There was only one really palatial mansion in Gartley, and that
was the ancient Georgian house known as the Pyramids. Lucy's
step-father had given the place this eccentric name on taking up
his abode there some ten years previously. Before that time the
dwelling had been occupied by the Lord of the Manor and his
family. But now the old squire was dead, and his impecunious
children were scattered to the four quarters of the globe in
search of money with which to rebuild their ruined fortunes. As
the village was somewhat isolated and rather unhealthily situated
in a marshy country, the huge, roomy old Grange had not been easy
to let, and had proved quite impossible to sell. Under these
disastrous circumstances, Professor Braddock--who described
himself humorously as a scientific pauper--had obtained the
tenancy at a ridiculously low rental, much to his satisfaction.

Many people would have paid money to avoid exile in these damp
waste lands, which, as it were, fringed civilization, but their
loneliness and desolation suited the Professor exactly. He
required ample room for his Egyptian collection, with plenty of
time to decipher hieroglyphics and study perished dynasties of
the Nile Valley. The world of the present day did not interest
Braddock in the least. He lived almost continuously on that
portion of the mental plane which had to do with the far-distant
past, and only concerned himself with physical existence, when it
consisted of mummies and mystic beetles, sepulchral ornaments,
pictured documents, hawk-headed deities and suchlike things of
almost inconceivable antiquity. He rarely walked abroad and was
invariably late for meals, save when he missed any particular one