the Thames along a country towing-path was not so dismal as it
might have been to those who had not tramped with the equanimity of
custom through African jungles.

Once the idea had taken root in my mind, I was impatient to carry it
out. I would go, I decided, almost immediately, lunching at the nearest
decent inn to Purley Lock, and turning up at Wildred's house at four or
five in the afternoon. I would spend an hour there, perhaps, and return
to town in time for dinner.

I had not got up particularly early, had breakfasted late, and by the
time I was inclined to start it was past one o'clock. I had over an
hour's journey to Great Marlow, the nearest railway station, with a
drive of some four miles to follow, before I could reach the Chimes Inn,
which I was told was the only one within some distance of Purley Lock.

It was a quaint old hostelry I found, and an agreeable landlord, who had
hardly expected guests at so out-of-the-way a place on Christmas Day,
and having finished his own midday repast, was very ready for a gossip
with me.

Oh, yes, he said, he knew the House by the Lock, quite well. It was in
reality situated at some little distance from the Lock itself, quite a
quarter-of-a-mile, but then it was the nearest house, and perhaps that
was the reason it had got its name. It was a very old place, but Mr.
Wildred, since taking it about two years before, had had a great many
alterations and improvements made both outside and in. He was something
of an architect himself, it seemed--this rich Mr. Wildred; at all
events, it was believed that he had made the designs for the
alterations, and having a great fad that way, had even helped the chaps
he had had down from London to do the indoor work and decorating. There
had only been two or three men, so that progress had been slow, and
everyone had wondered that such a rich man as Mr. Wildred was reported
to be should have had things done in so niggling a manner. But, since
then, they had concluded that he must have known what he was about, for
everyone who went there came away with great reports of the decorations.

I was not particularly interested in these details that my landlord had
to tell me.

Though, after all, there was an indefinable curiosity in my mind
regarding everything that concerned Carson Wildred.

I got away from the man's animated gossip in the course of half-an-hour
or so. I had a walk of a mile to take, having dismissed my fly, and
meaning,