even with the most modest, is usually sufficient to over-ride any
little difficulty that might occur to an outsider in accounting for a
preference. He moreover considered that foreign noblemen, rich and
eccentric, might have habits of acting which were quite at variance
with those of their English compeers.

So he drove off homeward with a lighter heart than he had known for
several days. To have a foreign gentleman take a fancy to him--what
a triumph to a plain sort of fellow, who had scarcely expected the
Baron to look in his face. It would be a fine story to tell Margery
when the Baron gave him liberty to speak out.

Jim lodged at the house of his cousin and partner, Richard Vine, a
widower of fifty odd years. Having failed in the development of a
household of direct descendants this tradesman had been glad to let
his chambers to his much younger relative, when the latter entered on
the business of lime manufacture; and their intimacy had led to a
partnership. Jim lived upstairs; his partner lived down, and the
furniture of all the rooms was so plain and old fashioned as to
excite the special dislike of Miss Margery Tucker, and even to
prejudice her against Jim for tolerating it. Not only were the
chairs and tables queer, but, with due regard to the principle that a
man's surroundings should bear the impress of that man's life and
occupation, the chief ornaments of the dwelling were a curious
collection of calcinations, that had been discovered from time to
time in the lime-kiln--misshapen ingots of strange substance, some of
them like Pompeian remains.

The head of the firm was a quiet-living, narrow-minded, though
friendly, man of fifty; and he took a serious interest in Jim's love-