to think he would, no doubt, realize the
necessity of safeguarding his son's good name and even his austere
uprightness might fail to stand the strain.

It was half an hour later when Mrs. Keith, who had walked as fast as
she was able, met Foster and the others coming back. She stopped, hot
and breathless, with keen disappointment, for neither Colonel Challoner
nor Mrs. Chudleigh were among them. Then, rousing herself, with an
effort, she asked where they were.

"I can't tell," Mrs. Foster replied. "They dropped behind us and may
have gone home. Mrs. Chudleigh soon gets tired of walking."

Mrs. Keith's heart sank and Foster noticed her expression. "It's a
good way from Hazlehurst, but you look as if you had been hurrying," he
remarked. "Are you very much disappointed that you didn't meet us
earlier?"

"I am disappointed that I missed Challoner," Mrs. Keith answered with a
forced smile.

Foster, who gave her a keen glance, tactfully talked about his shooting
as they went back together, and on reaching the house they found that
Challoner had already driven home.

CHAPTER XIX

CHALLONER'S DECISION

The morning was mild and Challoner paced slowly up and down his
shrubbery. Bright sunshine fell upon him, the massed evergreens cut
off the wind, and in a sheltered border spear-like green points were
pushing through the soil in promise of the spring. Challoner knew them
all, the veined crocus blades, the tight-closed heads of the hyacinths,
and the twin shoots of the daffodils, but, fond as he was of his
garden, he gave them scanty attention, and by and by sat down in a
sheltered nook lost in painful thought. He had a careworn look and had
left the house in a restless mood with a wish to be alone in the open
air.

Mrs. Chudleigh's revelation had been a shock. With his sense of duty
and family pride, he had, when the news of the frontier disaster first
reached him, found it almost impossible to believe that his nephew had
been guilty of shameful cowardice; and now it looked as if the disgrace
might be brought still closer home. Bertram would presently take his
place and, retiring from active service, rule the estate in accordance
with Challoner traditions and perhaps exert some influence in politics;
he remembered that Mrs. Chudleigh had laid some stress on this. She
had, however, told him that Bertram, from whom so much was expected,
had shown himself a poltroon and, what was even worse, had allow