"Um"--with a pursing out of his under lip. "That is a question which he could best answer--if he chose to do so. At any rate, it's one I don't feel called upon to answer for him."
"Not an ordinary sort of man, by any means, I should imagine, nor one easily bottomed, judging from what little I saw of him from time to time," remarked Tom, who was not without some grains of shrewdness.
"That's as it may be. A shallow fool is often mistaken for a deep one by those who don't know better. In any case, we are not likely to see much of Drelincourt for a considerable time to come. He has shut up the Towers, putting in a man and his wife as caretakers, and has gone abroad for an indefinite period."
"And Miss Drelincourt, his half sister, what has become of her?"
"Her chest is said to be delicate, and she and the person who has charge of her have gone to live for a time in Devonshire. She's a charming girl--leaving her mental affliction out of question--and my poor sister was greatly attached to her."
"And an uncommonly pretty girl, too," added Master Tom sotto voce.
[CHAPTER VI.]
RECREANT LOVER.
Mrs. Drelincourt had been dead a year.
Anna and Mrs. Jenwyn were still at Combe Fenton, the Devonshire village to which they had retired shortly after the death of the mistress of Wyvern Towers.