Not a "clubable" person himself, as that epithet was understood in this its home, Langholm was not a little surprised when half-a-dozen men (most of whom he barely knew) rose to greet him on his appearance in the smoking-room.

But even with their greetings came the explanation, to fill the newcomer with a horror too sudden for concealment.
It appeared that Mrs.Steel's identity with the whilom Mrs.Minchin had not only leaked out in Delverton.

Langholm gathered that it was actually in one of that morning's half-penny papers, at which he had not found time to glance in his hot-foot ardor for the chase.

For the moment he was shocked beyond words, and not a little disgusted, to discover the cause of his own temporary importance.
"Talk of the devil!" cried a comparative crony.

"I was just telling them that you must be the 'well-known novelist' in the case, as your cottage was somewhere down there.