Then the inspector talked.

He told a series of amusing tales which were all of them true, but which Sir Gilbert regarded as inventions.

He had to change his carriage at Athlone, and parted from the inspector with great regret.
For the rest of his journey he was alone.

It was his first visit to the part of Ireland he was travelling through, and he looked with keen interest at the bogs, the scattered cottages, the lean cattle, scanty pasture lands, potato fields, patches of oats, and squalid towns.
At Donard Station, which is the terminus of this branch of the railway, and the nearest station to Ballymoy, he got out.

He had telegraphed to the hotel for luncheon, and given orders that a car should be ready to drive him over to Ballymoy, He was accosted on the platform by two strangers.