rough the village, and I have been to see the
church with my friends, and we thought we would run in and inquire how
everything was going on.'

'Everything,' said the lawyer dryly, 'is going on as well as could be
expected.'

'How is Peter?' said Mr. Lawrence, putting on an appropriate expression
of woe, which sat oddly on his big healthy red face. He was a kindly
man at heart, but an idle existence and his inveterate love of gossip
had made a poor creature of him. His healthy muscular frame did not
know the sensation of that honest fatigue which follows a good day's
work, and his mind travelled on lines of so little resistance that he
may be said to have exercised it almost as infrequently as he exercised
his body.

Mr. Semple replied that Peter seemed well; and Mr. Lawrence, taking him
in an affectionate and familiar manner by the sleeve of his coat, said:
'I should so much like my friends to see the gardens; Peter would not
mind, would he?'

Lady Falconer, the least intrusive of women, who had heard the
whispered colloquy, here interposed and said that, as she was very
cold, she would much prefer to go home; and Sir John added with simple
directness that he thought that, as the place was more or less shut up
at present, the gardens had better wait for a more fitting occasion.

Mr. Lawrence protested that a walk would do Lady Falconer good, and
that, further, as they were leaving so soon, there would be no other
chance of seeing the famous gardens. In fact Mr. Lawrence had the door
of his motor-car open, and was helping Lady Falconer to alight almost
before he had obtained Mr. Semple's permission to make a tour of the
grounds.

'It's all right,' he said, in his fussy, dictatorial way, divesting
himself of his heavy motor-coat, and preparing to act as cicerone.
'This place is thrown open once a week to the public; and although this
isn't a visitors' day all sorts of people come to visit Bowshott on the
other days of the week.'

Lady Falconer felt slightly ruffled by the way in which her wishes had
been ignored in a small matter, and confined herself to talking to the
lawyer; but Mr. Lawrence overtook them on the pretext of pointing out
some special beauty of the design of the gardens, or of the fine view
that could be obtained from the high position of the terraces, and the
next moment he had plunged somewhat ruthlessly into the absorbing topic
of Mrs. Ogilvie's sudden death.

'We were all shocked by it,'