CHAPTER XX
Though Gaylor had the air of idling away most of his time at Riding St. Mary, and never seemed seriously to catechise any one in the neighbourhood, somehow he picked up an extraordinary amount of information, particularly concerning the habits of most of the persons connected closely or remotely with Friars' Moat. Among the most important of his gleanings was the fact that Ian Barr had at one time been in the habit of using the upper room in the Tower as a kind of study. A year ago, or not much more, he had been writing a series of articles on the Roman camps in Surrey; and as there were finely marked traces of an encampment on the hill of the View Tower, Sir Ian Hereward—interested in the young man's work—had suggested his writing in the Tower. He had offered to ask permission from Mrs. Forestier; she had granted it freely; and Sir Ian had lent Barr the key which was very seldom used by any one at Friars' Moat. When Barr had finished the articles, he was known to have returned the key of the Tower. All this Gaylor learned from the butler at the Moat, who had heard of the matter in talk around the table at the time; had forgotten it, but remembered distinctly
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