"And a Greener!" he exclaimed. "A Greener! I say, you know, sir——"
He laughed excitedly, his face flushed with delight, as he carried the gun to the window.
"Is it not perfect, simply perfect, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton, holding out her arm with the bracelet on her wrist. "Really, I don't think you could have chosen a handsomer one, Mr. Vernon, if you had gone to London to do so."
"I am glad you are pleased with it," he said simply.
"Pleased? It is perfect! Eleanor, haven't you a word to say? No; I imagine you are too overwhelmed for words," said Mrs. Lorton, with a kind of cackle.
"It is very beautiful, mamma," she said gravely; and her face, as she leaned over the thing, was grave also.
Drake looked at her as he rose, and understood the look and the tone of her voice, and was glad that he had resisted the almost irresistible temptation to order a somewhat similar present for her.
"I say, sir, you must get your gun down, and we must go for some rabbits," said Dick eagerly. "And I can get a day or two's shooting over the Maltby land as soon as the season opens. I'm sure they'd give it me."
"That's tempting, Dick," said Drake; "and it adds another cause to my regret that I am leaving to-morrow."
"Leaving to-morrow!" exclaimed Mrs. Lorton, with a gasp. "Surely not! You are not thinking, dreaming of going, my dear Mr. Vernon?"