“I am not going to stay,” said Jack Melland; and whatever his faults might be, he looked and spoke like a man who knew his own mind, and would abide thereby.

His three companions stared at him in silence, and one of the three at least felt a distinct sinking of the heart.

“I was beginning to like him; we got on quite famously at dinner, and I thought we were going to have ever such a good time together.  Now we shall be a wretched uncomfortable three, and Mr Druce will like Ruth best, and I shall be out in the cold.  How horrid!  How perfectly horrid!” grumbled Mollie to herself.

Just because she was so perturbed, however, she would not allow herself to speak, but put on an elaborate display of indifference, while Victor asked curiously-

“You mean that?  May one ask your reason?”

“Oh, certainly.  I never looked upon myself as having the slightest claim upon Mr Farrell, and I don’t care to ruin my business prospects for the sake of an off-chance.  Besides, the whole position is unpleasant; I object to being kept `on approval,’ with the consciousness that if I allow myself to be ordinarily agreeable I shall at once be credited with sponging for the old man’s favour.  I am quite satisfied with my own lot, without any outside assistance.”

“Don’t you care about money, then?” asked Ruth timidly.

Jack Melland threw back his head with an air of masterful complacency.

“I care about making money.  That is to say, I love my work, and wish it to be successful, but I am keen on it more for the sake of the interest and occupation than for what it brings.  A few hundreds a year supply all that I want, and I should not care to be burdened with a big fortune.  If you come into this place, Miss Farrell, I shall be grateful to you if you will ask me down for a few days’ shooting in the autumn, but I shall never envy you your responsibility.  To kick my heels here in idleness for three solid months, and know that the business was suffering for want of my presence-nothing would induce me to do it!”

But at this Mollie found her tongue, indignation spurring her to speech.

“You are not very polite to the rest of us!  I should not have thought it would be such a great hardship to stay in a lovely big house with three young companions, when summer was coming on, too!  I should think there are one or two people in the world who would like it even a little better than poking in a stuffy office from morning until night.  But there’s no accounting for tastes.  When you are grilling with heat in the City you can think of us sitting under the trees eating strawberries, and thank Fate you are so much better off.  We promise not to send you any.  It might remind you too painfully of the country!”

“Mollie!” cried Ruth in sharp reproof; but Jack laughed with good-natured amusement.

“Oh, I deserve it, Miss Farrell!  My remarks sounded horribly discourteous.  I assure you if I had the time to spare I should thoroughly enjoy staying on for a time under the present conditions; but as it is quite impossible to remain for three months, I might as well depart at once.  I don’t suppose Mr Farrell will wish to keep me under the circumstances.”

It appeared, however, Jack Melland was wrong in his surmise, for when he announced his decision to his host before bidding him good-night, the old man looked at him coldly and replied-

“I thought I had explained that we would discuss objections at a later date.  May I ask what limit you had mentally fixed to your visit when you did me the honour of accepting my invitation?”

“I hardly know-this is Monday.  I thought, perhaps until Saturday, or, at the longest, a week.”

Mr Farrell waved his hand in dismissal.

“We will leave it for a week, then.  On Monday morning next I will discuss the position as fully as you wish.  Now, if either of you young gentlemen cares to smoke, the billiard-room is at your service.  Please ring for anything you require.  Meantime, as it is past my usual hour for retiring, I wish you a very good-night.”

“Checkmate, old fellow!” cried Victor Druce, as the door closed behind the stooping figure; but Jack deigned no reply.

The cloud had returned to his forehead, his nostrils were curved with annoyance and thwarted self-will.

The cloud was still there when he came down to breakfast next morning, and did not lighten even at the sight of the well-appointed breakfast-table, and the two pretty girls who were seated thereat.  Some meals may be more attractive abroad than at home.  A French dinner, for example, has certain points above an English dinner; but we give way to none as regards our breakfast-that most delightful of meals to the strong and healthy, especially in springtime, when the sunshine pours in at the open window, and the scent of flowers mingles with the aroma of freshly made coffee.

The breakfast-table of the Court had all the attractions which one instinctively associates with old country houses.  The massive, old-fashioned silver, the revolving stand in the centre, the plentiful display of covered dishes to supplement the cold viands on the sideboard; and, as Mr Farrell invariably remained in his own room until lunch-time, the restraint of his presence was removed.

Little Mrs Wolff busied herself with the duties behind the urn, and Ruth and Mollie in serge skirts and spick and span white blouses looked as fresh as paint, and a great many times as pretty.  They were laughing and chatting with Victor Druce, who had donned Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and was quite the country gentleman both in appearance and in his manner of leisurely good-humour.

The entrance of Jack in what are technically called “Store clothes,” with a gloomy frown upon his forehead, seemed to strike a jarring note in this cheerful scene, and both girls were conscious of a distinct feeling of grievance against the offender.  Was it so dreadful a fate to be doomed to spend a whole week in their society?  Need a man look as if his last hope in life were extinguished because Fate kept him away from the City for seven days, and placed him instead in the sweet green country, with three companions of his own age who-to put it mildly- were not perfect ogres in appearance!

The necessary greetings were observed.  Jack helped himself to a bowl of porridge, and, looking up, asked discontentedly-

“Hasn’t the newspaper arrived?”

“Not yet, sir; it will be here by ten o’clock, sir,” the butler replied; and Mollie pulled down her lip with an expression of solemn propriety, and added-

“But perhaps I can relieve your anxiety in the meantime.  Cotton is down twenty points, very strong and steady, and the Bears are making fortunes. `Mauds’ are fluctuating, but `Louisa Christinas’ are in great demand; everybody is rushing after them.  The Bank rate is ten and a half, and Consols have gone up two per cent.  General market firm, with a tendency to drop.”

