how, we shall be rid
of one of them!"

"I don't love niggers any more than you do," she replied, "and I suppose
one mustn't be too particular where that sort of cleaning up is
concerned." Then she changed in voice and manner, and asked genially:
"And now tell me, am I forgiven?"

"You are, dear lady--if there is anything to forgive."

As he spoke, seeing that she had moved to go, he came to the door with
her, and in the most natural way accompanied her downstairs. He passed
through the hall with her and down the avenue. As he went back to the
house, she smiled to herself.

"Well, that is all right. I don't think the morning has been altogether
thrown away."

And she walked slowly back to Diana's Grove.

Adam Salton followed the line of the Brow, and refreshed his memory as to
the various localities. He got home to Lesser Hill just as Sir Nathaniel
was beginning lunch. Mr. Salton had gone to Walsall to keep an early
appointment; so he was all alone. When the meal was over--seeing in
Adam's face that he had something to speak about--he followed into the
study and shut the door.

When the two men had lighted their pipes, Sir Nathaniel began.

"I have remembered an interesting fact about Diana's Grove--there is, I
have long understood, some strange mystery about that house. It may be
of some interest, or it may be trivial, in such a tangled skein as we are
trying to unravel."

"Please tell me all you know' or suspect. To begin, then, of what sort
is the mystery--physical, mental, moral, historical, scientific, occult?
Any kind of hint will help me."

"Quite right. I shall try to tell you what I think; but I have not put
my thoughts on the subject in sequence, so you must forgive me if due
order is not observed in my narration. I suppose you have seen the house
at Diana's Grove?"

"The outside of it; but I have that in my mind's eye, and I can fit into
my memory whatever you may mention."

"The house is very old--probably the first house of some sort that stood
there was in the time of the Romans. This was probably renewed--perhaps
several times at later periods. The house stands, or, rather, used to
stand here when Mercia was a kingdom--I do not suppose that the basement
can be later than the Norman Conquest. Some years ago, when I was
President of the Mercian Archaeological Society, I went all over it very
carefully. This was when it was purchased by Captain March. The house
had then been do