“Yes,” said Leonard, “very. But mine has scarcely begun, while yours has ended happily, or will do so, if you do not play the fool!”
“What do you mean?” asked Jack, sharply.
“Where have you been to-night?” asked Leonard.
“To the theater with Lady Bell.”
“I expected as much,” said Leonard, and he fell to at his writing, and would say no more, though Jack stormed and raved.
Meanwhile the Davenant party had, thanks to Stephen, made a comfortable journey. They found a carriage and pair waiting for them at the station; not the ramshackle vehicle of the old squire’s time, but a new carriage from the best man in Long Acre, and they were rolled along the country lanes in a style Ralph Davenant would have marveled at.
Presently they came in sight of the Hurst, and Mrs. Davenant uttered an exclamation.
“Why, Stephen, it is altered!” she said.
Stephen smiled proudly.
Short as the time had been he had effected a radical change in the old house; a hundred workmen had been busy, and the ramshackle old mansion had been transformed. Wings had been added, the grounds had been newly laid out; the road, even, had been altered, and they drove through an avenue of thriving young limes.