There was a pause, then Stafford said: "Do you know any of your neighbours--any of the people round about?"

"No; I was never here until yesterday, excepting for an hour or two.

But we shall know them, I suppose; they'll call in a little while, and

we will ask them to dinner, and so on. There should be some nice

people--Ah, Mr. Howard, we've stolen a march on you!"

"I'm not surprised, sir," said Howard, as he came up in his slow and

languid way. "I am sorry to say that Stafford has an extremely bad

habit of getting up at unreasonable hours. I wait until I am dragged

out of bed by a fellow-creature or the pangs of hunger. Of course you

have been bathing, Staff? Early rising and an inordinate love of cold

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water--externally--at all seasons are two of his ineradicable vices,

Sir Stephen. I have done my best to cure them, but--alas!"

They went in to breakfast, which was served in a room with bay windows

opening on to the terrace overlooking the lake. Exactly opposite

Stafford's chair was the little opening on the other side from which he

and the girl from Heron Hall had gazed at the villa. He looked at it

and grew silent.

A large dispatch-box stood beside Sir Stephen's plate. He did not open

it, but sent it to his room.

"I never read my letters before breakfast," he remarked. "They spoil

one's digestion. I'm afraid the mail's heavy this morning, judging by

the weight of the box; so that I shall be busy. You two gentlemen will,

I trust, amuse yourselves in your own way. Mr. Howard, the groom will

await your orders."

"Thanks," said Howard; "but I propose to sit quite still on a chair

which I have carried out on to the terrace. I have had enough of

driving to last me for a week;" and he shuddered.

Stafford laughed.

"Howard's easily disposed of, sir," he said. "Give him a hammock or an

easy-chair in the shade, and he can always amuse himself by going to

sleep."

"True; and if half the men I know spent their time in a similar fashion

this would be a brighter and a better world. What you will do, my dear

Stafford, I know by bitter experience. He will go and wade through a

river or ride at a break-neck pace down some of those hills. Stafford

is never happy unless he is trying to lay up rheumatism for his old age

or endeavouring to break his limbs."




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