shekels in bridge."

"And what about the book?" Clare asked.

"Oh! going on," said Randal. "I showed Cressel a chapter the other
day--you know the New Argus man; and he was very nice about it. Of
course, some of the older men won't like it, you know. It fairly goes
for their methods, and I flatter myself hits them pretty hard once or
twice. You know, Miss Trojan, it's the young school you've got to look
to nowadays; it's no use going back to those mid-Victorians--all very
well for the schoolroom--cause and effect and all that kind of
thing--but we must look ahead--be modern and you will be progressive,
Miss Trojan."

"That's just what I'm always saying, Mr. Randal," said Clare, smiling.
"We're fighting a regular battle over it down here, but I think we will
win the day."

Randal turned to Harry. "And you, sir," he said, "are with us, too?"

Harry laughed. He knew that Robin was looking at him. "I have been
away," he said, "and perhaps I have been a little surprised at the
strides that things have made. Twenty years is a long time, and I was
romantic and perhaps foolish enough to expect that Pendragon would be
very much the same when I came back. It has changed greatly, and I am
a little disappointed."

Clare looked up. "My brother has lost touch a little, Mr. Randal," she
said, "and I don't think quite sees what is good for the place--indeed,
necessary. At any rate, he scarcely thinks with us."

"With _us_." There was emphasis on the word. That meant Robin too.
Randal glanced at him for a moment and then he turned to Robin--father
and son! A swift drawing of contrasts, perhaps with an inevitable
conclusion in favour of his own kind. It was suddenly as though the
elder man was shut out of the conversation; they had, in a moment,
forgotten his very presence. He sat in the dusk by the window, his
head in his hands, and terrible loneliness at his heart; it hurt as he
had never known before that anything could hurt. He had never known
that he was sensitive; in Auckland it had not been so. He had never
felt things then, and had a little despised people that had minded.
But there had been ever, in the back of his mind, the thought of those
days that were coming when, with his son at his side, he could face all
things. Well, now he had his son--there, with him in the room. The
irony of it made him clench his hands, there in the dark, whilst they
talked in the lighted room behind him.

"Oh! King's