ng Hopeful brought up the rear. Their
countenances were full of war, even the twins looked like angry lambs,
but something written on them informed me that they had suffered defeat
recent and grievous. So they vanished up the stairway and out of my ken
for ever.

When they had gone I started again and ran straight into Lady Ragnall.
If her guests had been angry, it was clear that _she_ was furious,
almost weeping with rage, indeed. Moreover, she turned and rent me.

"You are a wretch," she said, "to run away and leave me all day long
with those horrible people. Well, they will never come here again, for I
have told them that if they do the servants have orders to shut the door
in their faces."

Not knowing what to say I remarked that I had spent a most instructive
evening in the museum, which seemed to make her angrier than ever. At
any rate she whisked off without even saying "good night" and left
me standing there. Afterwards I learned that the A.-S.'s had calmly
informed Lady Ragnall that she had stolen their property and demanded
that "as an act of justice" she should make a will leaving everything
she possessed to them, and meanwhile furnish them with an allowance of
L4,000 a year. What I did not learn were the exact terms of her answer.

Next morning Alfred, when he called me, brought me a note from his
mistress which I fully expected would contain a request that I should
depart by the same train as her other guests. Its real contents,
however, were very different.

"My dear Friend," it ran, "I am so ashamed of myself and so sorry
for my rudeness last night, for which I deeply apologise. If you
knew all that I had gone through at the hands of those dreadful
mendicants, you would forgive me.--L.R."

"P.S.--I have ordered breakfast at 10. Don't go down much before,
for your own sake."

Somewhat relieved in my mind, for I thought she was really angry with
me, not altogether without cause, I rose, dressed and set to work
to write some letters. While I was doing so I heard the wheels of a
carriage beneath and opening my window, saw the Atterby-Smith family in
the act of departing in the Castle bus. Smith himself seemed to be still
enraged, but the others looked depressed. Indeed I heard the wife of his
bosom say to him,

"Calm yourself, my dear. Remember that Providence knows what is best for
us and that beggars on horseback are always unjust and ungrateful."

To which her spouse replied,

"H