e to if I have time; but it's very improbable. I'm not
going to chuck sport though. Next year I may have more leisure."

"You're at 'The Seven Stars,' I hear--haven't forgiven Dick Gurd he
tells me."

"Did we quarrel? I forget. Seems funny to think I had enough time on my
hands to wrangle with an innkeeper. But I like Missis Northover's. It's
quiet."

"Shall I come in and dine this evening?"

"Wait till I'm back again. I've got to talk to my Aunt Jenny to-night.
She's one of the old brigade, but I'm hoping to make her see sense."

"When sense clashes with religion, old man, nobody sees sense. I'm
afraid your opinions won't entirely commend themselves to Miss
Ironsyde."

"Probably not. I quite realise that I shall have to exercise the virtue
of patience at Bridport and Bridetown for a year or two. But while I've
got you for a friend, Arthur, I'm not going to bother."

Waldron marked the imperious changes and felt somewhat bewildered.
Raymond left him not a little to think about, and when the younger had
ridden off, Arthur strolled afield with his thoughts and strove to bring
order into them. He felt in a vague sort of way that he had been talking
to a stranger, and his hope, if he experienced a hope, was that the new
master of the Mill might not take himself too seriously. "People who do
that are invariably one-sided," thought Waldron.

Upon Ironsyde's attitude and intentions with regard to Sabina, he also
reflected uneasily. What Raymond had declared sounded all right, yet
Arthur could not break with old rooted opinions and the general view of
conduct embodied in his favourite word. Was it "sporting"? And more
important still, was it true? Had Ironsyde arrived at his determination
from honest conviction, or thanks to the force of changed circumstances?
Mr. Waldron gave his friend the benefit of the doubt.

"One must remember that he is a good sportsman," he reflected, "and he
can't have enough brains to make him a bad sportsman."

For the thinker had found within his experience, that those who despised
sport, too often despised also the simple ethics that he associated with
sportsmanship. In fact, Arthur, after one or two painful experiences,
had explicitly declared that big brains often went hand in hand with a
doubtful sense of honour. He had also, of course, known numerous
examples of another sort of dangerous people who assumed the name and
distinction of "sportsman" as a garment to hide their true activi