ssional
engagements, hard not to be able to entertain his friends, and perhaps
hardest of all to be obliged to refuse subscriptions to the numerous
charities in the town where his name had always stood conspicuously upon
the liberal list. His temper, never his strongest point, suffered under
the test, and he would come home from Grovebury in the evenings tired
out, moody and fretful, and inclined to find fault with everything and
everybody.

It took all his wife's sunny sweetness of disposition to keep the home
atmosphere cheerful and peaceful, for Egbert also had a temper, and was
bitterly disappointed at not being sent to Cambridge, and at having to
settle down in the family office instead. Father and son did not get on
remarkably well together. Mr. Saxon, like many parents, pooh-poohed his
boy's business efforts, and would sometimes--to Egbert's huge
indignation--point out his mistakes before the clerks. He would declare,
in a high and mighty way, that his own son should not receive special
preference at the office, and so overdid his attitude of impartiality
that he contrived to give him a worse time than any of his other
articled pupils.

Athelstane, who had begun his medical course at the University of
Birkshaw, also had his troubles. He had hoped to study at Guy's Hospital
in preparation for the London M.D., and to an ambitious young fellow it
was hard to be satisfied with a provincial degree. The thirty-mile motor
ride to and from Birkshaw soon lost its charm, and the difficulties of
home study in the evenings were great in a bungalow with thin partition
walls and a family not always disposed to quiet. As a rule, he kept his
feelings to himself, but he went about with a depressed look, and got
into a habit of lifting his eyebrows which was leaving permanent lines
on a hitherto smooth and unwrinkled forehead.

Pretty Quenrede, who had just left school, was going through the awkward
phase of discovering her individuality. At the College, with a full
program of lessons and games, she had followed the general lead of the
form. Now, cast upon her own resources, she was quite vague as to any
special bent or taste. The war-time occupations which had tempted her
imagination were no longer available, and _Careers for Women_ did not
attract her, even if family funds had run to the necessary training. So,
for the present, she stayed at home, going once a week to the School of
Art at Grovebury, and practicing singing in