CHAPTER XIII. 



THE VISITORS— THE UNINTRODUCED ONE— ARRIVAL OF 

 AN ANIMAL TO SUIT ME— EXCITE:\IENT. 



N our small drawing-room. The Three Ladies, 

 my old friend the Rev. W. Pullinger, myself, a 

 Young Lady in a Riding-habit, and the tall dis- 

 mounted Visitor, who, not being able to get a 

 chair, politely declares that he '' rather prefers standing." 

 Queer taste : bolt upright in a corner. Politeness, like 

 virtue, is its own reward. 



Previous to the introductions, which must follow of course, 

 I find myself taking it for granted that the Dismounted 

 Visitor is the father of the Young Lady in the Riding-habit. 

 That there is not the slightest resemblance between them, I 

 should be ready to admit ; but I suppose it's the fact of 

 their both having come on horseback which has suggested, 

 and, by this time, really fixed the idea in my mind. 



After Pullinger has asked me " How I've been this long 

 time " — (to which question a precise answer would require a 

 review of my physical condition for the past ten or twelve 

 years, with corroborative evidence from my medical man's 

 ledger, which, of course, would take some time to obtain, and 



