“I must say I think you look rather thin, Owen.”
“I’m glad of it; I’m as fit as a fiddle, and made sixty runs last week for Ottinge. They little dream that I was in the Eton Eleven! Hullo! here are some people coming. I say—what a bore!”
No less than two couples now approached arm in arm; as they passed, they stared hard, and even halted to look back.
“What will they think, Owen?” and she laughed gaily.
“I don’t care a blow what they think!” he answered recklessly; “but all the same you’d better return to the Drum alone.”
“Well, mind you come in this evening—I start at nine; you can pretend my chauffeur is your pal—pretend anything!”
“Oh, I’m good enough at pretending; it’s now my second nature! Joking apart, you ought to be going back to the inn, and getting something to eat.”
CHAPTER XXVI
THE OBSTACLE
At seven o’clock Wynyard went boldly to the Drum and inquired for the lady who was stopping there.
Mrs. Frickett stared at him with a stony expression in her dull grey eyes. She had heard of his airs and his impudence from Norris.