"It is!--give you my life!" And his lordship played with a charm in the shape of an enamelled pig which dangled at his watch-chain. "It pleases all parties except those whom I want to rub up the wrong way. I've made many a woman's hair curl, I can tell you! You'll be my 'Somersetshire beauty,' won't you, Miss Grace?" "I think not!" she replied, with a cool glance. "My hair curls quite enough already. I never use tongs!" Brookfield burst into a laugh, and the laugh was echoed murmurously by the other men in the room. Wrotham flushed and bit his lip. "That's a one--er for me," he said lazily. "Pretty kitten as you are, Miss Grace, you can scratch! That's always the worst of women,--they've got such infernally sharp tongues----" "Grace!" interrupted her mother, at this juncture--"You are wanted in the kitchen." Grace took the maternal hint and retired at once. At that instant Tom o' the Gleam stirred slightly from his hitherto rigid attitude. He had only taken half his glass of brandy, but that small amount had brought back a tinge of colour to his face and deepened the sparkle of fire in his eyes. "Good roads for motoring about here!" he said. Lord Wrotham looked up,--then measuring the great height, muscular build, and commanding appearance of the speaker, nodded affably. "First-rate!" he replied. "We had a splendid run from Cleeve Abbey." "Magnificent!" echoed Brookfield. "Not half a second's stop all the way. We should have been far beyond Minehead by this time, if it hadn't been for the break-down. We were racing from London to the Land's End,--but we took a wrong turning just before we came to Cleeve----" "Oh! Took a wrong turning, did you?" And Tom leaned a little forward as though to hear more accurately. His face had grown deadly pale again, and he breathed quickly. "Yes. We found ourselves quite close to Cleeve Abbey, but we didn't stop to see old ruins this time, you bet! We just tore down the first lane we saw running back into the highroad,--a pretty steep bit of ground too--and, by Jove!--didn't we whizz round the corner at the bottom! That was a near shave, I can tell you!" "Ay, ay!" said Tom slowly, listening with an air of profound interest. "You've got a smart chauffeur, no doubt!" "No chauffeur at all!" declared Brookfield, emphatically. "His lordship drives his car himself."