Then Mr. Stocks had his innings, with Lady Manorwater for company, and
Lewis was put through a strict examination on his doings for the past
years.

"What made you choose that outlandish place, my dear?" asked his aunt.

"Oh, partly the chance of a shot at big game, partly a restless interest
in frontier politics which now and then seizes me. But really it was
Wratislaw's choice."

"Do you know Wratislaw?" asked Mr. Stocks abruptly.

"Tommy?--why, surely! My best of friends. He had got his fellowship
some years before I went up, but I often saw him at Oxford, and he has
helped me innumerable times." The young man spoke eagerly, prepared to
extend warm friendship to any acquaintance of his friend's.

"He and I have sometimes crossed swords," said Mr. Stocks pompously.

Lewis nodded, and forbore to ask which had come off the better.

"He is, of course, very able," said Mr. Stocks, making a generous
admission.

His hearer wondered why he should be told of a man's ability when he had
spoken of him as his friend.

"Have you heard much of him lately?" he asked. "We corresponded
regularly when I was abroad, but of course he never would speak about
himself, and I only saw him for a short time last week in London."