Austin listened and tried to carry it off with a high hand, but he grew uncomfortable, and finally departed to bed without wishing his mother good-night.
He rode off obstinately the next morning, and found Mrs. Norman waiting for him at the four cross-roads. The meet was not a great distance off, so they jogged slowly along the roads together. He confided to her that he had had a row with his mother the previous night.
"She always has kept a tight hand on the reins in our household. My father is absolutely under her thumb, so she cannot understand my independence."
"Mothers never can," said Mrs. Norman softly. "I sometimes wonder, if my boy had lived to grow up, whether I should have tried to manage him. I don't think I should. I have a great belief in men being placed in a right position. Young men must have freedom of thought and action; they can't be tied to their mothers' apron strings, if they're to be men at all. But we poor women can't understand it. Now let us enjoy our day. We won't think of disagreeable things."
"Were you awfully tired yesterday?"
"No; I had that poor old Major down to inquire after me. Don't glare so, you silly boy! He bored me to death. I couldn't get rid of him; he was so garrulous. But I do feel so intensely sorry for him. He is old and crippled, and seems to have so few pleasures."
"He can't keep away from you, it seems," said Austin a trifle curtly.
"I always notice that old men must have some woman as a recipient for all their egotistical reminiscences. You need not be jealous. I look upon him as a father—a grandfather, if you like. There's the horn! We must hurry up."
At four o'clock that afternoon Sidney met Austin riding home. He stopped when he saw her, and dismounted.
"Sid, do come up to dinner to-night. I tell you I can't stand any more of the mother's jaw. She was at it all last night, and now I'm going back to begin it again. I mean to hunt, so she must make up her mind to it. It's absurd to attempt to tie me down to an old woman's life and make me into a sick-nurse to my father. I won't do it. I have told her so. I very nearly accepted Mrs. Norman's invitation to dinner, but I won't be a funk, and I know I must see the governor about some letters. Can't you come back now, just as you are?"