le as well as pretty," murmured Falconer. He had drawn his chair
to the window, and was gazing down at the crowded street rather absently
and sadly. In a fortnight the girl who had brightened his life, who had
transformed Beaumont Buildings into an earthly paradise for him, would
be gone!

"Oh!" said Dick. "That would have been the late earl's wife. The present
one isn't married. He's a young chap--lucky bargee! The late earl died
about eighteen months ago, suddenly. I heard old Bardsley talking about
it while I was in the office with him. He's been away traveling----"

"Who--old Bardsley?" asked Nell.

"No, brainless one," said Dick; "the young earl, Lord Angleford. Rather
a curious sort of customer, I should fancy, for nobody seems to know
where he has been, or where he is. Left England suddenly--kind of
disappearance. They couldn't find him in time for the funeral, and he's
away still; but he's sent orders that this place--the beggar's got
three or four others in England and elsewhere, I believe--should be put
in fighting trim--water supply, new stables, electric light--the whole
bag of tricks. And I--I who speak to you--am going to be a kind of clerk
of the works. No need to go on your knees to me, Falconer; just simply
bow respectfully. You will find no alteration in me. I shall be as
pleasant and affable as ever. No pride in me."

"Thank you--thank you," said Falconer, with exaggerated meekness.
"But--pardon the curiosity of an humble friend--I don't quite see where
Miss Lorton comes in."

"Oh, it's this way," said Dick, reaching for his pipe--for your
engineer, more even than other men, must have his smoke immediately
after he has stoked: "the place is empty--nobody but caretakers and a
few servants--and the agent has offered me the use of one of the lodges.
There is no accommodation at the inn, I understand."

"I see," said Falconer.

"Just so, perspicacious one. It happens to be a tiny-sized lodge, with
two or three bedrooms. My idea is that Nell and I could take possession
of the lodge, hire a slavey from the village, and have a good time of
it."

"Pleasure and business combined," said Falconer. "And it will be nice,
when the Buildings are as hot as--as a baker's oven, to think of Miss
Lorton strolling through the woods--there must be woods, of course--or
sitting with a book beside the stream--for equally, of course, there is
a stream."

"Get your fiddle and play us a 'Te Deum' for the occasion," sa