and he was put to extraordinary shifts to get in and out of
the house unobserved in riding clothes; until, being made a member of the
Goat's Club, he was able to transport them there, where he could change
unregarded and slip off on his hack to Richmond Park. He kept his
growing sentiment religiously to himself. Not for a world would he
breathe to the 'fellows,' whom he was not 'seeing,' anything so
ridiculous from the point of view of their creed and his. But he could
not help its destroying his other appetites. It was coming between him
and the legitimate pleasures of youth at last on its own in a way which
must, he knew, make him a milksop in the eyes of Crum. All he cared for
was to dress in his last-created riding togs, and steal away to the Robin
Hill Gate, where presently the silver roan would come demurely sidling
with its slim and dark-haired rider, and in the glades bare of leaves
they would go off side by side, not talking very much, riding races
sometimes, and sometimes holding hands. More than once of an evening, in
a moment of expansion, he had been tempted to tell his mother how this
shy sweet cousin had stolen in upon him and wrecked his 'life.' But
bitter experience, that all persons above thirty-five were spoil-sports,
prevented him. After all, he supposed he would have to go through with
College, and she would have to 'come out,' before they could be married;
so why complicate things, so long as he could see her? Sisters were
teasing and unsympathetic beings, a brother worse, so there was no one to
confide in. Ah! And this beastly divorce business! What a misfortune
to have a name which other people hadn't! If only he had been called
Gordon or Scott or Howard or something fairly common! But Dartie--there
wasn't another in the directory! One might as well have been named
Morkin for all the covert it afforded! So matters went on, till one day
in the middle of January the silver-roan palfrey and its rider were
missing at the tryst. Lingering in the cold, he debated whether he
should ride on to the house: But Jolly might be there, and the memory of
their dark encounter was still fresh within him. One could not be always
fighting with her brother! So he returned dismally to town and spent an
evening plunged in gloom. At breakfast next day he noticed that his
mother had on an unfamiliar dress and was wearing her hat. The dress was
black with a glimpse of peacock blue, the hat black and lar