mother and the
ladies finally departed, he was in a state of geniality bordering upon
beatitude. There was a general move to his end of the table. Mr.
Bullsom started the port, and his shirt-front grew wider and wider. He
lit a cigar, and his thumb found its way to the armhole of his
waistcoat. At that moment Mr. Bullsom would not have changed places
with any man on earth.

"What sort of a place is Enton to stay at, Brooks, eh?" he inquired, in
a friendly manner. "Keeps it up very well, don't he, the present
Marquis?"

Brooks sighed.

"I really don't know much about it," he answered, "I was only there one
night."

"Good day's sport?"

"Very good indeed," Brooks answered. "Lord Arranmore is a wonderful
shot."

"A remarkable man in a great many ways, Lord Arranmore," Dr. Seventon
remarked. "He disappeared from London when he was an impecunious young
barrister with apparently no earthly chance of succeeding to the
Arranmore estates, and from that time till a few years ago, when he was
advertised for, not a soul knew his whereabouts. Even now I am told
that he keeps the story of all these years absolutely to himself. No
one knew where he was, or how he supported himself."

"I can tell you where he was for some time, at any rate," Brooks said.
"He was in Canada, for he met my father there, and was with him when he
died."

"Indeed," Dr. Seventon remarked. "Then I should say that you are one
of the only men in England to whom he has opened his lips on the
subject. Do you know what he was doing there?"

"Fishing and shooting, I think." Brooks answered. "It was near Lake
Ono, right out west, and there would be nothing else to take one there."

"It was always supposed too that he had spent most of the time in a
situation in New York," Mr. Huntingdon said.

"I know a man," Mr. Seaton put in, "who can swear that he met him as a
sergeant in the first Australian contingent of mounted infantry sent to
the Cape."

"There are no end of stories about him," Dr. Seventon remarked. "If I
were the man I would put a stop to them by telling everybody exactly
where I was during those twenty years or so. It is a big slice of one's
life to seal up."

"Still, there is not the slightest reason why he should take the whole
world into his confidence, is there?" Brooks expostulated. "He is not a
public man."

"A peer of England with a seat in the House of Lords must always be a
public man to some extent," Mr. Huntingdon remarked.