And now appears a Miss Vanderpoel, who wishes to appoint an interview with Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard.  What does she wish to say?  The family is apparently taking the matter up.  Is this lady an elder or a younger sister of Lady Anstruthers?  Is she an older woman of that strong and rather trying American type one hears of, or is she younger than her ladyship, a pretty, indignant, totally unpractical girl, outraged by the state of affairs she has discovered, foolishly coming to demand of Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard an explanation of things they are not responsible for?  Will she, perhaps, lose her temper, and accuse and reproach, or even—­most unpleasant to contemplate—­shed hysterical tears?

It fell to Mr. Townlinson to receive her in the absence of Mr. Sheppard, who had been called to Northamptonshire to attend to great affairs.  He was a stout, grave man with a heavy, well-cut face, and, when Bettina entered his room, his courteous reception of her reserved his view of the situation entirely.

She was not of the mature and rather alarming American type he had imagined possible, he felt some relief in marking at once.  She was also not the pretty, fashionable young lady who might have come to scold him, and ask silly, irrational questions.

His ordinarily rather unillumined countenance changed somewhat in expression when she sat down and began to speak.  Mr. Townlinson was impressed by the fact that it was at once unmistakably evident that whatsoever her reason for coming, she had not presented herself to ask irrelevant or unreasonable questions.  Lady Anstruthers, she explained without superfluous phrase, had no definite knowledge of her husband’s whereabouts, and it had seemed possible that Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard might have received some information more recent that her own.  The impersonal framing of this inquiry struck Mr. Townlinson as being in remarkably good taste, since it conveyed no condemnation of Sir Nigel, and no desire to involve Mr. Townlinson in expressing any.  It refrained even from implying that the situation was an unusual one, which might be open to criticism.  Excellent reserve and great cleverness, Mr. Townlinson commented inwardly.  There were certainly few young ladies who would have clearly realised that a solicitor cannot be called upon to commit himself, until he has had time to weigh matters and decide upon them.  His long and varied experience had included interviews in which charming, emotional women had expected him at once to “take sides.”  Miss Vanderpoel exhibited no signs of expecting anything of this kind, even when she went on with what she had come to say.  Stornham Court and its surroundings were depreciating seriously in value through need of radical repairs etc.  Her sister’s comfort was naturally involved, and, as Mr. Townlinson would fully understand, her nephew’s future.  The sooner the process of dilapidation was arrested, the better and with