“My good child, what nonsense are you talking!” cried Ruth aghast, and the two young men exchanged glances and burst into a laugh; even Jack laughed, though such a feat had seemed impossible a moment before.

“What a thrilling report!  You make me more impatient than ever.  It is just like my luck to be out of the way when there is a chance of a good thing, though, after all, I don’t know if the wisest plan would not be to sell everything one had, and put the money in the bank-eh, Druce?  Ten and a half per cent!  Where do you get your knowledge, Miss Mary?”

“Oh, I see things in the newspapers, and I hear the pater talking to his friends.  Don’t call me `Miss Mary’ please, it sounds far too quiet and proper for me.  I am never called anything but Mollie, except when I overspend my allowance, and mother feels it her duty to scold me.  Are you on the Stock Exchange, Mr Melland?  What sort of business is it which you find so attractive?”

“I am afraid you would not be much wiser if I tried to explain.  We are what is called `brokers’; but there are an endless variety of businesses under the same name.  I have nothing, however, to do with `Mauds’ and `Christinas’!”

“Neither have I,” volunteered Victor smilingly, “To tell the truth, I have no money to invest, Briefs don’t come my way, and I am at present occupied listening to more fortunate fellows, and thinking how much better I could plead myself.  It palls at times, but I am fond of the profession, and have no wish to change it.”

“No,” said Mollie reflectively.  “The wigs are becoming!” and when the two young men leant back in their chairs and roared with laughter, she blushed and pouted, and looked so pretty that it did one good to see her.

The three earlier comers had finished their meal by this time, but they sat still until Jack had disposed of the toast and marmalade which makes the last breakfast course of every self-respecting Briton; then they rose one after the other, strolled over to the open window, and faced the question of the day-

“What shall we do?”

It was Ruth who spoke, and at the sound of her words the shadow came back to Jack’s brow.

“Yes, what shall we do?  Think of it-three months-twelve weeks- eighty-four separate days to lounge away with the same question on your lips!  I’d rather be sentenced to hard labour at once.  Life is not worth living without work.  I’d rather be a clerk on sixty pounds a year than stagnate as a country squire.”

“You would be a very bad squire if you did stagnate!” cried Mollie spiritedly, throwing back her little head, and looking up at him with a flash of the grey eyes.  “You would have your tenants to look after, and your property to keep in order, and the whole village looking to you to lead every scheme of pleasure or improvement, and the vicar looking to you to be his right hand, and all the growing boys looking to you to help them to a start in life, and the old people expecting you to make their last days easy.  You would be the hardest-worked man in the country if you did half the work that was waiting for you, and it would be unselfish work, too-thinking of others, and not of yourself.”

Jack looked at her, and his face softened.

“That’s true,” he said frankly.  “I’m sorry!  You are right, and I am wrong.  I’m in a bad temper, and can’t see things in their right light to-day.  Of course, if one really settled down to it, there would be plenty to do; it’s when one is only playing with the position that time drags.”

“Well, it ought not to drag to-day, at all events.  We must be very dull if we cannot amuse ourselves in surveying the domain, and seeing all there is to be seen.  I am going to put on my hat this minute and examine the gardens, and go down to the stables to look at the horses.  If anyone likes to come too, they may, but my plans are fixed,” cried Mollie, nodding her saucy head; and at the magic word “stables,” a ray of interest lit up the two masculine faces.

Ten minutes later the four young people were strolling down the drive, the girls with serge coats over their white blouses, and sailor-hats on their heads, the men wearing their cloth caps with an evident air of enjoyment.  They turned the corner of the house, and coming round to the south side uttered simultaneous exclamations of surprise and delight.

Along the entire length of the house ran an enormously wide terrace edged with a balustrade, from the centre of which a flight of marble steps led to an Italian garden, its green sward and stiffly outlined flower-beds flanked by a quantity of curiously cut shrubs.

Beyond this garden the ground dipped sharply, showing first a glade of trees whose fresh spring foliage contrasted with the dark colours of the evergreens; then came a glimpse of a lake, a sweep of park; and beyond all a glorious, wide-stretching view over the countryside.  Perched upon one of the highest sites for miles around, this terraced walk afforded such a panorama of beauty as is rarely to be found even in our well-favoured isles, and withal the beauty was of that peaceful, home-like nature which irresistibly endears itself to the heart.

The four young people stood in silence gazing from side to side, and into each mind, even that of the rebellious Jack himself, there crept the same thought.  This was indeed a goodly heritage, whose owner would be an enviable person!  The possibility of possessing it as a home was worth a far greater sacrifice than anything which had been demanded of themselves.

In those few minutes of silence dreams ran riot, and finally found vent in words.

“When the Court belongs to me I shall have an awning put up on this terrace and sit here all day long,” said Mollie; as usual the first to break the silence.

“I shall have a table brought out, and breakfast here every fine morning,” said Ruth.

“I’ll smoke here after dinner!” said Victor.

“I’ll do ditto in every case!” said Jack, then caught himself up sharply-“when I come to visit the Chosen, that is to say!  Of course, I’m out of the running.  What are you smiling at, Miss Mollie?” For, turning towards her, he had seen the grey eyes light up with a merry twinkle.  She shook her head, however, refusing to gratify his curiosity, and sped rapidly down the broad marble steps.

“He is beginning to have qualms!  The very first morning, and for a moment his resolution wavered.  The spell is working,” she told herself triumphantly; for, despite his lack of gallantry, both girls had already candidly admitted that upon Jack’s going or staying depended a great part of the pleasure of the next three months.  “Don’t persuade him; don’t mention the subject at all.  Let him think we don’t care how he decides.  Men are contradictious creatures, and the less he is urged the more likely he is to give way,” argued Ruth the experienced.  And Mollie dutifully agreed.