traightway to Lowndes Mansions.

CHAPTER XXI

HIS LORDSHIP'S WILL

The movement of the vehicle made Lord Polperro drowsy. In ten minutes
he seemed to be asleep, and Gammon had to catch his hat as it was
falling forward. When the four-wheeler jolted more than usual he
uttered groans; once he shouted loudly, and for a moment stared about
him in terror. The man of commerce had never made so unpleasant a
journey in his life.

On arriving at their destination it was with much difficulty that
Gammon aroused his companion, and with still more that he conveyed him
from the cab into the building, a house porter (who smiled
significantly) assisting in the job. Lord Polperro, when thoroughly
awakened, coughed, groaned, and gasped in a most alarming way. His flat
was on the first floor; before reaching it he began to shed tears, and
to beg that his medical man might be called immediately. The door was
opened by a middle-aged woman dressed as a housekeeper, who viewed his
lordship with no great concern. She promised to send a messenger to the
doctor's, and left the two men alone in a room comfortably furnished,
but without elegance or expensiveness. Gammon waited upon the invalid,
placed him at ease by the fireside, and reached him a cellaret from a
cupboard full of various liquors. A few draughts of a restorative
enabled Lord Polperro to articulate, and he inquired if any letters had
arrived for him.

"Look on the writing table, Greenacre. Any thing there?"

There were two letters. The invalid examined them with disappointment
and tossed them aside.

"Beggars and blackmailers," he muttered. "Nobody else writes to me."

Of a sudden it occurred to him that he was forgetting the duties of
hospitality. He urged his guest to take refreshment; he roused himself,
went to the cupboard, brought out half a dozen kinds of beverage.

"And of course you will lunch with me, or will it be dinner? Yes, yes,
luncheon of course. Excuse me for one moment, I must give some orders."

He left the room. Gammon, having tossed off a glass of wine, surveyed
the objects about him with curiosity. An observer of more education
would have glanced with peculiar interest at the books; several volumes
lay on the table, one of them a recent work on gipsies, another dealing
with the antiquities of Cornwall. For the town traveller these things
of course had no significance. But he remarked a painting on the wall,
which was probably a portrait of o