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128 sideration, and will send you a written answer in a day or two. Until that time I should rather have nothing said about my brief visit to Muddlebury."

All five assured Lord Stranleigh that they would be as mute as so many monuments, and after farewells, Henri drove up to the Stranleigh Arms, and under the arch into its old-fashioned courtyard, where Edmund Trevelyan received the warm welcome at an inn which is always extended to the owner of a huge sixty-horse power machine.

The young man, in company with the deferential Stiles, completed the investigation of his own property by lunch time, and after that meal went back to London. A day later he summoned Wilson, told that displeased man his intentions towards the Muddleshire property, directed him to secure the best architect he could find, celebrated for the production of romantic and comfortable cottages, instructed his agent to see that they were built, and then promptly forgot all about the matter.

One morning several months after the secret visit to Muddlebury, the Earl of Stranleigh was rudely awakened from his complacency. He was to be taught that in spite of great riches and many titles, he was but a worm of the dust. An Englishman is a man until he is elected to office; then he ceases to be human, and becomes official. Before an official who knows the law, everyone must tremble except the King. The British official is invariably honest,