THE INQUEST ON JOHN PHILLIPS Several of the notabilities of the neighbourhood had ridden or driven to the inn, attracted, of course, by curiosity, and the man with the maimed hand immediately joined them as they stood talking apart from the rest of us.

Now, I knew all such people of our parts well enough by sight, but I did not know this man, who certainly belonged to their class, and I turned to Mr.Lindsey, asking him who was this gentleman that had just ridden up.

He glanced at me with evident surprise at my question.
"What ?" said he.

"You don't know him?
That's the man there's been so much talk about lately--Sir Gilbert Carstairs of Hathercleugh House, the new successor to the old baronetcy." I knew at once what he meant.

Between Norham and Berwick, overlooking the Tweed, and on the English side of the river, stood an ancient, picturesque, romantic old place, half-mansion, half-castle, set in its own grounds, and shut off from the rest of the world by high walls and groves of pine and fir, which had belonged for many a generation to the old family of Carstairs.