artin Joliffe," said the clerk quickly, being surprised
into eagerness by the chance of telling a story; and then the whole tale
of Martin, and Martin's father and mother and daughter, as he had told
it to Westray, was repeated for Lord Blandamer.

The night was far advanced before the history came to an end, and the
local policeman walked several times up and down Governour's Lane, and
made pauses before Mr Janaway's house, being surprised to see a window
lighted so late. Lord Blandamer must have changed his intention of
going by train, for the gates of Cullerne station had been locked for
hours, and the boiler of the decrepit branch-line engine was cooling in
its shed.

"It is an interesting tale, and you tell tales well," he said, as he got
up and put on his coat. "All good things must have an end, but I hope
to see you again ere long." He shook hands with hostess and host,
drained the pot of beer that had been fetched from a public-house, with
a "Here's to poverty in a plug-hole, and a man with a wooden leg to
trample it down," and was gone.

A minute later the policeman, coming back for yet another inspection of
the lighted window, passed a man of middle height, who wore a loose
overcoat, with the cape tossed lightly over the left shoulder. The
stranger walked briskly, and hummed an air as he went, turning his face
up to the stars and the wind-swept sky, as if entirely oblivious of all
sublunary things. A midnight stranger in Governour's Lane was even more
surprising than a lighted window, and the policeman had it in his mind
to stop him and ask his business. But before he could decide on so
vigorous a course of action, the moment was past, and the footsteps were
dying away in the distance.

The clerk was pleased with himself, and proud of his success as a
story-teller.

"That's a clever, understanding sort of chap," he said to his wife, as
they went to bed; "he knows a good tale when he hears one."

"Don't you be too proud of yourself, my man," answered she; "there's
more in that tale than your telling, I warrant you, for my lord to think
about."

CHAPTER TEN.

The extension of the scheme of restoration which Lord Blandamer's
liberality involved, made it necessary that Westray should more than
once consult Sir George Farquhar in London. On coming back to Cullerne
from one of these visits on a Saturday night, he found his meal laid in
Mr Sharnall's room.

"I thought you would not mind our hav