"I see," said Cleek. "I see! Hum-m-m! A fortnight without any outward sign and then of a sudden three small raw spots! Indented in the centre are they, and much inflamed about the edges? Thanks! Quite so, quite so! And the doors locked and all the windows but one closed and secured on the inside, so that no human body----What's that? Take the case? Certainly I will, Mr. Carruthers. You are entertaining a house party at present, I hear. Now if you can make it convenient to put me up in the Priory for a night or two, and will inform your guests that an old 'Varsity friend named--er--let's see! Oh, ah! Deland, that will do as well as any--Lieutenant Arthur Deland, home on leave from India--if you will inform your guests that that friend will join the house party to-morrow afternoon, I'll be with you in time for lunch, and will bring my man servant with me." "Thank you! thank you!" said the Honourable Felix, wringing his hand. "I'll do exactly as you suggest, Mr. Cleek, and rooms shall be ready for you when you arrive." And the matter being thus arranged, the Honourable Felix took his departure; and Cleek, calling the landlady to furnish him with pen, ink, and paper, sat down then and there to write a private note to Lady Essington, telling her to look out for Mr. George Headland to put in an appearance at the Priory in three days' time. * * * * * It was exactly half-past one o'clock when Lieutenant Arthur Deland, a big, handsome, fair-haired, fair-moustached fellow, with the stamp of the Army all over him, turned up at Boskydell Priory with an undersized Indian servant and an oversized kit and was presented to his hostess and to the several members of the house party, by all of whom he was voted a decided acquisition before he had been an hour under the Priory's roof. It is odd how one's fancies sometimes go. He found the Honourable Mrs. Carruthers a sweet, gentle, dovelike little woman for whom he did not care in the least degree, and he found Lady Essington's son a rollicking, bubbling, overgrown boy of two-and-twenty, whom, in spite of frivolous upbringing and a rather pronounced brusqueness toward his mother, he fancied very much indeed. In fact, he "played right up" to Mr. Claude Essington, as our American cousins say; and Mr. Claude Essington, fancying him hugely, took him to his heart forthwith and blurted out his sentiments with almost small-boy candour.