n she was a child," Dominey reminded his companion. "Whatever her
faults may be, I believe she is devoted to Lady Dominey."

"She may be devoted to your wife," the lawyer admitted, "but I am
convinced that she is your enemy. The situation doesn't seem to me to be
consistent. Mrs. Unthank is firmly convinced that, whether in fair fight
or not, you killed her son. Lady Dominey believes that, too, and it
was the sight of you after the fight that sent her insane. I cannot but
believe that it would be far better for Lady Dominey to have some one
with her unconnected with this unfortunate chapter of your past."

"We will consult Doctor Harrison to-morrow," Dominey said. "I am very
glad you came down with me, Mangan," he went on, after a minute's
hesitation. "I find it very difficult to get back into the atmosphere
of those days. I even find it hard sometimes," he added, with a curious
little glance across the table, "to believe that I am the same man."

"Not so hard as I have done more than once," Mr. Mangan confessed.

"Tell me exactly in what respects you consider me changed?" Dominey
insisted.

"You seem to have lost a certain pliability, or perhaps I ought to
call it looseness of disposition," he admitted. "There are many things
connected with the past which I find it almost impossible to associate
with you. For a trifling instance," he went on, with a slight smile,
inclining his head towards his host's untasted glass. "You don't drink
port like any Dominey I ever knew."

"I'm afraid that I never acquired the taste for port," Dominey observed.

The lawyer gazed at him with raised eyebrows.

"Not acquired the taste for port," he repeated blankly.

"I should have said reacquired," Dominey hastened to explain. "You see,
in the bush we drank a simply frightful amount of spirits, and that
vitiates the taste for all wine."

The lawyer glanced enviously at his host's fine bronzed complexion and
clear eyes.

"You haven't the appearance of ever having drunk anything, Sir Everard,"
he observed frankly. "One finds it hard to believe the stories that were
going about ten or fifteen years ago."

"The Dominey constitution, I suppose!"

The new butler entered the room noiselessly and came to his master's
chair.

"I have served coffee in the library, sir," he announced. "Mr.
Middleton, the gamekeeper, has just called, and asks if he could have
a word with you before he goes to bed to-night, sir. He seems in a very
nervou