Willoughby  introduced  his  friends  to  his  father  who
welcomed  them  in  a  bluff  breezy  manner.  After  a  moment
he  said  :

"  You'll  find  your  mother  in  the  drawing-room,  Jack,"
whereat  Willoughby  sped  off  into  the  house.  Then,  to  a
servitor  standing  impassively  and  unobtrusively  in  the  back-
ground :

"  Show  these  gentlemen  to  their  rooms,  Hawkins."
Murray  and  Bernard  were  conducted  through  the  hall,
cumbrously  adorned  with  suits  of  armour,  stags'  heads,
skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  portraits  of  departed  Willoughbys  ;
up  a  grand  oak-balustraded  stairway  ;  and  then  by  bewildering
corridors  to  two  bedrooms  side  by  side.  Hawkins  wanted
Bernard's  keys  to  unpack  for  him,  but  Bernard  detested  the
flunkeyism  with  which  the  well-to-do  English  surround
themselves  and  refused  this  service.  After  washing  shaving
and  changing  into  civilian  attire  he  went  into  Murray's  room,
and  a  moment  later  Willoughby  arrived  and  led  them  down
to  the  drawing  room  to  introduce  them  to  his  mother.  She
was  a  tall  pale  delicate  woman  who  received  them  with  a
cordiality  that  was  transparently  superficial.  Her  husband,
however,  a  fine  type  of  the  robust  English  country  gentleman,
did  much  to  set  them  at  their  ease.  They  were  engaged
in  the  delicate  process  of  eating  thin  bread  and  butter  and
drinking  china  tea  out  of  eggshell  balanced  on  their  knees
when  three  other  young  men  entered  the  room,  who  were
introduced  as  :

"  Mr.  Hastings,  Mr.  Moore,  and  my  eldest  son  Frank."
Frank  Willoughby  was  just  an  older  version  of  Jack,  some-
what more  polished  and  somewhat  less  ingenuous.  Hastings
was  a  rather  pompous  young  man,  fair  haired,  not  over  tidy
in  his  dress,  and  obviously  not  in  the  best  physical  training.
