CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
ROGER SEES A LITTLE TOO MUCH LIFE.
Captain Oliphant's motive for going to London was primarily to escape for a while from the unearthly dullness of Maxfield.

As long as the prospect of a matrimonial alliance with Mrs Ingleton had been in view, it had seemed to him good policy to submit to the infliction and remain at his post.

That vision was now unhappily past, and the good man felt he deserved a change of scene and amusement.

A further motive was to evade a possible return of his dear friend Mr Ratman, whose abrupt departure from Maxfield had both perplexed and relieved him.

The second of that gentleman's uncomfortable bills was falling due in a few days, and as on the present occasion no lucky windfall had dropped in from an American mayor, it seemed altogether a fitting occasion for dropping for a season below the horizon.
When, however, Roger unexpectedly consented to accompany his guardian, the visit assumed an altogether different aspect.