t might have rankled in the hearts of
all the poor wayfarers who had in eight hundred years peered through the
park gate and looked at those broad acres that his race so long had
held. The carriage rolled swiftly by him, with a glitter of silver
harness and liveries; on one seat were an elderly man and a young girl.
As he saw her face Ripon started in surprise. Then, after a moment, he
walked to the table and filled his pipe.

"Bah!" he said to himself, "it cannot be possible." Again he threw
himself on a chair by the fireplace, and tried to read the _Saturday
Review_. There was a long leader against Richard Lincoln; but as Lincoln
was the one member in the House for whom Geoffrey had any respect, he
threw it aside in disgust. He heard a timid knock at the door.

"Come in!" growled Geoffrey, as he turned to light his pipe.

An old family servant, the last survivor of an extinct race, entered
with a battered silver tray.

"Please, my lord, a letter from the persons at the castle; one of them
is waiting for an answer."

Reynolds made no distinction between the "persons at the castle" and
their servants; and he always called it the castle, now that Ripon House
was the gatekeeper's lodge.

"I suppose," grunted Geoffrey, as he took the letter, "they want to warn
me against poaching. So considerate, after I have been fined ten
shillings by their gamekeeper."

To his surprise the letter had a familiar look; it was addressed to him
by his title in the ancient fashion, and was in a handwriting which he
thought he should have known in Paris. Tearing open the envelope, he
read:

"MY DEAR LORD BROMPTON: I hear that you are back to your own
estate, and you will doubtless be surprised to learn that I am so
near you. Papa telephoned over last week for an estate, and here we
are, with a complete retinue of servants and a gallery of
ancestors--yours, by the way, as I found to my surprise. I felt so
sorry when they called you back from Paris; I had no idea I should
see you again so soon. Papa wanted to look after his affairs in
England; so we have come over again for the winter, and I was
delighted to get out of the wild gayety of America for this dear
sleepy old country.

"If you have nothing better to do, will you dine with us to-morrow
night? Do not stay away because we are in your old family house. We
have no such feelings in America, you know. Richard Linc