“I don’t think size has anything to do with it,” said Mr. Carteret, uneasily. “The fact is, we don’t raise the kind of horse that English dealers would buy.”
“I think size has much to do with it,” replied the Major.
“I wish,” said Lady Withers, “that you would tell Major Hammerslea exactly how large your farms are.”
“I don’t know exactly,” said Mr. Carteret, uneasily.
“But, about how large?” insisted Lady Withers.
“There is something over a million acres in the Texas piece,” said Mr. Carteret, with some embarrassment, “and something under six hundred thousand in Wyoming.”
Lady Withers and the Major both looked at him with eyes of amazement. But Lady Withers’s amazement was admiring.
“I thought so,” said she, calmly. The Major in silence walked over to the table and took a cigar. “Looking at it from all points of view,” she continued, “it would be just the thing for Cecil. He is intelligent with regard to horses.”
“But I don’t wish to go to Texas,” said the Hon. Cecil, who had joined the group. “They say the shootin’ ’s most moderate.”