Well, you must be tired after all this travelling in steamships and trains, so come into the dining-room and have some tea, for I have got the key to the sideboard." He went, and, passing through the hall, left his alpenstock in the umbrella-stand.

In due course the tea was produced, though for it he seemed to have little appetite.

While he made pretence to eat the thick bread and butter, Mrs.Parsons told him the news, such as it was.

Sir John was living in town and "flinging the money about, so it was said, not but what he had got lots to fling and plenty to catch it," she added meaningly.

His poor, dear lady was dead, and "happy for her on the whole." Miss Isobel had "gone foreign," having, it was told, quarrelled with her father, and nothing had been heard of her since she went.