"But, since he is an honorary member of your mess, you must know him too," cried Hillyard. "He must have come this way."
"My dear Martin!" Luttrell expostulated, as one upbraiding a child. "Sir Chichester Splay out of London! The thing's inconceivable!"
"Inconceivable! Why, he lives in the country."
A moment of consternation stilled all voices. Then the Doctor spoke in a whisper.
"Is it possible that we are all wrong?"
"He lives at Rackham Park, in Sussex."
Mr. Blacker fell back in relief.
"I know the house. He is a new resident. It is near to Chichester. He went there on the Homœopathic principle."
The conjecture was actually true. Sir Chichester Splay, spurred by his ambition to be a country gentleman with a foot in town, had chosen the neighbourhood on account of his name, so that it might come to be believed that he had a territorial connection.
"Describe him to us," they all cried, and, when Hillyard had finished: