kencote was three hours' journey from london by a fast train, and it had always been the custom of the sons of the family—those of them whose avocations made it necessary for them at any time to live in town—to come down whenever they pleased, to spend a night or a few nights, without announcing their arrival. their rooms were there ready for them. kencote was their home. dick or humphrey, and, in the days before he was married, walter, would often walk into the house unexpectedly and go upstairs and dress without any one but the servants knowing they were there until dinner-time. the squire liked them to come and go in that way. it seemed to give him, in his retired, bucolic life, a tie with the world. he would always give them a hearty welcome, even if he had to object to something they had done, or had left undone, before they left again.

it was humphrey who arrived on this saturday afternoon, reaching kencote by the half-past four train, and walking up from the station and into the morning-room, for his cup of tea. the squire's greeting was a shade less hearty than it would have been in the case of his other sons. humphrey had given him a good deal of trouble in the way of money. it is true that there had never been any big catastrophe, no sudden demand for a large sum to meet a debt of honour, from racing or cards, as fathers were sometimes confronted with by extravagant sons. humphrey was too cautious to run those sorts of risks. the squire, perhaps, would have preferred that the demands upon him should have come in that way rather than from the constant, rather cold-blooded exceeding of an allowance which he told himself, and humphrey, was as large as any younger son had a right to expect, and a good deal larger than most of them got. humphrey did not deny this. he simply said, whenever he did ask his father for more money, that he had not been able to do on it, but if his father would clear off his debts for him and give him a fresh start, he would try to do on it for the future. he had made the endeavour three times, and each time with less success than before, for the debts had been bigger. and now the squire was getting angry about it. it had always been the same. humphrey's debts after he had left cambridge had been about twice as large as dick's, although dick had been master of the drag and had had expenses that humphrey had not. walter had left oxford with no debts at all. and since their university days, humphrey had actually had more money than either of the others, although dick was the eldest son and a considerable sum had been paid to buy walter his practice.

now it was not the squire's way to bear malice or to let any annoyance rankle when once it had been met and dealt with. in the ordinary course he would have expressed himself very strongly and felt very strongly on the subject when one of humphrey's periodical crises of debt was disclosed to him, but when he had so relieved his mind he would have paid up and forgotten all about it. he had done so the first time, and even the second, after a rather stronger explosion. it was the third, now nearly two years ago, which had rankled; and the reason was not only that humphrey, as seemed quite obvious, was living in just such a way as had brought him to exceed his income and get into trouble before, with the consequence that a new crisis and a new demand would probably arise before long. it was so much in the air that the squire was continually calling the gods to witness that he was not going to pay any more of humphrey's debts. but he would not have felt so sore, when he did think about it, if it had not been for humphrey's attitude towards him in particular, and towards kencote and all that it represented in general.

the fact was that humphrey, from the serene heights of his career as a very smart young man about town, patronised them. it is to be supposed that he could not help it, that it was an attitude which he would have corrected if he had been aware of it, for it was quite certain that, when once his father became aware of it, it would not help him in any plan he might have to make for further pecuniary assistance. the squire merely had a feeling of irritation against humphrey, which slumbered while he was away and always became sharper during his somewhat rare visits to kencote. it was not yet formulated, but was nearer to getting to a head every time they came together. the young man, if he had had an adviser, might have been told that if he acted in such a way as to bring it to a head, it would be time for him to look out.

humphrey walked into the morning-room with a cool air, as if he had come from another room in the house instead of from london. he was the only one of all the clintons who was dark. he was not so good-looking as dick, but he was well set up, and his clothes were always the perfect expression of the requirements of the moment. so were dick's, but dick wore old clothes sometimes, humphrey never. he was a young man of the highest fashion, whenever and wherever he appeared.

the squire was standing in front of the fire, as his habit was, mrs. clinton sitting behind her tea-table and mrs. graham near her. the twins were on the sofa on either side of cicely. humphrey kissed his mother, shook hands with his father and mrs. graham, and sat down by his sisters. "the frost is going to break," he said.

"is it?" said the squire. "well, that's the best news you could have brought. look here, we were talking of lady george dubec. do you know anything about her?"

