your invitation at once, Milly, and not
attempted to live at the local hotel. I never came across such a place
in my life, though I have knocked about a good deal and am pretty well
accustomed to roughing it. My bedroom reeked of abominable
disinfectants. The floor was half an inch deep in chloride of lime.
The sheets were soaked with-- By the way, what is the name of the
local parson?"

"I don't know," said Miss King. "He's an old man, and, I fancy,
delicate. I've never seen him. He wasn't in church last Sunday."

"Has he a curate?"

"Yes; I believe so. But the curate is away on his holiday.
Somebody--I forget who; very likely Callaghan the gardener--told me so.
At all events, I've not seen anything of him. But what do you want
with the local clergy?"

"I only want one of them," said the judge; "but I want him rather
badly. The man I mean can't be a Roman Catholic priest. He has a
bright red moustache. I wonder if you've come across him."

"That must be Mr. Meldon. He has a parish somewhere in England, I
believe. He's over here on his holiday. I travelled in the carriage
with him from Dublin. He is staying with a Major Kent."

"He's apparently quite mad," said the judge, "and ought to be shut up.
He's dangerous to society."

"He's certainly eccentric. We had a long talk in the train, and he
told me a lot about his baby, which had been keeping him awake at
night. I was out yachting one day with him and Major Kent."

"Don't go again," said the judge. "Your life wouldn't be safe. Is
Major Kent mad too?"

"Not at all. He struck me as a very pleasant man, most considerate and
kind."

"He must be very unusually kind if he tolerates Meldon. Of all the
objectionable lunatics I ever met, that parson is out and away the
worst."

"I shouldn't have said he was actually mad. In some ways I think he's
rather clever. He preached quite a remarkable sermon last Sunday, the
sort of sermon you can't help listening to."

"I can easily believe that," said the judge. "He preached me a sermon
yesterday which I'm not at all likely to forget."

"Where did you meet him, Uncle Gilbert?"

"I didn't meet him. He met me. I shouldn't have dreamed of meeting
him. He met me at the railway station at Donard, and invited himself
to luncheon with me. He also brought a doctor whom he had along with
him. Then he warned me that my life wouldn't be safe in Ballymoy. I
thought he was the usual sort of fool wit