"No, mother; there are too many last things to do. Next day we will."
"Why can't we go and leave this young man to finish up after us?"
"He could not do it, mother; and we must let father know, besides."
Rupert came back in due time and was presented to Mrs. Copley; but Mrs. Copley did not admire his looks, and the supper-table party was very silent. The silence became unbearable to the new-comer; and though he was not without a certain shyness in Dolly's presence, it became at last easier to speak than to go on eating and not speaking.
"Plenty of shootin' round about here, I s'pose," he remarked. "I heard the guns going."
"The preserves of Brierley are very full of game," Dolly answered; "and there are some friends of Lord Brierley staying at the house."
"I engaged a waggon," Rupert went on. "It'll be here at one, sharp."
"I ought to have sent a word to the post-office, for father, when you went to the village; but I did not think till it was too late."
"I did that," said Rupert.
"Sent a word to father?"