rose at half-past
seven, they breakfasted at a quarter after eight; at nine, young Mr.
Manning, the farm superintendent, was in waiting, and Hugh spent two
or more hours in his company, inspecting, correcting, planning; for
two thousand acres of the original Chiltern estate still remained. Two
thousand acres which, since the General's death, had been at sixes and
sevens. The General's study, which was Hugh's now, was piled high with
new and bulky books on cattle and cultivation of the soil. Government
and state and private experts came and made tests and went away again;
new machinery arrived, and Hugh passed hours in the sun, often with
Honora by his side, installing it. General Chiltern had been president
and founder of the Grenoble National Bank, and Hugh took up his duties
as a director.

Honora sought, with an energy that had in it an element of desperation,
to keep pace with her husband. For she was determined that he should
have no interests in which she did not share. In those first days it was
her dread that he might grow away from her, and instinct told her that
now or never must the effort be made. She, too, studied farming; not
from books, but from him. In their afternoon ride along the shady river
road, which was the event of her day, she encouraged him to talk of his
plans and problems, that he might thus early form the habit of bringing
them to her. And the unsuspecting male in him responded, innocent of the
simple subterfuge. After an exhaustive discourse on the elements lacking
in the valley soil, to which she had listened in silent intensity, he
would exclaim:

"By George, Honora, you're a continual surprise to me. I had no idea a
woman would take an interest in these things, or grasp them the way you
do."

Lordly commendations these, and she would receive them with a flush of
gratitude.

Nor was it ever too hot, or she too busy with household cares, for her
to follow him to the scene of his operations, whatever these might be:
she would gladly stand for an hour listening to a consultation with the
veterinary about an ailing cow. Her fear was lest some matter of like
importance should escape her. She had private conversations with
Mr. Manning, that she might surprise her husband by an unsuspected
knowledge. Such were her ruses.

The housekeeper who had come up from New York was the subject of a
conjugal conversation.

"I am going to send her away, Hugh," Honora announced. "I don't
believe---yo