not be disposed to ask me to stay.

"Now, with your permission, I will go and tell Zaki--that is the man's
name--to bring in my portmanteau. I can then send the trap back."

"Do you know, Gregory," one of his aunts said that evening; "even
putting aside the fact that you are our nephew, we are delighted that
the title and estates are not to go to the next heir. He came down here
about a year ago. His regiment had just returned from the Soudan. He
drove straight to the hall, and requested to be shown over it, saying
that in a short time he was going to take possession. The housekeeper
came across here, quite in distress, and said that he talked as if he
were already master; said he should make alterations in one place,
enlarge the drawing room, build a conservatory against it, do away with
some of the pictures on the walls; and, in fact, he made himself very
objectionable. He came on here, and behaved in a most offensive and
ungentlemanly way. He actually enquired of us whether we were tenants
by right, or merely on sufferance. I told him that, if he wanted to
know, he had better enquire of Mr. Tufton; and Flossie, who is more
outspoken than I am, said at once that whether we were tenants for
life, or not, we should certainly not continue to reside here, if so
objectionable a person were master at the hall. He was very angry, but
I cut him short by saying:

"'This is our house at present, sir; and, unless you leave it at once,
I shall call the gardener in and order him to eject you.'"

"I am not surprised at what you say, Aunt, for I met the fellow myself,
on the way up to Omdurman; and found him an offensive cad. It has been
a great satisfaction to me to know that he was so; for if he had been a
nice fellow, I could not have helped being sorry to deprive him of the
title and estates which he has, for years, considered to be his."

After remaining four days at the Manor House, Gregory went back to
town. A notice had already been served, upon the former claimant to the
title, that an application would be made to the court to hear the claim
of Gregory Hilliard Hartley, nephew of the late Marquis, to be
acknowledged as his successor to the title and estates; and that if he
wished to appear by counsel, he could do so.

The matter was not heard of, for another three months. Lieutenant
Hartley was in court, and was represented by a queen's counsel of
eminence; who, however, when Gregory's narrative had been told, and the