“I like the Mastership to continue in the family, Sir George,” he replied, suavely proud of the decision he had leaped to. “I think I shall suggest to you that Captain Edward take the hounds, and that, for a time at least, you allow the Castle to be at the entire expense. At all events, you have my annual subscription of five thousand pounds to begin upon.”
He made a dignified half-bow in the silence which ensued, and boldly moved away. The murmur of amazed admiration which rose behind him was music in his ears.
Visions of possible escape rose for the moment before him. He walked with an air of resolution through the next room, trying to remember whither the corridor outside led—but at the doorway he stopped face to face with Lord Lingfield.
“Ah,” said his cousin, amiably, “I did not know if I should see you again. I thought perhaps that you had gone to lie down. Funerals take it out of one so, don’t they? My father is quite seedy since lunch, and poor Lady Cressage has the most wretched headache! I think myself she’d do better not to travel while it lasts, but she’s anxious to get away, and so we’re all off by the evening train.”
“Oh, I didn’t dream of your hurrying off like this,” exclaimed Christian, sincerely enough. “But if you are set upon it—come, let’s find your father. It will seem as if I had neglected him.”
“He’s in his room,” explained Lord Lingfield, as they moved away together, “getting into some heavier clothes. The evenings are chilly here in the hills, and we’re to start almost immediately, and take the long drive round through the forest. Lady Cressage has talked so much of it, and we’ve never seen it, you know.”
“But this is all too bad!” urged Christian. “You rush away before I have had time to have a word with any of you. There is no urgent reason for such haste, is there now, really?”
“Lady Cressage seems anxious to go,” answered the other, with a kind of significance in his solemn voice. “And of course—since she came with us——”
Christian stole a quick glance at his kinsman, and as swiftly looked away. “If she prefers it—of course,” he commented with brevity.
“Do you think she is very strong?” asked Lord Lingfield. “I have a kind of fear, sometimes, that her health is not altogether robust. She seemed very pale to-day.” There was a note of obvious solicitude in his voice.