The Eldest Son

re always did so, and donned his red coat, with the yellow collar of the South Meadshire Hunt, when he dressed for the day. Dick came to breakfast in a t

country gentlemen, and a red coat was as easy in the wearing as any other coat. He looked a fine figure of a man, as he stood

his mouth, drawing on his gloves, and looking over the handsome pair of greys in his phaeton. Humphrey, whose hat lacked nothing in polish, stood by him i

," said Humphrey. "He st

the reins. Humphrey got up by his side, and with a clatter and jing

and gone home again. There had been constraint between him and Dick since the day before, but not unfriendliness, and he had thought that perhaps they might have come as closely together as usual during this drive, or at any rate have buried for a time the thought of what lay between them in the prospect of the day's sport. But Dick had gone off alone without a word, and his heart was sore within him. Dick might have spared him this, he thought. It meant, as nothing else he could have done would have meant, that their pleasant, almost brotherly, intimacy was to cease. Each was to go his own way, until one or the other of them gave in. And the Squire knew

making himself conspicuous by his attentions to the whole county, providing food for gossip, perhaps for scandal. If this creature was to be hanging to his coat-tails, his son, who had followed hounds since his childhood, and whom he had always taken a pride in seeing well mounted and goi

f he were to hold out, and that he might not have the power to do so. He thought that perhaps he would do as Tom had advised and see this woman first, see if there were any saving grace in her which would enable him to give way, and comfort himself with the idea that things might have been worse. At any rate, he was bound to see her shortly, and without making any decision he could dismiss the subject from

k," said Humphrey, also rousing himse

rey's quandaries were generally of a financial nature, and

as asked me to

can have something

ing. It is to meet

ght into it again, when he wanted to free his mind for the time

aturday. I suppose she must have done so yesterday. And she knows perfectly well

. She only me

I suppose, now she's married, but I think Mrs. Graham might respect my wishes a little more. Well, you c

said Humphrey. "I think as long as one re

uld. Dick has taken the bit between his teeth, and he certainly doesn't think that my wishes should be respected. Apparently nothing that I can say will inf

phrey. "She's a very pretty

erally are," said the Squire; "at least, they us

ou couldn't possibly guess it to look at her. Dick tackled me about it yesterday and said that

put his question point-blank. "Does Dick

replied Humphrey glibly, "I should have s

you change yo

me for letting out what I did about her. In fact, if I hadn't kept my head we should hav

s and made his heart the heavier. "Can't you help to stop it?" he

y. "As I told you, we nearly had a row about it as it is. I

that to happen in the family?" asked

. "I've nothing against the lady as she is

tically. "Well, I suppose I'm the only pers

their pace quickened. "Look here, Humphrey,"

ue a bold statement of his intentions and then immediately to ask for advice

m to be a very diffic

quire shortly. "He's not paying

u should want to. If you make it awkward for him he'll be all the keener; if you give him his head

hy

a captain in the Guards? What can any of

er of course, and never looked upon it otherwise than as rightly due from him. And, equally of course, he was prepared largely to increase the allowance when Dick should marry. But it was quite true that there was nothing to prevent him from stopping it

since their childhood, although he had often been jealous of his seniority. But they had been on such good term

es cross one's mind occasionally, and one naturally wonders what you wo

step like that," said the Squire after further c

f woodland, arable fields, and farms here and there, and ended in the far distance in a range of hills lying mistily under parallels of soft grey clouds. It was the best bit of country the South Meadshire could boast, and t

his horse's head and galloped off without further ado. There was the covert from which a cunning old dog fox had been hunted three times in two seasons, and had given them three separate runs, which were talked of still when the old stagers of the South Meadshire got together at one end of the table over the port, although it was nearly thirty years ago. There was the fence over which, as a hard-riding subaltern, at the end of a season during which he had hunted for the most part in Leicestershire, he had broken the back of the best mare he had ever owned, through over-anxiety to show h

nd the necessity of drawing to the side of the road as the machine swirled by, enabled him to relieve his feelings by an expression of abhorrence stronger than he usually allowed himself, although his ordinary language on the use of motor-cars in connection with hunting did not lack vigour. And this particular motor-car contained the Master of the South Meadshire himself, who waved to him as he passed, and received no very warm greeting in return. The Squire had had a grudge against Mr. Warner during the greater part of his life. His grandfather had kept the hounds for forty years, hunted them himself, and spent money lavishly on the upkeep of kennels and general equipment. When he had died the Squire had been too young to follow him, and Mr. Warner, who had made his money in trade as

re had a word or two of condemnation to spare for each, as they forced him to dra

r it, and his three young Whips, two of them his sons and the other his nephew. The Master had already hoisted himself on to his horse and sat as straight as his huntsman, although he was twenty years his senior. And all round were the faithful followers of the South Meadshire, some of whom had ridden with those hounds for as long as, or longer than, the Squire himself, some of whom had only begun that season. The men were mostly in pink, with the yellow collar, and dressed for work and not for show, their breeches spotless, their boots well polished and their tops of the right mellow shade, but their coats not of the newest, and their hats lacking the mirror-like

d satisfied himself that she was not riding he caught sight of Dick, already mounted, standing by a smart little pony-cart which contained two women, and his frown deepened. When he was on his horse and had seen that his flask and sandwich-case were in place, he had another moment of indecision. Through all his discomfort and annoyance,

im. Then he saw a very smartly attired young man trot up to the pony-carriage, arms and legs akimbo, to be greeted, as it seemed to him, with complete cordiality by the lady who held the reins, but not so effusively by the lady by her side. This young man was his pet abomination, the vacuous, actress-hunting, spendthrift son of a rich father, already notorious for his "goings-on," and likely to be more so if he continued as he

t what he had pictured, and there was no saving grace in her. A cigarette-smoking, loose-tongued, kind-to-everybody creature of

ery and the thud of a horse's hoofs on the hard turf behind him. Dick trotted up to him, and said, as he reined up his horse, "I wish you'd let me introduce you to Lady George." He spoke as if there had been no controversy between them on th

coldly, and turning his bac