elina has no luck!--there he is."

"Oh! he will be one of the shining lights of our side before long," said
Aldous, with resignation. "Since he gave up his seat here, there has
been some talk of finding him one in the Alresfords' neighbourhood, I
believe. But I don't suppose anybody's very anxious for him. He is to
address a meeting, I see, on the Tory Labour Programme next week. The
_Clarion_, I suppose, will go round with him."

"Beastly rag!" said Frank, fervently. "It's rather a queer thing, isn't
it, that such a clever chap as that should have made such a mess of his
chances. It almost makes one not mind being a fool."

He laughed, but bitterly, and at the same moment the cloud that for some
twenty minutes or so seemed to have completely rolled away descended
again on eye and expression.

"Well, there are worse things than being a fool," said Aldous, with
insidious emphasis--"sulking, and shutting up with your best friends,
for instance."

Frank flushed deeply, and turned upon him with a sort of uncertain fury.

"I don't know what you mean."

Whereupon Aldous slipped his arm inside the boy's, and prepared himself
with resignation for the scene that had to be got through somehow, when
Frank suddenly exclaimed:

"I say, there's Miss Boyce!"

Never was a man more quickly and completely recalled from altruism to
his own affairs. Aldous dropped his companion's arm, straightened
himself with a thrill of the whole being, and saw Marcella some distance
ahead of them in the Mellor drive, which they had just entered. She was
stooping over something on the ground, and was not apparently aware of
their approach. A ray of cold sun came out at the moment, touched the
bending figure and the grass at her feet--grass starred with primroses,
which she was gathering.

"I didn't know you were going to call," said Frank, bewildered. "Isn't
it too soon?"

And he looked at his companion in astonishment.

"I came to speak to Miss Boyce and her mother on business," said Aldous,
with all his habitual reserve. "I thought you wouldn't mind the walk
back by yourself."

"Business?" the boy echoed involuntarily.

Aldous hesitated, then said quietly:

"Mr. Boyce appointed me executor under his will."

Frank lifted his eyebrows, and allowed himself at least an inward "By
Jove!"

By this time Marcella had caught sight of them, and was advancing. She
was in deep mourning, but her hands were full of primroses, which shone
again