"virginia dubec?" said humphrey. "she is a very beautiful lady."

"well, but who is she? who was she? an american they say. is she all right?"

"she was an actress. musical comedy, or something of the sort. but that was some years ago. old george dubec married her in new york, and led her an awful life. she used to hunt with the quorn. went like a bird, and didn't care how she went or where she went. people used to say she wanted to break her neck and get away from george dubec. but dick knows her better than i do. he'll tell you all about her."

mrs. clinton looked up from the teacups, mrs. graham arched her brows and her mouth twitched, the twins caught the sense of surprise and gazed open-eyed at their father.

"dick knows her!" exclaimed the squire. "then why on earth——! does he know she has settled down here?"

"has she settled down here?" asked humphrey. "where has she settled, and what for?"

"taken old marsh's rectory at blaythorn," said mrs. graham. "going to hunt with the south meadshire."

"that seems an odd proceeding for one of the brightest ornaments of the shires," said humphrey.

the squire knit his heavy brows. "we can show her very good sport," he said, "if that's what she wants. but i should like to know why she came here, all the same."

"there's more in this than meets the eye," said nancy, very unwisely, for she and joan were instantly sent out of the room.

"what are you children doing here?" asked the squire sharply. "why aren't you with miss bird? run along now; you've got lessons to do, or something."

"we don't have lessons on saturday. can't we stay with cicely, father?" asked joan.

"i must be going directly," said cicely, rising. "but i'll come with you and pay a last farewell to the dear old starling."

so the three of them retired, and directly they got out of the room joan fell upon nancy. "what an idiot you are!" she said. "if you had kept quiet we should have heard everything. when you get hold of a new speech you must always be poking it in. we've had enough of 'there's more in this than meets the eye.' i wish you'd get hold of a new one."

"i own it was foolish of me," said nancy. "i'm at the mercy of a phrase. still, it was quite true. we know who dick is in love with now. of course he got her down here. humphrey said she was very beautiful."

"you are not to talk like that, children," said cicely. "you know nothing about these things."

"darling!" said joan, squeezing her arm. "don't be so frightfully grown-up. we are not children any longer, and we know a good deal more than you think."

"we are a force to be reckoned with now," said nancy, "and it's no use trying to keep family secrets from us, sending us out of the room, and all that. it's too transparent, and makes us talk all the more."

there was a pause in the morning-room when the three sisters had left. humphrey's quick brain was adjusting many things. he knew dick admired virginia dubec, although it had not hitherto occurred to him that that admiration betokened anything serious. he suspected also, that since somebody must have suggested to the lady that she should spend a season hunting in meadshire instead of in leicestershire, that somebody was probably dick. but if his brother had not seen fit to disclose that fact at kencote, not even the fact of his acquaintanceship with lady george dubec, it was not for him to do so. therefore, when his father asked him whether dick knew that she had come to blaythorn, and why she had come, he said, "i don't know in the least. he'll tell you if you ask him."

the squire bent his brows on him. "you said he knew her very well."

"i didn't say he knew her very well. i said he knew her better than i did. lots of people know her. she goes about everywhere in london."

"she was an actress, you say?"

"well, that's what i've heard. it may not be true."

"it is true," said mrs. graham. "virginia vanreden. i remember quite well now. i saw her when i was in new york with my husband ten years ago. and a lovely creature she was. i shall go and call on her at once."

the squire frowned again. "what sort of an actress was she?" he asked. "was she a chorus girl?"

"it was a play called the flower of florida," replied mrs. graham, "a very silly play with catchy music, only it didn't catch me, because i hate music, and i was bored to tears. no, she wasn't a chorus girl, and she wasn't the flower of florida either—i remember the flower, an exuberant lady with gold teeth, who seemed to be very popular, but i should have said she was past her job. this girl danced—oh, i remember her very well; she was the best of the bunch, and the flower grinned at her with her teeth and scowled at her with her eyes while she was performing. when we got back to new york on our way home she had caught on, and all the richly gilded youth was crowding to see her. the flower had departed, mad with jealousy."

