e should join the Army, was
not easily forgotten.

One day, about three months after our meeting, I was lunching with
Colonel Gray in Exeter, when Sir Roger Granville, who was chairman of
the meeting at which Edgecumbe had enlisted, joined us.

'I have often thought about that fellow who joined up at Plymouth,
Luscombe,' he said. 'Have you ever heard any more about him?'

I shook my head. 'I've tried to follow him up, too. The fellow has
had a curious history.' Whereupon I told Sir Roger what I knew about
him.

'Quite a romance,' laughed Colonel Gray. 'It would be interesting to
know what becomes of him.'

'I wonder who and what he is?' mused Sir Roger.

'Anything might happen to a fellow like that. He may be a peer or a
pauper; he may be married or single, and there may be all sorts of
interesting developments.'

He grew quite eloquent, I remember, as to the poor fellow's possible
future, and would not listen to Colonel Gray's suggestions that
probably everything would turn out in the most prosaic fashion.

About five o'clock that evening our train arrived at a little roadside
station, where Sir Roger Granville's motor-car awaited us. It was a
beautiful day in early summer, and the whole countryside was lovely.

'No wonder you Devonshire people are proud of your county,' I said, as
the car swept along a winding country lane.

'Yes, you Cornishmen may well be jealous of us, although, for that
matter, I don't know whether I am a Cornishman or a Devonshire man.
There has always been a quarrel, you know, as to whether the Granvilles
belonged to Cornwall or Devon, although I believe old Sir Richard was
born on the Cornish side of the county boundary. In fact, there are
several families around here who can hardly tell the county they hail
from. You see that place over there?' and he pointed to a fine old
mansion that stood on the slopes of a wooded hill.

'It's a lovely spot,' I ventured.

'It is lovely, and George St. Mabyn is a lucky fellow. But _a propos_
of our conversation, George does not know which county his family came
from originally, Cornwall or Devon. St. Mabyn, you know, is a Cornish
parish, and I suppose that some of the St. Mabyns came to Devonshire
from Cornwall three centuries ago. That reminds me, he is dining with
us to-night. If I mistake not, he is a bit gone on a lady who's
staying at my house,--fascinating girl she is, too; but whether she'll
have him or not, I have my doubt