Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/96

 to Burke without a ghost, one that walks in clanking chains, although why ghosts should choose these unmusical accompaniments I've never been able to discover. Then there should be a thoroughly disreputable ancestor, or ancestress, generally called Sir Rupert, or Lady Marjorie, and finally a motto that shall foretell the happening of something when something else takes place."

He sipped his whiskey-and-soda with an air of deep depression.

"The Drewitts have no ghost, nothing more disreputable than myself, and the nearest thing to a family motto that we can lay claim to is the trade mark of the far-famed Drewitt Ales, a ship on a sea of beer above the thrilling legend:

Richard," he said, leaning forward and speaking earnestly, "that is what keeps me back. I've just realised it. It's that damned motto.

"The Aunt's latest scheme," he continued after a pause, "is concerned with one Lola Craven, reputed to have well over a million inherited from an uncle who undermined the constitution of the British Empire by producing New Zealand mutton, which found its way over here in a frozen state. I tasted the stuff once, I actually swallowed the first mouthful," he added.

"What is she like?" asked Beresford.