Wilkins, but she's damn' good reading. I suppose that's why she ain't

cultured, Wilkins."

[III]

And now let us go back a little. In a word, let us utilise the next

twenty minutes--during which Miss Hugonin drives to the neighbouring

railway station, in, if you press me, not the most pleasant state of

mind conceivable--by explaining a thought more fully the posture of

affairs at Selwoode on the May morning that starts our story.

And to do this I must commence with the nature of the man who founded

Selwoode.