enough--hut Little Hintock--the
bats and owls would drive me melancholy-mad! It took two days to raise
my sperrits to their true pitch again after that night I went there.
Mr. Melbury, sir, as a man's that put by money, why not retire and live
here, and see something of the world?"

The responses at last given by him to their queries guided them to the
building that offered the best accommodation in Sherton--having been
enlarged contemporaneously with the construction of the
railway--namely, the Earl of Wessex Hotel.

Leaving the others without, Melbury made prompt inquiry here. His
alarm was lessened, though his perplexity was increased, when he
received a brief reply that such a lady was in the house.

"Do you know if it is my daughter?" asked Melbury.

The waiter did not.

"Do you know the lady's name?"

Of this, too, the household was ignorant, the hotel having been taken
by brand-new people from a distance. They knew the gentleman very well
by sight, and had not thought it necessary to ask him to enter his name.

"Oh, the gentleman appears again now," said Melbury to himself. "Well,
I want to see the lady," he declared.

A message was taken up, and after some delay the shape of Grace
appeared descending round the bend of the stair-case, looking as if she
lived there, but in other respects rather guilty and frightened.

"Why--what the name--" began her father. "I thought you went out to
get parsley!"

"Oh, yes--I did--but it is all right," said Grace, in a flurried
whisper. "I am not alone here. I am here with Edgar. It is entirely
owing to an accident, father."

"Edgar! An accident! How does he come here? I thought he was two
hundred mile off."

"Yes, so he is--I mean he has got a beautiful practice two hundred
miles off; he has bought it with his own money, some that came to him.
But he travelled here, and I was nearly caught in a man-trap, and
that's how it is I am here. We were just thinking of sending a
messenger to let you know."

Melbury did not seem to be particularly enlightened by this explanation.

"You were caught in a man-trap?"

"Yes; my dress was. That's how it arose. Edgar is up-stairs in his
own sitting-room," she went on. "He would not mind seeing you, I am
sure."

"Oh, faith, I don't want to see him! I have seen him too often a'ready.
I'll see him another time, perhaps, if 'tis to oblige 'ee."

"He came to see me; he wanted to consult me about this large
partners