iously and
accepted his criticism. The judgment of his father completed the
impression that he had begun to receive. He was impossible. Randal
was going by the 10.45, and he would walk to the station.

"A whiff of fresh air, Robin, is absolutely essential. You must walk
down with me. I hate to go, Miss Trojan."

"Very soon to return, I hope, Mr. Randal," answered Clare. She liked
him, and thought him an excellent influence for Robin.

"Thank you--it's very kind--but one's busy, you know. It's been hard
enough to snatch these few days. Besides, Robin isn't alone in the
same way now. He has his father."

Clare made no reply, but her silence was eloquent.

"I'm sorry for him, Miss Trojan," he said. "He is, I'm afraid, a
little out of it. Twenty years, you know, is a long time."

Clare smiled. "He is unchanged," she said. "What he was as a boy, he
is now."

"He is fortunate," Randal said gravely. "For most of us experience has
a jostling series of shocks ready. Life hurts."

He said good-bye with that air of courtly melancholy that Clare admired
so much. He shook Harry warmly by the hand and expressed a hope of
another meeting.

"I should be delighted," Harry said. "What sort of time am I likely to
catch you in town?"

But Randal, alarmed at this serious acceptance of an entirely ironical
proposal, was immediately vague and gave no definite promise. Harry
watched them pass down the drive, then he turned back slowly into the
house.

It was one of those blue and gold days that are only to be realised
perfectly in Cornwall--blue of the sky and the sea, gold on the roofs
and the rich background of red and brown in the autumn-tinted trees,
whilst the deep green of the lawns in front of the house seemed to hold
both blues and golds in its lights and shadows. The air was perfectly
still and the smoke from a distant bonfire hung in strange wreaths of
grey-blue in the light against the trees, as though carved delicately
in marble.

Randal discussed his prospects. He spoke, as he invariably did with
regard to his past and future, airily and yet impressively: "I don't
like to make myself too cheap," he said. "There are things any sort of
fellow can do, and I must say that I shrink from taking bread out of
the mouths of some of them. But of course there are things that one
_must_ do--where special knowledge is wanted--not that I'm any good,
you know, but I've had chances. Besides, one must work sl