She had not driven in by the grand entrance, but by the second best lodge, that on the road leading to the village of Stebbing-le-Bray. Captain Chancellor, setting off on a long ride, passed the old lady in the funny little carriage, and, wondering who she could be, asked for information on the subject from the man at the lodge, a venerable person thoroughly up in local celebrities. The answer he received caused him to open his handsome blue eyes, and to change his programme for the afternoon. He rode out at the Stebbing lodge, made a cut across the country which brought him on to the Chilworth Road, and re-entering his own domain, dismounted at home twenty minutes after he had set off, to find his wife and the little old lady in evidently friendly converse in the morning-room. Somewhat startled by her husband's unlooked-for reappearance, uncertain if he and her visitor were already acquainted, Eugenia hesitated a moment in introducing her companions. But the stranger was quite equal to the occasion. "How do you do, Captain Chancellor?" she said, cordially. "I am so pleased to meet you at last. By _hearsay_, do you know, you are already an old friend of mine?" Beauchamp bowed with a slight air of inquiry. "A nephew of mine, or, to be exact, which they say women never are, a grand-nephew of my husband's, has so often spoken of you to me. You will remember him--George Vandeleur; he was in your regiment in the Crimea, though you have seldom met each other since?" Captain Chancellor's face lightened up, and what Eugenia called his nicest look came over it. He had been very kind to young Vandeleur, at the time little more than a boy, and it was pleasant to find himself remembered.