d Wolfer."

"Oh, yes, yes; I beg your pardon," he said, with a touch of relief. "I
didn't understand for a moment."

"Perhaps you know Lord Wolfer?" she asked sweetly.

He shook his head.

"I've heard of him."

"Of course," she assented blandly. "He is sufficiently well known, not
to say famous. And your name--if I may ask?"

He frowned, and was silent for an instant.

"Vernon," he said reluctantly, "Drake Vernon."

"Indeed! The name seems familiar to me. Of the Northumberland Vernons, I
suppose?"

"No," he replied, rather shortly.

"No? There are some Vernons in Warwickshire, I remember," she suggested.

He shook his head.

"I'm not connected with any of the Vernons," he said with a grim courtesy.

Mrs. Lorton looked rather disappointed, but only for a moment; for,
foolish as she was, she knew a gentleman when she saw one, and this Mr.
Vernon, though not one of the Vernons, was evidently a gentleman and a
man of position. She smiled at him graciously.

"Sometimes one scarcely knows with whom one is connected," she said. "If
you will excuse me, I will go and see if your room is prepared. We have
only one servant--now," she sighed plaintively, "and my daughter is
young and thoughtless."

"She is not the latter, at any rate," he said, but coldly enough. "Your
daughter displayed extraordinary presence of mind----"

"My stepdaughter, I ought to explain," broke in Mrs. Lorton, who could
not endure the praise of any other than herself. "My late husband--I am
a widow, Mr. Vernon--left me his two children as a trust, a sacred
trust, which I hope I have discharged to the best of my ability. I will
rejoin you presently."

He rose and bowed, and then leaned back and closed his eyes, and swore
gently but thoroughly.

Mrs. Lorton returned in a few minutes with Molly.

"If you will come now? We have sent for the doctor."

"Thank you, thank you!" he said, and he went upstairs with them; but he
would not permit them to assist him to take off his coat, and sat on the
edge of the bed waiting with a kind of impatient patience for the
doctor.

By sheer good luck it was just about the time old Doctor Spence made his
daily appearance in Shorne Mills, and Nell, running up to the crossway,
caught him as he was ambling along on his old gray cob.

"Eh? what is it, my dear? That monkey of a brother got into mischief
again?" he said, laying his hand on her shoulder. "What? Stranger? Broke
his arm? Come, come; you're fr