"I didn't find it. A man got it for me from the Dorset Arms." "A man!" cried Awdrey. "Yes, quite an ordinary sort of man, but rather decent." "I wonder who he was. How romantic, Tony!" "Rats! It wasn't in the least romantic. When I got out of the station I found the car wasn't there to meet me, and all the cabs were gone, and I didn't know what to do. Then rather a nasty-looking man came along, and asked me what was the matter, and when I told him, he said I'd better spend the night in East Grinstead as it was so late, and he knew of a very nice place I could go to. I didn't like to refuse, as he seemed so polite and interested, but of course I wanted to come here, and I was awfully glad when another man came and said he could get me a cab quite easily. The first man didn't seem to like it, though--perhaps he had some poor relation who let lodgings." "Tony!" cried her sister. "You really mustn't go about alone. You're much too innocent." "My darling child," wailed her mother, "my dove unsoiled by knowledge!" Tony looked surprised, but her answer was checked by the sound of footsteps in the hall. "Girls, there's your father!" cried Lady Strife. "Now, Tony, you will have to explain. And remember I hate a scene--it clogs my soul with matter." "Right-O, mother!" and Tony hurried out into the passage. Here she managed to get through the "scene," such as it was. Sir Gambier Strife was a man to whom time and place were all-important, and as the time of Term was inevitably linked with the place of School, he felt justly indignant at the separation of the two. "Whooping-cough! People were such milksops nowadays. When he was a boy the sooner one got whooping-cough the more one's relations were pleased. How old was Tony? Sixteen? Then the sooner she had whooping-cough the better." This, however, was all said in rather a low voice, Sir Gambier realising as much as any one the importance of not clogging his wife's soul with matter. By the time he entered the drawing-room, he was talking of other things. "I was down at Wilderwick this evening--you know that place at the bottom of Wilderwick hill, where the Furlongers live?" "Yes. Sparrow Hall." "That's it. Well, this evening there was a flag tied to the chimney. I asked old Carter what it was all about, and he said they're expecting the other brother home--the one that's been in gaol for the last three years." "It's a long time since I've seen the Furlongers," said Awdrey, "they've been lying low for the last few months, and I don't think I've ever seen the one who's been in gaol." "I saw him three years ago, just after we came here. He was swaggering about the Kent end of their land with his gun. He won't do much swaggering there in future. By Jove! it must have hit 'em hard to sell that property to old Lowe." "They've only got a poky little farm now. But, father, do tell us what he's like, that youngest Furlonger--he sounds interesting."