The Cottage, or whatever they call it, is let, and
nobody knows anything about them. I took the trouble to go there, I
assure you, on my own hook, to see if I could find out something. Toto
nearly died of it, didn't you, darling? Not a drop of cream to be had
for him, the poor angel; only a little nasty skim milk. But Mr. Tatham
has the barbarity to smile," she went on, with a shrill outcry. "Fancy,
Toto--the cruelty to smile!"

"No cream for the angel, and no information for his mistress," said
John.

"You horrid, cruel, cold-blooded man!--and you sit there at your ease,
and will do nothing for us----"

"Should you like me," said John, "to send out for cream for your dog,
Lady Mariamne?"

"Cream in the Temple?" said the lady. "What sort of a compound would it
be, Dolly? All plaster of Paris, or stuff of that sort. Perhaps you have
tea sometimes in these parts----"

"Very seldom," said John; "but it might be obtainable if you would like
it." He put forward his hand, but not with much alacrity, to the bell.

"Mother never takes any tea," said Miss Dolly, hastily; "she only
crumbles down cake into it for that little brute."

"It is you who are a little brute, you unnatural child. Toto likes his
tea very much--he is dying for it. But you must have patience, my pet,
for probably it would be very bad, and the cream all stucco, or something.
Mr. Tatham, do tell us what has become of Nell? Now, have you hidden her
somewhere in London, St. John's Wood, and that sort of thing, don't you
know? or where is she? Is the old woman living? and how has that boy
been brought up? At a dame's school, or something of that sort, I
suppose."

"Mother," said Dolly, "you ought to know there are now no dame's
schools. There's Board Schools, which is what you mean, I suppose; and
it would be very good for him if he had been there. They would teach him
a great deal more than was ever taught to Uncle Phil."

"Teach him!" said Lady Mariamne, with another shriek. "Did I ask
anything about teaching? Heaven forbid! Mr. Tatham knows what I mean,
Dolly. Has he been at any decent place--or has he been where it will
never be heard of? Eton and Harrow one knows, and the dame's schools one
knows, but horrible Board Schools, or things, where they might say young
Lord Lomond was brought up--oh, goodness gracious! One has to bear a
great many things, but I could not bear that."

"It does not matter much, does it, so long as he does not come within