Then they returned to the Castle. The honeymoon had been postponed until the end of term, ten days later, and the arrangements for the first days of their married life were a little meagre. 'You must do the best you can, the Doctor had said. 'I suppose you will wish to share the same bedroom. I think there would be no objection to your both moving into the large room in theWest Tower. It is a little damp, but I daresay Diana will arrange for a fire to be lighted there. You may use the morning‑room in the evenings, and Captain Grimes will of course, have his meals at my table in the dining‑room, not with the boys. I do not wish to find him sitting about in the drawing‑room, nor, of course, in my library. He had better keep his books and gown in the Common Room, as before. Next term I will consider some other arrangement. Perhaps I could hand over one of the lodges to you or fit up some sort of sitting‑room in the tower. I was not prepared for a domestic upheaval.
Diana, who was really coming out of the business rather creditably, put a bowl of flowers in their bedroom, and lit a fire of reckless proportions, in which she consumed the remains of a desk and two of the boys' playboxes.
That evening, while Mr Prendergast was taking Prep. at the end of the passage, Grimes visited Paul in the Common Room. He looked rather uncomfortable in his evening clothes.
'Well, dinner's over, he said. 'The old man does himself pretty well.
'How are you feeling?
'Not too well, old boy. The first days are always a strain, they say, even in the most romantic marriages. My father‑in‑law is not what you might call easy. Needs thawing gently, you know. I suppose as a married man I oughtn't to go down to Mrs Roberts's?
'I think it might seem odd on the first evening, don't you?
'Flossie's playing the piano; Dingy's making up the accounts; the old man's gone off to the library. Don't you think we've time for a quick one?
Arm in arm they went down the familiar road.
'Drinks are on me to‑night, said Grimes.