CHAPTER TWO.
THE FINDING OF TINKER Sir Tancred went to the writing-table, sat down, and began to write.
He wrote slowly, pausing to think, and made many erasures.
"I think the advertisement will make my stepmother squirm.

It'll make the County talk," he said thoughtfully.
"It seems to me you can't help giving the show away," said Lord Crosland.
There came a knock at the door, and a waiter came in: "Please, Sir Tancred, there's a lady, leastways a person, wanting to see you." "To see me ?" said Sir Tancred with some surprise.

"Who can it be?
Show her up ?" He went on with his writing, and presently the waiter ushered in a tall, gaunt woman, with a rugged, hard-featured face, dressed in the rustiest black, and carrying a brown-paper parcel.
Sir Tancred turned round in his chair, and she said very nervously, "Good-morning, sir." "Good-morning," said Sir Tancred; then he sprang up and cried, "Why--why--it's Selina Goodyear!" "Yes, sir, it's me.

I was afraid you wouldn't remember me after all this time.

And--and--it's a liberty I'm taking, coming to see you like this," she went on with a voluble, nervous eagerness, twisting her hands.