service had begun.

"It does not appear to me that you are at all in need of sick-leave,"
said Mrs. de Tracy suspiciously.

Carnaby, sensitive for all his robustness, flushed hotly, and then
became impertinent. "My pulse is twenty beats too quick still, after
quinsy. If you don't believe the doctor, ma'am, it's not my fault."

"Carnaby has committed indiscretions in the way of growing since I
last saw him," Lavendar broke in hastily. "At sixteen one may easily
outgrow one's strength!"

"Indeed!" said Mrs. de Tracy, frigidly. The situation was saved by the
behaviour of the lap-dog, which suddenly burst into a passion of
barking and convulsive struggling in Miss Smeardon's arms. His enemy
had come, and Carnaby had fifty ways of exasperating his grandmother's
favourite, secrets between him and the bewildered dog. Rupert was a
Prince Charles of pedigree as unquestioned as his mistress's and an
appearance dating back to Vandyke, but Carnaby always addressed him as
"Lord Roberts," for reasons of his own. It annoyed his grandmother and
it infuriated the dog, who took it for a deadly insult.

"Lord Roberts! Bobs, old man, hi! hi!" Carnaby had but to say the
words to make the little dog convulsive. He said them now, and the
results seemed likely to be fatal to a dropsical animal so soon after
a full meal.

"You'll kill him!" whispered Robinette as they left the dining room.

"I mean to!" was the calm reply. "I'd like to wring old Smeardon's
neck too!" but the broad good humour of the rosy face, the twinkling
eyes, belied these truculent words. In spite of infinite powers of
mischief, there was not an ounce of vindictiveness in Carnaby de
Tracy, though there might be other qualities difficult to deal with.

"There's a man to be made there--or to be marred!" said Robinette to
herself.

IX

POINTS OF VIEW

Evenings at Stoke Revel were of a dullness all too deep to be sounded
and too closely hedged in by tradition and observance to be evaded or
shortened by the boldest visitor. Lavendar and the boy would have
prolonged their respite in the smoking room had they dared, but in
these later days Lavendar found he wished to be below on guard. The
thought of Robinette alone between the two women downstairs made him
uneasy. It was as though some bird of bright plumage had strayed into
a barnyard to be pecked at by hens. Not but what he realised that this
particular bird had a spirit of her own, and plenty of courage