ut you said it was mortgaged?"

"Quite so, but I shall get a sum much in excess of the mortgage."

"But who----?"

"That American fellow--Conlan; not a bad chap, not at all a bad chap."

Lady Featherstone looked a trifle hurt. She looked more so when her noble
spouse added:

"So I've invited him down with us for a fortnight to look over the
place."

"Claude! Whatever has taken possession of you? I thought we had done with
that man. And besides, I am not going to bury myself in Devonshire at the
height of the season."

"If you don't, my dear, there is likely to be no season--for us. You must
look realities in the face. If I can sell Badholme----"

"But you said you had sold it!"

"Tut--tut! It is as good as sold. He can't refuse it after having stayed
there with us. Besides, the fellow is as rich as Croesus!"

It was accordingly settled. Featherstone sent volleys over the telephone.

"Get the place thoroughly redecorated, Ayscough. It has to be finished in
three weeks. Armies of workers.... And the blue room on the first floor,
put in a new ceiling, something elaborate. What's that? Can't do it in
three weeks? But it _has_ to be done. I leave it to you, my dear
Ayscough.... Oh, the garden wants seeing to. I must have the garden put
straight.... And the paths graveled.... A few sheep in the park might lend
a nice effect.... Don't talk about impossibilities. This is a very urgent
matter. Do you think you could hire half a dozen horses?"

When Claude heard the extraordinary news that the family was leaving for
Little Badholme in three weeks' time he wondered what was in the wind.
When he subsequently learned that one James Conlan was to visit them as
guest, his suspicions overleaped his delight. Angela, the imperturbable,
merely went on reading Bernard Shaw.

CHAPTER V

FROST AND FIRE

Little Badholme hung on the sheer edge of a precipice. Its hundred acres
of park and meadow wooed the blue waters of the Atlantic on the western
side, and climbed dizzy heights on the southern, affording the spectator
an uninterrupted view of the Dartmoor Tors. The front of the house faced
seawards and, in bad weather, the spindrift, hurled over the cliff,
drenched the windows and the rather unsightly stucco which the position of
the house rendered necessary.

Featherstone had shown considerable acumen in giving Jim the corner room
on the first floor. It looked over country of unparalleled beauty.
Patchwork farmlan