Before the old man had time to reply, the butler--sober, solemn Parker--came in with a card on a salver, which he presented to his master. Lord Radclyffe took up the card and grunted as he glanced at it. He always grunted when he was threatened with visitors. "Why," he said gruffly, and he threw the card back onto the salver, "haven't you told Mr. Warren?" "Mr. Warren," said solemn Parker, "is out, my lord." "Then ask Mr. Dobson to call another time." "It's not Mr. Dobson hisself, my lord. But a young gentleman from his office." "Then tell the young gentleman from the office that I haven't time to bother about him." "Shall I see him, sir?" asked Luke, ready to go. "Certainly not," retorted the irascible old man. "Stay where you are. You have got Miss Harris to entertain." "The young gentleman," resumed Parker with respectful insistence, "said he wouldn't keep your lordship five minutes. He said he'd brought some papers for your lordship's signature." "The Tower Farm lease, Uncle Rad," remarked Luke. "I think, Mr. Luke," assented the butler, "that the young gentleman did mention the word lease." "Why has that confounded Warren taken himself off just when I want him?" was Lord Radclyffe's gruff comment as he rose from the table. "Let me go, sir," insisted Luke. "No, hang it, boy, you can't sign my name--not yet anyway. I am not yet a helpless imbecile. Show the young man into the library, Parker. I can't think why Dobson is always in such a confounded hurry about leases--sending a fool of a clerk up at most inconvenient hours." Still muttering half audibly, he walked to the library door, which Parker held open for him, and even this he did not do without surreptitiously taking hold of Luke's hand and giving it a friendly squeeze. For a moment it seemed as if Luke would follow him, despite contrary orders. He paused, undecided, standing in the middle of the room, Louisa's kind gray eyes following his slightest movement. Jim stolidly pulled the cigar box toward him, and Edie, with chin resting in both hands, looked sulky and generally out of sorts. Parker--silent and correct of mien--had closed the library door behind his master, and now with noiseless tread he crossed the dining-room and opened the other door--the one that gave on the hall. Louisa instinctively turned her eyes from Luke and saw--standing in the middle of the hall--a young man in jacket suit and overcoat, who had looked up, with palpitating eagerness expressed in his face, the moment he caught sight of Parker. It was the same man who had lifted his hat to Luke and to herself in Battersea Park this very morning. Luke saw him too and apparently also recognized him. "That's why he bowed to us, Luke--in the park--you remember?" she said as soon as the door had once more closed on Parker and the visitor. "Funny that you didn't know him," she continued since Luke had made no comment. "I didn't," he remarked curtly. "Didn't what?"