"Eh, my dear," said the old man; "Geoffrey Rutherford has many relatives, many, and they all want to see him. It's wonderful how he's appreciated! Quite extraordinary, for he does nothing to deserve it. I'll inquire if you can be admitted, Miss--Miss Lindley." The old man shambled away. He was so inhospitable that he absolutely left the chain on the door. He was absent for nearly ten minutes. I thought he had forgotten all about me, and was about to knock again, when he reappeared. Without saying a word he removed the chain from the hall-door and flung it wide open. He was about the shabbiest-looking servant I ever saw. "Come this way," he said, when I had stepped into the hall. He took me down a long passage, and into a room which was only lighted from the roof. The furniture of the room was handsome, but covered everywhere with dust. The leather of the high-backed chairs was worm-eaten. "Sit down, Miss Lindley," he said, motioning to one of them. And then, to my astonishment, he placed himself before a high desk, and began to write. I am sure I must always have had a quick temper. I thought this old servant's manners intolerable. "Go and tell your master, at once, that his relative, Rosamund Lindley, is here," I said. "Go, I am in a hurry." He dropped his pen, and looked at me with the dawning of a smile playing round his thin lips. "And pray, who is my master?" "My cousin, Mr Geoffrey Rutherford." "I happen to be that individual myself." I was really startled into jumping out of my seat. I flopped back again with a very red face, said "Oh!" and felt extremely foolish. "What is your candid opinion of your Cousin Geoffrey, young lady?" said the little man, jumping up and walking over to the fireplace. "He is the ideal sort of rich cousin, is he not?" I laughed. My laugh seemed to please the owner of the dirty house. He smiled again faintly, looking hard into my face, and said:--"I forget your name, tell it to me again." "Rosamund Lindley." "Ah, Lindley!" He started slightly. "I have put down no _Lindleys_ in my list of relatives. Rosamund Lindley! Are you my seventh, eighth, or tenth cousin, child? I have cousins, I assure you, twenty degrees removed, most affectionate people. Extraordinary! I can't make out what they see in me." "My mother was your first cousin," I said boldly. "Her name was the same as yours--Rutherford. Before she was married she was known to her friends as Mary Rutherford." I expected this remark to make a sensation. It did. The little man turned his back on me, _gazed_ for a couple of minutes into the empty grate, then flashed round, and pointed to one of the worm-eaten chairs.