ays liked the bare backs of the downs behind the house where he used to exercise the horses, and the turf was short and smelt of thyme; and

a short cut through the fields and then you came o

n. The big elms were as dark as wet haystacks an

the Court and the house rose u

een properly cleaned; blackened and weather-soaked, unconscionab

ne. A copse of small golden trees, aspen and silver birches made a pale screen of li

over and played on. He wanted quite horribly to come back to it again, it wa

a very old blue serge dress and a black and white check

ese bulbs. Every one of them must be got in this afternoon. Philip has left us-your father threw a watering can at him. I can't think what's happened to the men nowadays, they don't seem

before dinner, don't you, you can get the dirt off then? It's a perfect day for bulbs as you'd know if you had the ghost of country sense in you. There's another trowel in the small greenhouse

ht up on the tradition of combative speech, the bleakest of personalities found its nest there. Sometimes, of course, you got too much of it. Sir Peter and Charles were noisy and James and Dolores were apt to be brutally

, but they fought each other watchfully w

cent spectacle to see them fight, and they had for each other a r

ye in her son's direction and remarked, "Why ain't your wife going with you to Davos?"

licate to sta

the matter with her

by saying there was nothing the matter with her, and on the other hand a lie would have been pounced upon and torn to pi

son. "If either you or Father had married any on

etting you go out there by yourself? All those snow places bristle with grass widows and girls who have outstayed their market and have to get a hustle on! Sending a man out there alone is l

"I'm done with women; they tempt me

an invalid, I understand! An invalid man is as exposed to women as a young chicken to rats. You won't stand a ghost of a chance. Look at your father, i

s a petticoat, I'd try a kind that won't affect marriage. I'll never look at ano

ast bulb with scientific skill. "They say keeping women's

nks for the money. Had any d

, withdrawing to the lawn. "C

Winn. "Didn't want me

so. It nearly upset everything. His idea was, you see, that if his father gave you something-he and James wo

be home again," he rem

's so difficult to get any one nowadays, one mustn't be too particular. He said he could stand your father by

ister services. Sir Peter expressed on every possible occasion in his son's presence, a bitter contempt for the ar

"we could knock spots out of Europe. The trouble with England is-she treats her sailors as if they we

s beneath you-immovable-you can get anywhere you want to as easy as sliding down banisters! Targets keep still too! It's nothing to hit a thing you can stand to fire at while it stands still to be fired at! Child's play, that's what it is. Look at us, something up all the time, peace or war. We've got the sea to fight-wind too-and thick weather. We

ds in the Kyber Pas

eep your circulation going, and you with Maxims and all, going picnics in the hills and burning down vi

uth Brother thankfully withdrew. After that Winn allowed himself some margin

t, savage and enlivened on Sir

of irony impossible to for

ssert his freedom from doctors. The conversation shifted to submarines. Sir Peter thought t

ernal birds and fishes-he supposed we'd soon bring off reptiles the

ir Peter. "Call that kind of thing science! It's an inverted Noah's Ark! That's what it is! And when you get it all g

ad now and that people who fought with their fi

came down to blood, how much you'd got yourse

she reluctantly withdrew to the hall, where she listened to the varying shades

nd Winn between them as

ssage usually undertaken by t

asional pauses and by a home truth of an appallingly personal

reakfasted

rong, with clear hard eyes, broad, straight shoulders and a grip of iron, and yet Taylor, that little village hound of an apothecary, said

help him. It all came back to that. There was only one person who could help a sick man, and that person was his wife. Theoretically Sir Peter despised and hated women, but practically he leaned on his wife as only a strong man can lean on a woman; without her, he lite

is son's wife-another woman-presumably formed for the same purpos

looked soft and sweet-just the woman to minister to a k

dy-like creature who looked as if she were made of velvet and steel, no vice in her and every point correct; and then what had happened? He'd bought her and she'd developed a spirit like wet cotton wool, no pace, no staying power. She'd sweat and stumble after a few minutes run, no amount of dieting,

w and congealed the Plymouth Brother's morning prayers. He wanted to get hold of something tangible to move circumstances and cheat fate, but he co

marriage for? I've been talking to your mother about it. I don't say she isn't a confoundedly aggravating woman, your mother! But she's always stuck to me, hasn't let me dow

g to make much of a companion," Winn said qui

a moment, then he said, "

r likely to be either,

hat's the way trouble begins, the more children the less nonsense. Why don't yo

gravating composure. "When I want 'em,

I want to quarrel with you, my dear boy," he added hastily. "I admit things are awkward for you-damned awkward-still it's n

don't want to blame her, but it's no use counting her in; besides, honestly, F

letting them know-and not putting oneself out about it! But still there ought to be something to hold on to, and anyhow the mor

"yes-well-how do I know how much long

s gnarled old hands met above h

ow how to tell his father not to mind. He h

re they sat,

d you're an early case, and it's all damned nonsense, and you've got to buck up and think no more about it. What I want to hear is that you're b

ng to live for," Winn

me-if we did have trouble where'd I be? Nowhere at all-old! Just gout and n

I can't give it to you-though the whole thing's dam

n observer that his eyes, which were remarkably bright, were offensively critical, but Sir

I'm much obliged to you." And his father said,