"Really?"

"Oh, it's a fact, believe me. Just in the last six months or so he has
started on the rampage like, but some of the people he has met in here
and asked to call upon him have done it, thinking he meant it."

"And they have not been well received?" said I, lingering.

"They have had the door shut in their faces!" declared Mrs. Wootton
with a certain indignation. "He either does not remember what he says
or does when he is in drink, or he pretends he doesn't. Oh, dear, it's
a funny world. Well, good-day, sir."

"Good-day," said I, and came out of the Lavender Arms full of sympathy
with the views of the "old gentry," as outlined by Mrs. Wootton; for
certainly it would seem that this quiet spot in the Surrey Hills had
become a rallying ground for peculiar people.




CHAPTER VIII

THE CALL OF M'KOMBO



Of tea upon the veranda of Cray's Folly that afternoon I retain several
notable memories. I got into closer touch with my host and hostess,