"We will go back to the house, and I will see Mrs. Clavering, and afterwards I will ask her permission to let me take you up to see Sir John Wallis, for, strange as it may seem, I have lost sight of Wallis for quite fifteen years--such are the fortunes of war, my love.  We were brothers, standing shoulder to shoulder during a momentous year of our lives, and since then Sir John retired from the service, and I have heard and seen nothing of him.  It was almost immediately afterwards, I believe, that he came in for the great property and the title which he now possesses.  But come, Kitty, we have not much time to lose."