disappeared than one of the two remaining
members, who had been leaning against the mantelpiece, with his back to
the fireless grate, strolled over to one of the French windows
overlooking the esplanade. He was an elderly man, very well groomed as
to his person and clothes, and with a pair of alert, all-devouring eyes
set in an ascetic face. Mr. Vernon Mallory had put in forty years at
the Foreign Office and was now, in honourable retirement, reaping the
reward of much useful work. He was known as a shrewd observer and a keen
judge of character. It was now his pleasure, as it had once been his
business, to know all things about all men.

"Chermside did not appear to be best pleased at the interruption," Mr.
Mallory remarked. "Ah, there he goes, with the disturber of his peace,
towards the marsh. I can understand his annoyance, for the man who
called him out is a most unsavoury-looking person."

The other member, a fresh, clean-shaven youngster of not more than
three-and-twenty, got up and joined his senior at the window.

"Who and what is this Mr. Leslie Chermside, anyhow?" he asked, after a
prolonged stare at the two receding figures. "I rather like the chap,
somehow, and yet there is a sort of shy constraint about him that is not
altogether satisfactory."

"He arrived a month ago, bringing an introduction to our worthy honorary
secretary from Nugent, on the strength of which he became a temporary
member," Mr. Mallory replied, with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

Lieutenant Reginald Beauchamp, at present commanding a "destroyer"
stationed at Plymouth, but spending his leave with his mother, was prone
to merriment at all times and seasons. There was a dryness in the elder
gentleman's tone which caused him to chuckle.

"You were never keen on Travers Nugent, I know," he said. "But you have
not answered my question about Chermside with your customary
enlightenment, Mr. Mallory. I asked who and what he is. My mother tells
me that he has been making strong running with a pretty girl--Miss
Maynard, I think, the name was--whose people have taken the Manor House
for the summer. You see, I only turned up last night for a short respite
from my little tin ship, so I'm all agog for the local gossip."

At that moment the subject of their discussion and the man who had
called for him disappeared from view, having rounded the corner of the
slight eminence. The pair had struck into the footpath which would lead
them along th