"That, rude boy, is a question I don't choose to answer. It is unwise, though, they say, to deny a man his luxuries; but the pursuit is a discreditable one at best."
"I've done with it, at any rate."
An impatient half-sigh accompanied the words.
"I am glad of it."
"But, mother, you have no idea of the glorious rough-and-tumbles we used to have. Kate, though, has made me promise to keep a whole skin, and there's an end of it. Heigho! I'm glad the Squire and I made a decent finish to my career in that line."
A rattling of the garden gate came to them round the corner of the house.
"Some one seems to be trying to get in," said Mrs. Lomax. "Just run and open the gate, will you, Griff? You always bang it so hard, and the latch, like myself, is getting worn out."
Again that helpless note in her voice. Griff did not like it at all.
"Worn out?" he echoed. "Not till you give better proof of it, foolish mother."