nsions; and she glared with a
fury which made Elsie, who had edged little by little to the extreme
edge of the seat, rise softly and take up a safer position, standing
three yards away.

Tinker took advantage of Lady Beauleigh's helpless speechlessness to
say thoughtfully, "But about your being my grandmother? If you're not
my father's mother or my mother's mother, you can't really be my
grandmother. You must be my step-grandmother.

"I should think," Tinker went on, and his thoughtfulness became a
thoughtful earnestness, "that you must be what people call a connection
by marriage; not quite one of the family."

The thoughtfulness cleared from Tinker's brow, and he said with a
pleasant smile, "But that's got nothing to do with what you came to
talk about. You said it was important. What did you want to say?"

Lady Beauleigh remembered suddenly that she had come on an errand
connected with her promotion of the glory of the Beauleighs. She
swallowed down her fury, wiped her face with her handkerchief, and said
in a hoarse and somewhat shaky voice, "I came to make you an offer."

Tinker beamed on her.

"You must be tired of this beggarly life, going about from pillar to
post, living in wretched Continental hotels, with no pocket money."

Tinker raised his eyebrows.

"I know what your father's life is, just a mere penniless adventurer's."

Tinker beamed no more.

"And I came to offer to take you to live with me at Beauleigh Court.
It's a beautiful big house in the country with woods all around it, and
hunting and fishing and shooting and tennis-courts and fruit-gardens,
and a cricket-ground, everything that a boy could want."

"And you," said Tinker in the expressionless tone of one adding an item
to a catalogue.

"Yes; and me to look after you. You should have a bicycle." And she
paused to let the splendour of the gift sink in.

[Illustration: And she paused to let the splendour of the gift sink in.]

"I have a bicycle," said Tinker.

"Well--two bicycles--and a pony----"

"I don't like ponies--they're too slow," said Tinker in a weary voice.
"I always ride a horse."

"Well, you should have a horse--a horse of your own."

"What's the hunting like? But, there, I know; it can't be up to much;
it never is in those southern counties. I always hunt in
Leicestershire. I've got used to it."

"You hunt in Leicestershire?" said Lady Beauleigh with some surprise.

"Oh course. Where does one hunt?"