himself imposed upon," said the Englishman politely. "But you might not
think it so, and, after all," he added thoughtfully, "it's years since
I've seen it. I only meant that I could show you something better a
few miles from my place in Gloucestershire, and not quite so far from
a railway as this. If," he added with a pleasant deliberation which
was the real courtesy of his conventionally worded speech, "you ever
happened at any time to be anywhere near Audrey Edge, and would look me
up, I should be glad to show it to you and your friends." An hour later,
when he left them at a railway station where their paths diverged, Miss
Elsie recovered a fluency that she had lately checked. "Well, I like
that! He never told us his name, or offered a card. I wonder if they
call that an invitation over here. Does he suppose anybody's going to
look up his old Audrey Edge--perhaps it's named after his wife--to find
out who HE is? He might have been civil enough to have left his name, if
he--meant anything."

"But I assure you he was perfectly sincere, and meant an invitation,"
returned the consul smilingly. "Audrey Edge is evidently a well-known
place, and he a man of some position. That is why he didn't specify
either."

"Well, you won't catch me going there," said Miss Elsie.

"You would be quite right in either going or staying away," said the
consul simply.

Miss Elsie tossed her head slightly. Nevertheless, before they left the
station, she informed him that she had been told that the station-master
had addressed the stranger as "my lord," and that another passenger had
said he was "Lord Duncaster."