
outlying portion of his family mansion to be taken down, and to be
rebuilt in the form of a harem.'"

"Rot!"

"I took it down word for word. I've often wondered how the Turkish
Pavilion got its name; now we know all about it, and why it had a tunnel
connecting it with the house."

"Poor little milliner!"

"I believe you, Gilly. Listen to this, when she was a prisoner in his
town house, before they spirited her out here--'Looking out of the
window at about eight o'clock, she observed a young woman passing, to
whom she threw out her handkerchief, which was then heavy with tears,
intending to attract her attention and send to her father for
assistance.'"

"Because the handkerchief was marked?"

"And so heavy with her tears that she could throw it like a
tennis-ball!"

The note-book was put away. There was an end also of our hilarity.

"And this dear old girl," said Uvo, with affectionate disrespect,
"thinks she's a fit and proper writer to cope with that immortal skunk!
False Sextus in a parish magazine! Proud Tarquin done really proud at
last!"

It was on the tip of my tongue to make it quite clear to Uvo that Miss
Julia had not wittingly proposed to write about his ancestor at all;
that apparently she had never heard of his existence before that
evening, and that it was her own original idea to make Witching Hill
House the haunt of some purely imaginary scoundrel. But I knew my Uvo
well enough by this time to hold my tongue, and at least postpone the
tiresome discussion of a rather stale point on which we were never
likely to agree.

But I stayed to supper at No. 7; and Uvo kept me till the small hours,
listening to further details of his last researches, and to the farrago
of acute conjecture, gay reminiscence and vivid hearsay which his
reading invariably inspired. It was base subject-metal that did not
gain a certain bright refinement in his fiery mind, or fall from his
lips with a lively ring; and that night he was at his best about things
which have an opposite effect on many young men. It must hav