ueer, side-long look at his companion. "Do you
think we'd better take Flick?" he asked doubtfully, "Mrs. Crofton doesn't
like dogs."

"Oh, yes, she does," Radmore spoke carelessly. "Flick was bred by Colonel
Crofton. I think she'll be very pleased to see him."

Timmy would have hotly resented being called cruel, and to animals he was
most humane, yet somehow he had enjoyed Mrs. Crofton's terror the other
night, and he was not unwilling to see a repetition of it. And so the
three set out--Timmy, Radmore, and Flick. Somehow it was a comfort to the
grown-up man to have the child with him. Had he been alone he would have
felt like a ghost walking up the quiet, empty village street. The
presence of the child and the dog made him feel so _real_.

The two trudged on in silence for a bit, and then Radmore asked in a low
voice:--"Is that busy-body, Miss Pendarth, still alive?"

They were passing by Rose Cottage as he spoke, and Timmy at once replied
in a shrill voice:--"Yes, of course she is." And then, as if as an
afterthought, he remarked slyly:--"Rosamund often says she wishes she
were dead. Do you hate her, too?"

"Hate's a big word," said Radmore thoughtfully, "but there was very
little love lost between me and that good lady in the old days."

They passed the lych-gate of the churchyard, and then, following a sudden
impulse, Radmore turned into the post-office.

Yes, his instinct had been right, for here, at any rate, was an old
friend, but a friend who, from a young man, had become old and grey.
Grasping the postmaster, Jim Cobbett, warmly by the hand Radmore
exclaimed:--"I'm glad to find you well and hearty, Cobbett." There
came the surprised: "Why, it's Mr. Radmore to be sure! How's the world
been treating you, sir?"

"Better than I deserve, Cobbett."

"Can you stay a minute, sir--Missus would like to see you, too?" The
speaker opened a door out of the tiny shop, and Radmore, followed by
Timmy and Flick, walked into a cosy living-room, where an old dog got
up and growled at them.

"That dog," said Timmy in a hoarse whisper, "frightened poor Mrs. Crofton
very much the other day as she was coming out of church."

For a moment Radmore thought the room was empty. Then, in the dim
lamp-light, a woman, who had been sitting by the fireplace, got up.

"Here's Mr. Radmore come all the way from Australia, mother."

"Mr. Radmore?" repeated the woman dully, and Radmore had another, and a
very painful, shock.

He re