dant, isn't he?--been writing us about him."

"I won't have Lessingham touched," Sir Henry insisted. "He can't do any
particular harm down there, and there isn't a line or a drawing of mine
down at Dreymarsh which he isn't welcome to."

Lord Rayton rose to his feet.

"Look here, Henry, old fellow," he said, "I do sympathise with you up
to a certain point. I tell you what I'll do. I shall have to answer
Philippa's letter, and I'll answer it in such a way that if she is as
clever a little woman as I think she is, she'll get a hint. Of course,"
he went on ruminatively, "it is rather a misfortune that the Princess
Ollaneff and her sister are such jolly good-looking women. Makes it look
a little fishy, doesn't it? What I mean to say is, it's a far cry
from fishing for whiting in the North Sea to lunching with a beautiful
princess at the Carlton--when you think your wife's down in Norfolk."

Sir Henry threw open the door.

"Look here, I've had enough of you, Rayton," he declared. "You get back
and do an hour's work, if you can bring your mind to it."

The latter assumed a sudden dignity, necessitated by the sound of voices
in the corridor, and departed. The door had scarcely been closed
when two younger men presented themselves--Miles Ensol, Sir Henry's
secretary, a typical-looking young sailor minus his left arm; and a
pale-faced, clean-shaven man of uncertain age, in civilian clothes. Sir
Henry shook hands with the latter and pointed to the easy-chair which
his previous visitor had just vacated.

"Welcome back again, Horridge," he said cordially. "Miles, I'll ring
when I want you."

"Very good, sir," the secretary replied. "There's a fisherman from
Norfolk downstairs, when you're at liberty."

Sir Henry nodded.

"I'll see him presently. Shut him up somewhere where he can smoke."

The young man withdrew, carefully closing the door, around which Sir
Henry, with a word of apology, arranged a screen.

"I don't think," he explained, "that eavesdropping extends to these
premises, or that our voices could reach outside. Still, a ha'porth of
prevention, eh? Have a cigar, Horridge."

"I'm not smoking for a day or two, thank you, sir."

"You look as though they'd put you through it," Sir Henry remarked.

His visitor smiled.

"I've travelled fourteen miles in a barrel," he said, "and we were
out for twenty-four hours in a Danish sailing skiff. You know what the
weather's been like in the North Sea. Before that, the