emerge from his retirement as to be a proud spectator at cricket
matches in Tremenheere Park and elsewhere. Douglas and two of the
Tremenheere boys were schoolmates, and he was in continual request at
their home. Unfortunately these visits were displeasing to Mrs.
Shafto, as was also his intimacy with the young people at the vicarage;
and poor Douglas had an awkward part to play. He could not avoid or
drop his friends; yet, on the other hand, there were painful
difficulties with his mother, who declared that he was a mean fellow to
run after people who had _insulted_ her, and one day, when in a
towering passion, she had been overheard to scream "that he was a thorn
in her side, and a true Shafto!"

But all this time Miss Jane Tebbs remains stationed at the drawing-room
window, watching the road with unwinking vigilance. For a long while
she beheld no object of special interest, but at last, after seeing the
grocer's cart, a travelling tinker, two cows and a boy go by, her
patience was handsomely rewarded. To her delight, she descried Mrs.
Billing, the doctor's wife, emerge from "Littlecote" and, hammering on
the window to attract notice, she flew down to open the hall door.

Mrs. Billing, a stout, middle-aged lady, looked unusually hot and
flustered as she waddled through the little green gate and entered the
cottage.

"Why, my dear, you seem quite upset!" cried Jane, as she welcomed the
visitor, "come into the dining-room, and have a glass of milk."

But Mrs. Billing dismissing the proffered refreshment with a dramatic
wave of her hand, subsided upon the only chair in the narrow hall and
gasped out: