Mr.
Brimsdown, sitting stiffly upright, his eyes fixed on a portrait of Royalty glimmering inanely down at them through a dirty glass frame on the opposite wall, listened with unmoved front.

Yet the story had its surprises, even for him.

Not the least of them was the fact that Mrs.
Pendleton's description of her niece tallied with the appearance of the girl whose identity he had tried to recall at Paddington.

He was chagrined to think he had failed to recognize his late client's daughter, but he recalled that it was ten years since he had seen Sisily, who was then a dark-eyed little girl.

At Norfolk.