The Four Feathers

Lieutenant Sutch was the first of General Feversham's guests to reach Broad Place. He arrived about five o'clock on an afternoon of sunshine in mid June and the old red-brick house lodged on a southern slope of the Surrey hills was glowing from a dark forest depth of pines with the warmth of a rare jewel. Lieutenant Sutch limped across the hall where the portraits of the Fevershams rose one above the other to the ceiling and went out on to the stone-flagged terrace at the back. There he found his host sitting erect like a boy and gazing southward toward the Sussex Downs. How's the leg? asked General Feversham as he rose briskly from his chair. He was a small wiry man and in spite of his white hairs alert. But the alertness was of the body. A bony face with a high narrow forehead and steel-blue inexpressive eyes suggested a barrenness of mind.