"What? You don't tell me you manage it all yourself? . . . This palace of a house!"
"Already you are making it feel less empty to me. Yes, alone I do it; but if you wish to praise me, you should see my accounts. They are my real pride. But no, they are too holy to be shown!"
They sat later—the gentlemen by their wine—on the stone terrace overlooking the wide champaign.
"But," said Ruth, for she observed that the boy was restless, "I must leave Tatty to play hostess while I take a scamper with Dick. There's a pool below here, Dicky, with oh, such trout!"
Dicky was on his feet in a trice. "Rods?"
"Rods, if you will. But there are the stables, too, to be seen; and the gunroom—"
"Stables? Gunroom?—Oh, come along!—the day is too short!" Here Dicky paused. "But would you like to come too, sir?" he asked, addressing Mr. Hanmer.
Mrs. Harry laughed. "Those two," she told Ruth, "are like master and dog, and one never can be quite sure which is which."
"My dear boy," said Mr. Hanmer, "you must surely see that Lady Vyell wants you all to herself. Yet I dare say the captain and I will be strolling around to the stables before long."
"Ay, when this decanter is done," agreed Captain Harry.