"I want you both to come and dine with me to-night in a friendly way," spoke he; "no ceremony. My brother, the major, is with us for a day or two, and we'd like to get a few friends together to meet him at dinner." Herbert Tanerton hesitated. He did not say No, for he liked dinners; he liked the importance of sitting at the right or left hand of his hostess and saying grace. He did not say Yes, for he thought of his throat. "I hardly know, colonel. I got up with a sore throat this morning. Very relaxed indeed it is. Who is to be there?" "Yourselves and the Fontaines and the Todhetleys: nobody else," answered the colonel. "As to your throat--I dare say it will be better by-and-by. A cheerful dinner will do you good. Six o'clock sharp, mind." Herbert Tanerton accepted the offer, conditionally. If his throat got worse, of course he should have to send word, and decline. The colonel nodded. He felt sure in his own mind the throat would get better: he knew how fanciful the parson was, and how easily he could be roused out of his ailments. "How do you like the Fontaines?" questioned he of the colonel. "Have you seen much of them yet?" "Oh, we like them very well," answered the colonel, who, in his easy nature, generally avowed a liking for everybody. "They are connections of my wife's." "Connections of your wife's!" repeated Herbert quickly. "I did not know that." "I'm not sure that I knew it myself, until we came to compare notes," avowed the colonel. "Any way, I did not remember it. Sir Dace Fontaine's sister married----. Stop; let me consider--how was it?" Grace laughed. The colonel laughed also. "I know it now. My wife's sister married a Captain Pym: it is many years ago. Captain Pym was a widower, and his first wife was a sister of Dace Fontaine's. Yes, that's it. Poor Pym and his wife died soon; both of them in India: and so, you see, we lost sight of the connection altogether; it slipped out of memory." "Were there any children?" "The first wife had one son, who was, I believe, taken to by his father's relatives. That was all. Well, you'll come this evening," added the colonel, turning to depart. "I must make haste back home, for they don't know yet who's coming and who's not." A few days previously to this, we had taken up our abode at Crabb Cot, and found that some people named Fontaine had come to the neighbourhood, and were living at Maythorn Bank. Naturally the Squire wanted to know who they were and what they were. And as they were fated to play a conspicuous part in the drama I am about to relate, I must give to them a word of introduction. Important people need it, you know.