"Yes. I shan't mind as much as I thought I should, because of that. If you've got something that you can't keep going, it hardly seems to belong to you. I shall be better away from Hayslope now, and we'll find something somewhere that we shall like. We shan't have to clear out for some months, anyhow. We'll enjoy it as much as we can in the meantime."
"Does Uncle William know you are going to let the house?" she asked.
"No," he said shortly, but added after a time: "It's no good thinking of that, you know. We've got to stand on our own feet."
"Oh, yes, of course," she said, but thought all the time that Uncle William might stop the letting of the house, if he were so minded. And surely, he must be so minded! He didn't seem to care much about Hayslope himself now, leaving his own house there empty for all these months; but he couldn't want to see them leave it too. She wondered what Norman would say when he heard of it.
[CHAPTER XXVII]
TWO YOUNG MEN
Colonel Eldridge was sitting in his room over the fire, which was unusual with him in the middle of the morning. But the weather was atrocious, and he had the beginnings of a cold on him, which disinclined him for activity either physical or mental. The door opened, and Fred Comfrey was announced. He was a little surprised to see him, for though he had frequented the Hall when at Hayslope he had not come straight to him; and this was his first appearance in the Christmas holidays. But his visit was not unwelcome. Colonel Eldridge was not used to sitting idle, and a little chat would be agreeable to him.
"Well, and how's the world using you?" he asked. "I hope you've been making a success of it."