“... I have just come back from my visit to Sir Dugald and Lady Haigh at Inverconglish. The Chief is all right again, and looks quite bucolic in knickerbockers and a deerstalker--a regular ‘tyrant of his little fields,’ indeed. I had promised myself the pleasure of seeing him in a kilt, but he says that his tenants are a serious-minded people, unaccustomed to laughter, and he is afraid the sight of him so arrayed might do them severe physical injury. He is a great power in the neighbourhood, and the people bring their disputes to him to settle instead of going to law, so that he is quite busy and happy, though he has not got his peerage. Lady Haigh, who directs the affairs (particularly the love affairs) of the locality generally, told me something about Stratford that will amuse you and North. He is destined, so they say, to get a high appointment before long, and meanwhile he has devoted his leave to falling in love with a girl just out of the schoolroom, who is desperately frightened by his attentions, and won’t have a word to say to him. Lady Haigh says she is rather like a lady whom Stratford knew long ago, and who died. She is a hero-worshipper, and has adored him from a distance since Hicks first made him known to the British public, but she doesn’t want him to come any closer. However, if old Stratford makes up his mind to stick to a thing, I fancy he is pretty sure to get it. By the bye, I met Hicks the other day. He was just off to Thracia again, drawn by the rumour of these new disturbances. He quite considers himself as one of us, and says that when we of the old Kubbet-ul-Haj gang meet next to celebrate the signing of the treaty, he will be there, if he has to come from the other side of the world in order to be present....” THE END TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES. Sydney C. Grier was the pseudonym of Hilda Caroline Gregg. This book is part of the author’s “Modern East” series. The full series, in order, being: The Flag of the Adventurer Two Strong Men The Advanced-Guard His Excellency’s English Governess Peace With Honour The Warden of the Marches Alterations to the text: Note: the following alterations have been checked and validated against an 1897 edition of the story serialized in _The Argosy_ volumes 63 and 64. A few punctuation corrections--mostly involving the pairing of quotation marks and missing periods. [Title Page] Add a brief note indicating this novel’s position in the series. See above. Also add illustrator’s credit. See below. [Images] Add twelve illustrations of Alfred Pearse featured in the above-mentioned 1897 edition, but not included in the 1902 L. C. Page & Co. edition. Illustrations were placed nearest the scene they represent, of course. Some captions have been updated to reflect revisions in the text. [Chapter IV] Change “gave up his horse to a _Eurasian’s_ clerk’s wife” to _Eurasian_. [Chapter VI] “The official, _well pleased_, stayed” to _well-pleased_. [Chapter XI]