"I was put down at a village called Westgate, at an inn called the Moystyn Arms. I kept to the dress of a sailor, and when the people spoke to me on the coach, kept up the character as well as I could, which is very easy to do when you have to do with people who know nothing about it. I shivered my timbers, and all that sort of thing, and hitched up my trousers, as they do at the theatres. The coachman told me that the inn was the nearest place I could stop at, if I wanted to go to the hall, and taking my bundle, I got down and he drove off. A sailor-boy is a sort of curiosity in a country village, Miss Valerie, and I had many questions put to me, but I answered them by putting others. I said that my friends were formerly living at the hall in the old baronet's time, but that I knew little about them, as it was a long while ago; and I asked if there were any of the old servants still living at the place. The woman who kept the inn told me that there was one, Old Roberts, who still lived in the village, and been _bedridden_ for some years. This of course was the person I wanted, and I inquired what had become of his family. The reply was, that his daughter, who had married Green, was somewhere in London, and his son, who had married Kitty Wilson of the village, had gone to reside as gamekeeper somewhere near Portsmouth, and had a large family of children. "`You're right enough,' replied I, laughing, `we are a large family.' "`What, are you old Roberts' grandson?' exclaimed the woman. `Well, we did hear that one of them, Harry, I think, did go to sea.' "`Well, now, perhaps you'll tell me where I am to find the old gentleman?' replied I. "`Come with me,' said she, `he lives hard-by, and glad enough he'll be, poor man, to have any one to talk with him a bit, for it's a lonesome life he leads in bed there.' "I followed the woman, and when about a hundred yards from the inn, she stopped at the door of a small house, and called to Mrs Meshin, to `go up and tell old Roberts that one of his grandsons is here.' A snuffy old woman made her appearance, peered at me through her spectacles, and then stumped up a pair of stairs which faced the door. Shortly afterwards I was desired to come up, and did so. I found an old man with silver hair lying in bed, and the said Mrs Meshin, with her spectacles, smoothing down the bed-clothes, and making the place tidy. "`What cheer, old boy?' said I, after T.P. Cooke's style. "`What do you say? I'm hard of hearing, rather,' replied the old man. "`How do you find yourself, sir?' said I. "`Oh, pretty well for an old man; and so you're my grandson, Harry; glad to see you.--You may go, Mrs Meshin, and shut the door, and do you hear, don't listen at the key-hole.' "The stately lady, Mrs Meshin, growled, and then left the room, slamming the door.