ld appetite, and the next
evening he went to Queen's Gate and made himself very pleasant to his
mother and Anna. "I think I shall run down to Oxford to-morrow or the
next day," he said casually as he bade them good-night, "and look up
Cedric Templeton," and he was still in the same mind when he woke the
next morning. He would go to Lincoln's Inn and open his letters and see
if he could get away that afternoon. But as he entered his chambers
Malachi handed him a telegram that had just come. It was from the Manor
House. "Please come at once. Hugh Rossiter here. Important news about
Jacobi.--GODFREY."

CHAPTER XXVII

HUGH ROSSITER SPINS HIS YARN

Speak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
The worst of words.
--Othello.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfil another.
--GEORGE ELIOT.

Malcolm read the telegram twice. Then he took up his time-table. A
quarter of an hour later he was in a hansom on his way to the station.
With all his impracticable fads and fancies, he was not one to let the
grass grow under his feet. It was quite early, barely noon, when he
walked up the hill leading to the Manor House; nevertheless Mrs.
Godfrey was evidently on the watch for him.

"Good man," she said approvingly; "I knew you would not fail me;" and
then she led him into the morning room, her own special sanctum, which
opened into her husband's study.

Colonel Godfrey always called it his study, though it may be doubted if
he ever studied anything but his Times, Spectator, and his three
favourite authors, Thackeray, Dickens, and Kingsley; but his wife was a
great reader, and there were few modern books that she could not
discuss and criticise.

"And now, my dear lady, what is wrong?" asked Malcolm. He spoke with
the coolness of the well-bred Englishman, who refuses to give himself
away. In reality the telegram had made him very anxious--his old friend
would not have summoned him without a good reason; but this was not
apparent in his manner.

"Wrong!" she replied; "I think everything is wrong. Mr. Rossiter has
been making us so uncomfortable; by his account Mr. Jacobi is a mere
vulgar adventurer, if not worse."

"And Mr. Rossiter knows him?"

"Yes, in a sort of way. Miss Jacobi is evidently the attraction there.
As he says himself, he knocks up against lots of sh