“I can trace them up to Sir Theobald Skinner, Knight, who obtained a grant of the Abbey lands of Coggesthorpe, Suffolk, in 1541--who in turn was the grandfather of Walter Skinner, who married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of John Banstock, Esquire, of Meechy, Norfolk, and became first Lord Gunser.” Adele pricked up her ears. “What is that? Are we related to the nobility? Oh, that is what papa meant by something interesting and important! Who would have supposed he could be so sly? Oh, sure enough, that would account for----” She broke off short, and smiled, first knowingly to herself, then with frank cordiality to Vestalia. “Oh, go on,” she urged. “Tell me about our lords.” Vestalia shook her head. “We--that is, you have no lords nowadays,” she admitted, ruefully. “The Gunser peerage became extinct in the male line nearly two hundred years ago. The collateral branches of the family sank to be yeomen on the soil their ancestors had owned--some of them became even peasants, agricultural labourers. There are no prosperous or polite Skinners nowadays--except _your_ immediate branch.” “And even I haven’t got polite eyes,” laughed Adele. “Yes, I remember papa telling how poor his people were. He hardly knew the taste of meat, he said, till he went to America as a boy. And so you have traced all his relations out. Are there any cousins or near connections living now, do you know? He had a brother older than himself, Abram was his name, I fancy, and he enlisted in the army and went to the dogs, I think. At least, father never heard of him afterward.” “He is dead,” Vestalia re-assured her. “He did go to the dogs, as you say. He had some sons, but they are dead too.” “And so there were actually Skinners in the peerage!” mused Adele, aloud. The thought seemed to excite her. She rose and looked at herself in the mirror, over Vestalia’s head. The latter stood up as well. “Oh, must you be going?” said Adele. “There was so much I wanted to say to you. We must meet soon again. I am going to insist upon that. You see, I know absolutely no one over here of my own sex, except you. It will be different in a few days, now, but that won’t make any difference with my liking you. Oh, yes--I wanted to ask you--do you know a Mr. Linkhaw?” Vestalia looked blankly at her interrogator for a moment, then flushed a little and smiled confusedly. “I have heard the name,” she replied, “but I have never seen the gentleman bearing it.” Adele drew her brows together in a half-frown. “He is a great friend of the gentleman who was with you at the Museum,” she said, doubtingly. “Yes, I gathered that,” answered Vestalia. “It was in that way that I heard the name.”