My brother sent for me and my son more than a month ago, so we came at once.

I'll forestall the further inquiry I see on your lips, and tell you why I came so promptly.

My brother Robert was the wealthy member of the family, and I was the poor one--a poor devil of an Anglo-Indian with nothing on this side of the grave but a niggardly Civil Service pension! "When we arrived I found that Robert had already taken these lodgings for us, which was as near as he could get accommodation to his own house.

I did not object to that arrangement, because I do not like hotels nowadays--not since the newly-rich started to patronize them.

So here I've been rusticating ever since, conferring daily with my poor brother, and eating the four meals a day which are provided with the lodgings by the estimable people of this house.