"I arranged and harmonized them--and, oddly enough,
the result is rather Keltic, don't you think?"

"We are all of us Kelts in our welcome to music--and
musicians--like this," affirmed Lord Plowden, who had
scrambled to his feet.

With sudden resolution, Thorpe moved forward and joined
the conversation.



CHAPTER VI


THORPE'S life-long habit of early rising brought him downstairs
next morning before anybody else in the house, apparently,
was astir. At all events, he saw no one in either the hall
or the glass vestibule, as he wandered about. Both doors
were wide open, however, to the mild, damp morning air.
He found on one of the racks a cap that was less uncomfortable
than the others, and sauntered forth to look about him.

His nerves were by no means in so serene a state as his reason
told him they ought to be. The disquieting impression of bad
dreams hung about him. The waking hour--always an evil
time for him in these latter days of anxiety--had been this
morning a peculiarly depressing affair. It had seemed
to him, in the first minutes of reviving consciousness,
that he was a hopelessly ruined and discredited man;