"a dancing girl!" said the squire. "of course! just the sort that george dubec would have married. well, you may call on her if you like, mrs. graham, but——"

"oh, i shall," said mrs. graham. "perhaps she will dance for me. i liked her immensely. she was certainly beautiful, and i like beauty. she was quite young too. she can't be very old now."

"what i want to know is what brings her to blaythorn," said the squire, which closed the discussion, for cicely's carriage was announced at that moment, and the welfare of the mountfield horses being of paramount importance it was not many minutes before she and mrs. graham had driven away.

dick returned shortly after six o'clock, and when he had changed his clothes, came into the library where his father was sitting at his big writing-table looking over papers, his gold-rimmed glasses perched on his straight nose.

"oh, here you are," he said, looking over them at his son. "i say, what's this about lady george dubec taking the rectory at blaythorn?"

dick took a cigarette out of his case and went over to the smoking-table by the fire to get a match. "i've just been to see her," he said; "she's a friend of mine."

"well, but——" the squire was puzzled, vaguely uneasy, though he could not have told why. "what on earth has she come here for? who brought her? you didn't, i suppose?"

dick sat down with rather elaborate unconcern in one of the big easy-chairs facing his father, who had turned round sideways in his seat. "i suppose you may say i did bring her, in a way," he said. "she wanted to do a bit of mild hunting somewhere, and i told her she'd better try the south meadshire."

"but they tell me she's well known with the quorn and all that sort of thing."

"now i should like to know who told you that," said dick to himself, but he did not ask. "she hasn't hunted there for two seasons," he said. "she wanted something a bit quieter. i said i'd see if i could find her a smallish house, and i wrote to wylie, the agent at bathgate. blaythorn rectory was the only place he could get hold of, and the stables there aren't much."

"i should think not."

"they are better than you'd think, though, and she has only brought three horses."

"why didn't you tell us you were springing this strange lady upon us?" asked the squire, as a beginning out of all the questions he wanted to ask.

"i haven't been home for a month," said dick, "and i'm not much of a correspondent."

"you didn't say anything about it last night, and you didn't say you were going over to see her this afternoon." the squire's uneasiness was beginning to take shape, and dick realised with annoyance that he had given it something to feed on.

"i'm sorry," he said. "but we were talking about other things. the poor lady had a brute of a husband—i expect you knew him, didn't you?"

"oh yes, i knew him. a pretty sort of rascal he was too."

"i've always heard so, though i never met him. he behaved like a swine to her, at any rate, and she's a very charming woman. i think you'll like her, father. i want to ask the mater to go over and see her as soon as she can. she doesn't know any one hereabouts, and it's a bit lonely for her."

he could not keep the note of appeal, rarely heard from him, out of his voice, but it escaped the squire, who only saw himself at issue with his eldest son—a position he exceedingly disliked.

"oh, my dear boy!" he said. "a woman that blackguard george dubec picked up off the music-hall stage! you can't be serious."

"that's not true," said dick sharply. "who said she was on the music-hall stage?"

"well, on the stage, anyhow—dancing on the stage—it's the same thing."

"who told you that?"

"humphrey said she had been on the stage, and mrs. graham remembered seeing her when she was in america."

"is humphrey here?"

"yes, he came this afternoon. an american dancer, you know, dick, and a woman who would marry george dubec—really, you might have thought twice before you brought a person of that sort here; and as for your mother calling on her—that's out of the question. surely you can see that."

the squire's tone was conciliatory. he would not have spoken in that way, upon a subject on which he felt strongly, to any one else in the world, and when he had spoken he threw a glance at his son, whose face betokened nothing of all he was thinking at that moment.

dick did not speak at once. when he did he said quietly, "when i suggested to lady george, who has been a friend of mine for some time, that she should spend a month or two in this part of the country, i told her that my people would be glad to see her and do what they could for her. it never crossed my mind that you would refuse to acknowledge a friend of mine. it is not my habit to make friends of women i couldn't introduce you or my mother to."

"but, my dear boy!" expostulated the squire. "a woman who has danced on the stage, the widow of a notorious profligate and swindler—george dubec was a swindler, and he wasn't received latterly even in men's society—decent men. i wouldn't have received him, for one."

