The Eldest Son

y at that hour-about seven o'clock-would be in the smoking-room. But he went upstairs, not because he wanted a bath before dinner as he had told his father, and certainly not because he

a bright fire was burning, lit some candles, and th

out her varied, unhappy life, he had never thought that he-and she-would have to face. If it had not been for that, his father, so he told himself, would have given way already. Knowing it, it was surprising that he had left anything to be said on the subject at all. He need never have known it; so few people did know it, even in London, where Virginia was beginning to be well known, o

ullo, old chap!" he said. "What on earth are

to him in the smoking-room at once before he had begun to think things ove

an most brothers are. Their ways for some time had begun to diverge, but they had remained friends, and since their boyhood

told them downstairs abou

said Dick hotly, and could have bitten out his tongue for sayin

other; he had always rather admired him, and above all for his coolness. But if this was Dick, pass

why you're up against me like this," he said. "I should have thought we knew each other well enough by this time to talk over anything that wants talking over,

aid Dick, not sorry to have a minute o

g room which had been given over to them as boys, because it was right aw

tes from a box on a table, and Humphrey offered Dick

I said I would try to find her a house here. Of course I told her that they would make friends with her from here. I went to see her this afternoon, and I come back to find you have been

asked quietly, "What scandal do yo

goes, of course, it puts him up on his hind legs at once, and here am I in the position of getting this quite charming lady, against whom nobody can say a word, down here, and my own people refusing to go near her. It's too bad. If you happened to know that about h

elf if I had had any idea it

she is, and the first thing you find to blurt out about her when you hear she ha

said, 'Yes, she's a very charming lady.' That was the very first thing I said. Then I said, 'She was an actress once upon a time.' There's nothing in that. You say very few people know it. You're quite wrong. Lots of people know it. Why, even Mrs. Graham knew it, and had seen her

Humphrey, feeling perhaps that the crisis had

out her, it was impossible to carry the attack further. But Dick was no more satisfied with him than before. The hostility he had felt remained, and was destined to grow. From that moment the common ground of easy

ill held, and could not be broken in a moment. Dick also took

aid Humphrey; "the governor won't hol

gratified, and some of his resentment departed. "You needn't

does," said Humphrey. "I say,

uch of a case it was, and gained some contentment by talking it over. "I like her, of course," he said, somewha

was going up to dress, and left the room without further word, while Humphre

in South Meadshire. The Birketts were coming to stay for them, the Judge and his wife and unmarried daughter, and his other daughter, Lady Senhouse, with her husband.

all for Grace at Kemsale, which is sure to be well done. We

s. There were plenty of people about him with whom he could shoot, and who would shoot with him; and an occasional dinner party was all or more than he wanted in the way of indoor sociability-that, and this yearly little group of balls, the Hunt Ball, the Bathgate Ball, and whatever might be added to them from one or other of the big houses round. Kencote had never

Clinton if you were to ask her," said Hump

resented, as the Squire not infrequently pointed out, a junior branch of the family of which he himself was the head. He was accustomed to speak rather patronisingly of the Aldeburgh Clintons on that ac

ours?" he asked, not d

see the home of her ancestors-I was lunching with them-and Lad

what there is, although I dare say they won't think much of it after the sort of thing they

rs, you know. I think they would

ina," said the Squire. "In

phrey. "He never goes where t

erent where a man might have to go up to London for a day or two. There was no necessity always to take his wife along with him. Or he might perhaps go to a house to shoot. That was all right. But for women to make a point of going abou

n, who had been to Kencote before and would be very

ho lost all his money ra

aid Humphrey, "and he's ha

t of person here," said

s a very good chap all the same, and

Dick. "I quite agree; we don't

htly, "I beg to withdraw his candidature. Is there any objection to Bobby

that he had known his father and should be pleased to see him at Kencote. So the party was made up, and the men went on to

easy-chairs to talk, as their custom was in the evening. They were very good friends, and had enough in common to make their conversation mutually agreeable. Neither of them read much, and when Dick was at Kencote they usually spe

I said about this Lady George Dubec this afternoon

h," said Dick. "Only I don't

liked to have it so. He was now only anxious, while having his own way, to

my mind yet. I don't say your mother shan't call and I don't say sh

er you might consider how particularly awkward it is, after having helped this lady to a ho

ell, I think you ought to have asked me first, Dick," he said, "and not taken things for granted. If

cussing a subject in which his feelings were already engaged, and Dick did not

e is like, and that she isn't in the least like what you probably think she

en he turned to his son and said, "There's nothing between you and this lady, Dick, is there? You

e to fence and parry. But he must answer quickly if suspicion, which would be disastrous at the present stage, were not to rest on him.

hing, for Dick would not have denied Virginia. But he did not do so. "No,

reply to his question had not satisfied him, and putting two and two together, as he said, and impelled towards dreadful conclusions by his habit of making the most of vague fears, he had now fully convinced himself that the la

ason he was the less likely to make a marriage which would be beneath the dignity of his family. She said what she could to persuade her husband that Dick might be trusted in a matter of this sort, but he was in that stage of alarm when however much a man may desire to find himself mistaken he resists all attempts to prove him so. "I tell you, Nina," he said, "that he told me himself that when he did marry it would be a middle-aged woman, or words to that ef

. "Dick is level-headed, and he sees questions of

away and drag the old name in the dust if I can possibly prevent it. And, God helping me, I will prevent it, whatever it costs me. Nina, you are not to go near this woman. The only way is to keep her at arm's-length. If we stand firm the affair will f

were really going to befall her first-born, who had gone so far from her since she had first hugged him to her breast. And in other rooms in the house there were those who lay awake and wearied themselves with the trou