use; and a clatter of armor in the corridor showed that the
retainers were returning to their post, and the two hours were at an
end.

"After all that you have heard?" she whispered, leaning toward him with
her lips and eyes.

"I have heard nothing," he replied.

"The captain's name was Florimond de Champdivers," she said in his ear.

"I did not hear it," he answered, taking her supple body in his arms
and covering her wet face with kisses.

A melodious chirping was audible behind, followed by a beautiful
chuckle, and the voice of Messire de Maletroit wished his new nephew a
good-morning.

THE SECRET OF GORESTHORPE GRANGE

By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

I am sure that Nature never intended me to be a self-made man. There
are times when I can hardly bring myself to realize that twenty years
of my life were spent behind the counter of a grocer's shop in the East
End of London, and that it was through such an avenue that I reached a
wealthy independence and the possession of Goresthorpe Grange. My
habits are conservative, and my tastes refined and aristocratic. I
have a soul which spurns the vulgar herd. Our family, the D'Odds, date
back to a prehistoric era, as is to be inferred from the fact that
their advent into British history is not commented on by any
trustworthy historian. Some instinct tells me that the blood of a
Crusader runs in my veins. Even now, after the lapse of so many years,
such exclamations as "By'r Lady!" rise naturally to my lips, and I feel
that, should circumstances require it, I am capable of rising in my
stirrups and dealing an infidel a blow--say with a mace--which would
considerably astonish him.

Goresthorpe Grange is a feudal mansion--or so it was termed in the
advertisement which originally brought it under my notice. Its right
to this adjective had a most remarkable effect upon its price, and the
advantages gained may possibly be more sentimental than real. Still,
it is soothing to me to know that I have slits in my staircase through
which I can discharge arrows; and there is a sense of power in the fact
of possessing a complicated apparatus by means of which I am enabled to
pour molten lead upon the head of the casual visitor. These things
chime in with my peculiar humor, and I do not grudge to pay for them.
I am proud of my battlements and of the circular, uncovered sewer which
girds me round. I am proud of my portcullis and donjon and keep.
There is but one thing