"Not till you've had your dinner, Father.You've had a long day of it with that channel at the end.I want to see you comfortable with your pipe."The hotel was a good one, and the dinner was good.Joseph Hutchinson enjoyed it with the appetite of a robust man who has had time to get over a not too pleasant crossing.When he had settled down into a stout easy-chair with the pipe, he drew a long and comfortable breath as he looked about the room.
"Eh, Ann, lass," he said, "thy mother 'd be fine an' set up if she could see aw this.Us having the best that's to be had, an' knowin' we can have it to the end of our lives, that's what it's come to, tha knows.No more third-class railway-carriages for you and me.No more `commercial' an' `temperance' hotels.Th' first cut's what we can have--th' upper cut.Eh, eh, but it's a good day for a man when he's begun to be appreciated as he should be.""It's a good day for those that love him," said Little Ann."And Idare say mother knows every bit about it."
"I dare say she does," admitted Hutchinson, with tender lenience."She was one o' them as believed that way.And I never knowed her to be wrong in aught else, so I'm ready to give in as she was reet about that.Good lass she was, good lass."He had fallen into a contented and utterly comfortable doze in his chair when Ann sat down to read her grandmother's letter.The old woman always wrote at length, giving many details and recording village events with shrewd realistic touches.Throughout their journeyings, Ann had been followed by a record of the estate and neighborhood of Temple Barholm which had lacked nothing of atmosphere.
She had known what the new lord of the manor did, what people said, what the attitude of the gentry had become; that the visit of the Countess of Mallowe and her daughter had extended itself until curiosity and amusement had ceased to comment, and passively awaited results.She had heard of Miss Alicia and her reincarnation, and knew much of the story of the Duke of Stone, whose reputation as a "dommed clever owd chap" had earned for him a sort of awed popularity.There had been many "ladies." The new Temple Barholm had boldly sought them out and faced them in their strongholds with the manner of one who would confront the worst and who revealed no tendency to flinch.The one at Stone Hover with the "pretty color" and the one with the dimples had appeared frequently upon the scene.Then there had been Lady Joan Fayre, who had lived at his elbow, sitting at his table, driving in his carriages with the air of cold aloofness which the cottagers "could na abide an' had no patience wi'." She had sometimes sat and wondered and wondered about things, and sometimes had flushed daisy-red instead of daisy-pink; and sometimes she had turned rather pale and closed her soft mouth firmly.But, though she had written twice a week to her grandmother, she had recorded principally the successes and complexities of the invention, and had asked very few questions.Old Mrs.Hutchinson would tell her all she must know, and her choice of revelation would be made with a far-sightedness which needed no stimulus of questioning.The letter she had found awaiting her had been long on its way, having missed her at point after point and followed her at last to London.It looked and felt thick and solid in its envelop.Little Ann opened it, stirred by the suggestion of quickened pulse-beats with which she had become familiar.As she bent over it she looked sweetly flushed and warmed.
Joseph Hutchinson's doze had almost deepened into sleep when he was awakened by the touch of her hand on his shoulder.She was standing by him, holding some sheets of her grandmother's letter, and several other sheets were lying on the table.Something had occurred which had changed her quiet look.
"Has aught happened to your grandmother?" he asked.
"No, Father, but this letter that's been following me from one place to another has got some queer news in it.""What's up, lass? Tha looks as if summat was up.""The thing that's happened has given me a great deal to think of," was her answer."It's about Mr.Temple Barholm and Mr.Strangeways."He became wide-awake at once, sitting up and turning in his chair in testy anxiety.
"Now, now," he exclaimed, "I hope that cracked chap's not gone out an'
out mad an' done some mischief.I towd Temple Barholm it was a foolish thing to do, taking all that trouble about him.Has he set fire to th'
house or has he knocked th' poor lad on th' head?""No, he hasn't, Father.He's disappeared, and Mr.Temple Barholm's disappeared, too.""Disappeared?" Hutchinson almost shouted."What for, i' the Lord's name?""Nobody knows for certain, and people are talking wild.The village is all upset, and all sorts of silly things are being said.""What sort o' things?"