way of getting rid of his
income. Like most beginners at the game, he has hardly any good horses,
but that is probably because he hasn't time to look after them himself."

"Is he a friend of yours?" Alice asked.

"Oh, well, he comes over to Haredale Park pretty frequently. My father
has struck up a sort of intimacy with him. Between ourselves, I detest
the man. He goes everywhere in virtue of his money, but he is not a
gentleman, as anybody can see. I am going to tell you a secret, Alice,
which you must not tell to a soul. Mr. Copley is anxious to marry me.
Needless to say, I have given him very little encouragement."

"Of course, you wouldn't," Alice said. "You haven't forgotten what you
used to tell me at school. Don't you remember how you confided in me
about Harry Fielden, and how you used to read part of his letters? I
never knew what became of him."

"No, I never told you. Well, perhaps I will to-night before we go to
bed. It was a very unfortunate business altogether. There was nothing
wrong about Harry. He was merely very reckless and extravagant, and got
rid of his money and went abroad. He hadn't a single penny left, and
there was an end of my romance. It sounds very commonplace, but it is
just as serious to me as if it were one of those pretty stories we read
in books. So now Harry has nothing and I have nothing, and some day or
other I shall end, I suppose, in marrying a man for the sake of a home.
But you may be certain it won't be Mr. Raymond Copley."

"How very sad!" Alice said sympathetically. "Do you ever see Mr.
Fielden?"

"Oh, yes," May laughed unsteadily. "In fact, he is coming towards us
now."

CHAPTER XXIV

A STRANGE VISITOR

Interest as well as sympathy lit up Alice Carden's eyes. She looked with
something more than curiosity at the well-set-up young man who came
striding across the turf towards them. May reached over and laid an
impressive hand upon her friend's arm.

"I am not sure I meant to tell you so much," she whispered. "I spoke on
the spur of the moment. Harry came back to England unexpectedly a little
time ago, and I met him by accident in London. It was a bit romantic in
its way, but I'll tell you about that later. He came down here to his
old home to get some of his belongings, and, to his surprise, nobody
recognized him. I was the only person who knew him, excepting an old
stud-groom who had been in the employ of the Fieldens for the last fifty
years. When he foun