“May I ask if your grandfather is here with you? and is he enjoying good health?”
“Yes, he is now in the Casino—I don’t know exactly where, but he will soon come for me.”
This reawakening of his early life was not without its effect on Mr. Romaine, nor was it a wholly pleasant one. For time and Mr. Romaine were mortal enemies. His face flushed slightly, and he sat down on a garden chair by Letty, and the next moment Colonel Corbin was seen advancing upon them. The Colonel wore gaiters of an ancient pattern; they were some he had before the war. His new frock-coat was tightly buttoned over his tall, spare figure, and on his head was a broad palmetto hat. In an instant the two old men recognized each other and grasped hands. They had been boy friends, and in spite of the awful stretch of time which had separated them, and the total lack of communication between them, each turned back with emotion to their early associations together.
Then the Colonel was presented to the two ladies, who seemed to think that there was a vast and unnecessary amount of introducing going on, and the younger people formed a group to themselves. Letty and Miss Maywood fell to talking, and Letty asked the inevitable question:
“How do you like America?”
“Quite well,” answered Miss Maywood, in her rich, clear English voice. “Of course the climate is hard on us; these heats are almost insufferable. But it is very interesting and picturesque, and all that sort of thing. Mr. Romaine tells us the autumn in Virginia, where he is to take us to his old place, is beautiful.”
“Mr. Romaine’s place and our place, Corbin Hall, are not far apart,” said Letty, and at once Miss Maywood felt a new interest in her.
“Pray tell me about it,” she said. “Is it a hunting country?”
“For men,” answered Letty. “But I never knew of women following the hounds. We sometimes go out on horseback to see the hunt, but we don’t really follow the hounds.”
“But there is good hunting, I fancy,” cried Miss Maywood with animation. “Mr. Romaine has promised me that, and I like a good stiff country, such as he tells me it is. I have hunted for four seasons in Yorkshire, but now that Gladys has married in London, she has invited me to be with her for six months in the year, and although I hate London, I love Gladys, and it’s a great saving, too. But it puts a stop to my hunting.”