Hubert coloured faintly. "No, my grandfather got me a job in a Government office," he said. "I wanted to join up, but he wouldn't let me. I'm sort of steward to this place, you know. There are a couple of farms and so on to look after. Not that I have much to do. However, what I mean is that my grandfather made a tremendous point of keeping me out of the Army, and it was rather difficult for me to disobey him right out. He's—he's not altogether easy to handle."
"Bit of an autocrat in his way?" Arthur suggested.
Hubert looked uneasy. "In a way, yes," he agreed; and Arthur inferred that a tactful change of subject was advisable.
"Have you got names for all these different parts of the garden?" he asked, choosing the most obvious topic.
Hubert did not appear to have heard the question. He was frowning and fidgeting; he had the look of a weak man trying to make an important decision.
"You don't know him, do you?" he said. "What I mean is, you've never been here since you came as a boy, and you've never kept in with us or anything?"
"No, he's to all intents and purposes an utter stranger to me," Arthur agreed.
"Just come down to have a look at us, then?" Hubert continued, with a feeble affectation of sprightliness.
"Well, you and my aunt are about the only relations I've got," Arthur replied. "And as Aunt Hannah wrote out of the blue, as it were, and invited me to come down, I was glad of the opportunity."
"Oh! yes, exactly," Hubert said. "I can understand that all right."