Mr. Fortescue smiled (he never laughed) and reflected a moment.
“I am thinking,” he said, “how strangely things come about, and, so to speak, hang together. The greatest of all mysteries is fate. If that horse had not run away with you, these rascals would almost certainly have made away with me; and the incident of to-day is one of the consequences of that which I mentioned at our first interview.”
“When we had that good run from Latton. I remember it very well. You said you had been hunted yourself.”
“Yes.”
“How was it, Mr. Fortescue?”
“Ah! Thereby hangs a tale.”
“Tell it me, Mr. Fortescue,” I said, eagerly.
“And a very long tale.”
“So much the better; it is sure to be interesting.”
“Ah, yes, I dare say you would find it interesting. My life has been stirring and stormy enough, in all conscience—except for the ten years I spent in heaven,” said Mr. Fortescue, in a voice and with a look of intense sadness.