"you can say what you like about george dubec," replied dick. "it was the way he had treated her that made me sorry for her, first of all. then i found she was a good woman, as well as a very charming one. there isn't a soul who knows her—and lots of people know her—who could have a word to say against her. it isn't generally known that she was on the stage—it was for a very short time—and i wish to goodness humphrey had minded his own business and kept that to himself. her father was a planter in the south, and lost everything he had in the war. she had to support her mother, and that was the only way. she was very young. i honour her for what she did."

"yes, oh yes, that's all right," said the squire, who was coming more and more to feel that it was all wrong. "but it's no good, dick. plenty of people in their different lines of life do things that you can honour them for, as you say, but you don't welcome them to houses like kencote. we live a quiet enough life here, i know that. we're not one of the modern smart country houses, thank god, and never will be as long as i'm alive. but we're of some account in this part of the world, and have been for generations. and the long and the short of it is, dick, that if you want to make friends with ladies of that sort, i can't stop you—i don't want to—it's your affair and you're old enough to look after yourself—but i won't have them at kencote."

inwardly, dick was raging, and it needed all his self-control to keep his feelings from showing themselves in his face or in his speech. but he knew that if he did so everything was lost. it had been no vain boast that he had made to virginia dubec, that he could manage his father. he had the advantage over him that a man who controls his speech and his temper always has over a man who habitually controls neither. for many years past the squire, who pictured himself as the wise but undisputed autocrat of his household, had gone to his eldest son for advice upon any matter that bothered him, and had always taken his advice. in questions of estate management he had never taken a step of any importance without consulting dick, and dick had been the virtual ruler of the estate, although the squire did not know it. in his father's eyes dick was a model son. he had never once had to exercise his paternal authority over him since his schooldays. he knew that kencote, which was the apple of his own eye, was also the apple of dick's, and that he would have as worthy a successor as any head of an old-rooted family ever had. in course of years he had come to treat his eldest son with a respect and consideration which he gave to no other being alive. except that none but an eldest son who was some day to step into his place could have aroused the feelings he had towards him, his attitude towards dick was what he might have felt towards a brother, almost, it might be said, towards an elder brother.

now dick was quite aware of all this, and he knew also that in his last speech his father had crossed a line that had never yet been crossed between them. he had done what he did almost every day of his life with some member or other of his family or household, but had never done with him since he was a child, because he had never given him the opportunity. he called it putting his foot down, and although in reference to other matters dick had frequently, by the exercise of his peculiar gift of cool tact, caused the taking up again of a foot that was announced to have been put down, and by no means despaired of being able to do so in this instance, he knew that this was not the time to undertake the removal. something of his moral supremacy had already disappeared if his father could take it into his hands to give an ultimatum against his expressed wishes. there was no knowing how much further it would be damaged if he were encouraged, as he would be by opposition now that he had once delivered himself, to back up his revolt by strong speech. it was what he always fortified himself with either before or after the process of putting his foot down, and dick had no mind to undergo it.

"very well," he said quietly. "if you feel like that about it, there's no more to be said. it's damned awkward for me, but i suppose i took too much on myself."

the squire immediately recrossed the line, on the other side of which only opposition could possibly make him wish to keep his footing. "oh, well," he said, "of course i don't say—in this instance—what i mean is—well, look here, dick, i don't say anything one way or the other. i'll say this, my boy, you've never given me the slightest trouble, and we've always seen eye to eye in pretty well everything, and where we haven't at first you have always come to see that i was right in the end—eh? better let me think the question over—what? i don't want you to feel you can't ask your friends to this house, which will be your own some day."

"i can hardly help feeling that, can i?" said dick, with a short laugh.

"eh? well, i must think it over, and talk it over with your mother. you'd better think it over too, old boy. i can't help thinking you'll feel you haven't been very wise. we're clintons of kencote, you know. we owe something to ourselves."

but dick could stand no more. "all right," he said, rising. "i think i'll go up and have a bath before dinner. i'm a bit stiff."