soup," snorted Freddy, smacking his
lips over the recollection. "But I'm bothered over Pine."

"He isn't ill, is he?" questioned Lady Garvington anxiously. She liked
her brother-in-law, who was always kind to her.

"No, hang him; nothing worse than his usual lung trouble, I suppose. But
he is in Paris, and won't answer my letters."

"Letters, Freddy dear."

"Yes, Jane dear," he mocked. "Hang it, I want money, and he won't stump
up. I can't even get an answer."

"Speak to Mr. Silver."

"Damn Mr. Silver!"

"Well, I'm sure, Frederick, you needn't swear at me," said poor, wan
Lady Garvington, drawing herself up. "Mr. Silver is very kind. He went
to that gypsy camp and found out how they cook hedgehog. That will be a
new dish for you, dear. You haven't eaten hedgehog."

"No. And what's more, I don't intend to eat it. But you may as well tell
me how these gypsies cook it," and Freddy listened with both his red
ears to the description, on hearing which he decided that his wife
might instruct the cook how to prepare the animal. "But no one will eat
it but me."

Lady Garvington shuddered. "I shan't touch it myself. Those horrid
snails you insisted on being cooked a week ago made me quite ill. You
are always trying new experiments, Freddy."

"Because I get so tired of every-day dishes," growled Lord Garvington.
"These cooks have no invention. I wish I'd lived in Rome when they had
those banquets you read of in Gibbon."

"Did he write a book on cookery?" asked Lady Garvington very naturally.

"No. He turned out a lot of dull stuff about wars and migrations of
tribes: you are silly, Jane."

"What's that about migration of tribes?" asked Mrs. Belgrove, who was in
a good humor, as she had won largely at bridge. "You don't mean those
dear gypsies at Abbot's Wood do you, Lord Garvington? I met one of them
the other day--quite a girl and very pretty in a dark way. She told my
fortune, and said that I would come in for a lot of money. I'm sure I
hope so," sighed Mrs. Belgrove. "Celestine is so expensive, but no one
can fit me like she can. And she knows it, and takes advantage, the
horrid creature."

"I wish the tribe of gypsies would clear out," snapped Freddy, standing
before the fire and glaring at the company generally. "I know they'll
break in here and rob."

"Well," drawled Silver, who was hovering near, dressed so carefully that
he looked more of a foxy, neat bounder than ever. "I have noticed that
some of the