It was highly artistic; people raved; I--er--fell in love with the lady and--that's all!" But it wasn't; for Cleek, reading between the lines, saw that the mad infatuation which had brought the lady a title and an over-generous husband had simmered down--as such things always do sooner or later--and that the marriage was very far from being a happy one.

As a matter of fact, he learned later that the county, to a woman, had refused to accept Lady Wilding; that her ladyship, chafing under this ostracism, was for having a number of her old professional friends come down to visit her and make a time of it, and that, on Sir Henry's objecting, a violent quarrel had ensued, and the Rev.Ambrose Smeer had come down to the hall in the effort to make peace.

And he learned something else that night which gave him food for deep reflection: the Rev.Ambrose Smeer, too, had been to South America, and when he met that gentleman--well, in spite of the fact that Sir Henry thought so highly of him, and it was known that his revival meetings had done a world of good, Cleek did not fancy the Rev.Ambrose Smeer any more than he fancied the trainer, Logan.
But to return to the present.

By this time the late falling twilight of May had begun to close in, and presently--as the day was now done and the night approaching--Logan led in Black Riot from the paddock, followed by a slim, sallow-featured, small-moustached man, bearing a shotgun, and dressed in grey tweeds.

Sir Henry, who, it was plain to see, had a liking for the man, introduced this newcomer to Cleek as the South American, Mr.Andrew Sharpless.
"That's the English of it, Mr.Cleek," said the latter jovially, but with an undoubted Spanish twist to the tongue.