There was an awkward pause. Stormont’s agitated countenance showed that he was very much upset by this unexpected arrival of his “old pal.” The footman disappeared rapidly. Duncan retreated with his slow, majestic step, his grave face looking graver than ever. Before he came to Effington, he had lived all his life in refined and aristocratic families. Never had he known, in his respectable experience, such an occurrence as this--a shabby-looking stranger entering the house and greeting the owner as “your old pal.” There is no doubt the dignified butler was thoroughly shaken. Lydon was very generous-hearted, and in spite of the altered feelings with which he now regarded Stormont, he could not but feel a wave of pity for the man, subjected to such a rude shock in the very midst of his splendour, before the eyes of his astonished servants. Thinking the most tactful course was to withdraw, he touched Gloria lightly on the arm. “Let us go for our stroll,” he said, and she, understanding his object, nodded her head. They went out and left the agitated Stormont to deal with Mr. Tom Newcombe. When they were in the grounds, she turned to him, a look of surprise, Lydon fancied a faint hint of trouble, in her clear, candid blue eyes. “What can it mean, Leonard? Such a common fellow too, his way of talking! Not a broken-down gentleman. You heard him speak of uncle as his ‘old pal.’ Where in the name of wonder could he have known him?” “Do you know anything of your uncle’s past, of his life as a young man?” As her sweetheart put the question, his thought was that she probably knew as little of the past as she did of the present. The girl answered him with her usual frankness. “Nothing. From some little things father dropped, I gathered that he was rather wild in his youth. I don’t fancy they had ever been very good friends as young men. I am sure you have noticed how little Uncle Howard ever talks about himself, about his business or his past. I know nothing about these things. Auntie may know more about them than I do, but I don’t fancy very much. He is so strangely reticent. He certainly told her he was going to borrow money from you, but I expect he did so because he thought you might let it out to one of us. If he had been sure of your silence, she would never have heard a word about it, I am convinced.” After a short pause, she resumed the subject. “I cannot understand it, the man is obviously of such a common class. The Stormonts come from very homely stock, I know, but they are miles above this. I don’t think I have ever told you much about the family history, which I learned from my father, not my uncle. I don’t think I have ever heard him allude to his family. He is as reticent about them as he is about himself.”