"No, only one. Are you sorry, Chuckles?"
He threw his arms round her neck and hugged her.
"I loves you! Let's hurry downstairs!"
They walked downstairs hand in hand, and Monica's soul was at peace.
But there was trouble at Thanning Towers that night. Mother and son were talking late into the night. Mrs. de Cressiers first scolded, then threatened, then expostulated with Austin for neglected estate business and being out with the hounds day after day.
"I understand you've told the grooms you mean to hunt four days a week; who is going to do the work which you came home from college to do?"
"If I hunt four days that leaves me two for business, and I should be a rotten slacker if I couldn't tackle all that there is to do in that time."
"You know your father likes to see you at a certain hour every morning and talk over things with you. If he does not do it, he worries the whole day. How can he do this when you leave the house every morning before he's out of bed?"
"He worries anyhow. There is no necessity for him to be like clockwork. I can talk over things with him in the evening."
"You come home dead tired and very cross, and your father's patience has given out, waiting all day for you. If he discusses business late at night, he sleeps badly in consequence. You know this as well as I do, Austin."