And you must get a boy with a pony to take a note into Guestwick, to Mrs Eames.

Oh dear, I'm better now," and he put down the tumbler from which he'd been drinking.

"Write your note here, and then we'll go and see my pet pheasants before dinner." Vickers and the footman knew that something had happened of much moment, for the earl was usually very particular about his dinner-table.

He expected every guest who sat there to be dressed in such guise as the fashion of the day demanded; and he himself, though his morning costume was by no means brilliant, never dined, even when alone, without having put himself into a suit of black, with a white cravat, and having exchanged the old silver hunting-watch which he carried during the day tied round his neck by a bit of old ribbon, for a small gold watch, with a chain and seals, which in the evening always dangled over his waistcoat.

Dr Gruffen had once been asked to dinner at Guestwick Manor.