made the circuit of a neglected lawn, divided from a park by a sunk
fence, across which some cattle stared at us in a lazy manner as we
drove past them. The house was a long low building with heavily
mullioned windows, and was flanked by gothic towers. Most of the
windows had closed shutters, and the place had altogether a deserted
look.

'The Priory has not been occupied for several years,' Mr. Darrell
said, as if in answer to my thoughts as I looked up at the closed
windows. 'The family have been too poor to live in it in anything
like their old state. There is only one member of the old family
remaining now, and he leads a wandering kind of life abroad, I
believe.'

'What has made them so poor?' asked Mrs. Darrell.

'Extravagant habits, I suppose,' answered her husband, with an
expressive shrug of the shoulders. 'The Egertons have always been a
wild race.'

'Egerton!' Mrs. Darrell repeated; 'I thought the name of these
people was Cumber.'

'No; Cumber is only the name of the place. It has been in the
Egerton family for centuries.'

'Indeed!'

I was seated exactly opposite her, and I was surprised by the
strange startled look in her face as she repeated the name of