142 The Wrong Man 



curious lot — he didn't seem to get on with them, some- 

 how or other ; he couldn't tell why.' 



Mr. Higgs had not spent 80,000/. in order to be made 

 uncomfortable. He felt that there were reasons why 

 Thompson did not get on with good people which did not 

 apply to him ; and, oddly enough, Thompson thought 

 that if he was not comfortable among ' the swells,' as he 

 described them to himself, poor Higgs would be very 

 uncomfortable indeed ; but then, of course, we do not 

 see ourselves as others see us ; if we did, the spectacle 

 would possibly at times cause us a good deal of mental 

 uneasiness. Mr. Higgs had been down to see how the 

 land lay, putting up at the Wenhaston Arms. Wenhas- 

 ton was the station for Corinton Towers, and, indeed, the 

 name of Wenhaston pervaded the place. The Wenhas- 

 tons, he very speedily learned, were the great people of 

 the district, which old General Wenhaston had repre- 

 sented in the House of Commons for the last forty years, 

 though he was not the Wenhaston of Wenhaston, and 

 lived in Hampshire. The Wenhastons were, beyond all 

 possibility of mistake, the people to be known if it were 

 possible to get at them ; and Mr. Higgs thought that it 

 was. 



He chanced to be a member of the new Kingdom 

 and Colonies Club, and before he had bought or thought 

 of Corinton Towers he remembered young Whittington 

 telling him the names of the men who were in the 

 smoking-room one day, Sir George Wenhaston amongst 

 others. He had seen him there once or twice since, 

 and had noticed that Whittington nodded and exchanged 

 a remark with the baronet. Whittington would, he 

 knew, gladly introduce him, or do anything else for a 

 rich man ; and the real fact was that Mr. Higgs's con- 



