J. S. Fletcher

“ The garden was a square, set in high old brick walls, and plentifully filled with hardy shrubs and trees. From a miniature lawn in the middle rose a cedar of considerable size. Fanshawe pointed to it with obvious pride.
"Only cedar tree in all Selchester," he said. "Don't know how old it is, but it's done well in its time, what? There are a lot of rare shrubs about here. My father used to bring cuttings from the south of France and try to grow them. Some grew and flourished, and some didn't."
Brixey strolled round the paths, looking about him, until they came to a doorway set in the wall. ”

“ Just then Georgina came into the room, closed the door behind her, and, going up to Fanshawe, laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Fanshawe," she said quietly, "I've had a long talk with your mother, and now I've something to tell you as the result of it. You'll be a good boy and do exactly what she wants, won't you?"
Fanshawe turned an astonished face on his cousin.
"Something out of the common?" he asked.
"Not exactly," replied Georgina. "She wants to go to London by the first train to-morrow morning. She wants you to go with her. And I've promised to go, too. We're all three going together. ”

“ He led Brixey (whose chief interest in his host's story had lain in the explanation which it afforded of Fanshawe's visit to the Priory on the previous night) to another part of the garden, where half a dozen dogs were confined in a wire enclosure,
Here Brixey spent the better part of an hour, listening to dog talk in which his young host was an adept. And all the while he was wondering what was going on in that twilight-filled room where they had left Mrs. Byfield and Georgina alone. ”