me. He made no further indirect reference to the situation, until, as he
was leading me along the hall, he stopped opposite a great dim picture,
hanging between two sets of mail, and held the lantern high over his head
to give me a view of it. With a strange mixture of resentment and pathos,
he said, "A man's ancestors are sometimes a damned nuisance, sir!"

"They are indeed!" I replied. "There's one of mine shaking his fist at me
over the battlements of the New Jerusalem."

He laughed heartily, and, with Inskip trailing patiently behind us, led
me upstairs, and through the gallery into a long corridor, lit by lanterns
fixed in sconces on the walls. We stopped opposite a door, and he was
about to lead me in when another door farther along the corridor opened
and a lady came out. She was all in white with dark hair hanging loose
about her shoulders, and there was a something in her arms.

Down went the lantern with a bang, and Sir James flew like a hunted buck
along the corridor. He whipped his arms around the lady and kissed her
passionately, and then flung on his knees and held out his arms. She put
the something in white into them and there was a little puling cry.

"Married a year come Christmas," whispered old Inskip, "and the babby's
five weeks old to-morrow."

A serving-woman bustled out of another room, and the lady and child were
affectionately driven off to bed under her escort. Sir James came slowly
back.

"My wife and son, Mr. Wheatman," he said. "You must meet them to-morrow.
The young rascal cries out whenever I desecrate him with my touch. It