to have an occasional change, and I am glad
you are going to Haredale Park. I suppose you can manage to put your
painting pupils off for a week or two? Probably you will find it lonely
when I am away. I shall only be able to run over from the Continent
occasionally."

"Oh, I shall miss you," Alice said. "But I shall be safe enough. The
landlady is always motherly, and she will see I come to no harm."

The Major dismissed the subject with a flourish of his cigar. He had
rather feared his daughter might give way to tears. He thought she might
ask him to take her along with him and so put him to the pain of
refusal. Possibly the girl was looking too eagerly forward to her visit
to Haredale Park to think of anything else. She had not forgotten the
days when Major Carden was a man of position and they occupied a fine
house in the country, when she had her horse and plunged into the dear
delights of country life. It was good to feel she was going back to it,
even though it was only for a little time. She had already made her
modest preparations. She only hoped there would not be too many visitors
at Haredale Park. But May Haredale had assured her they lived very
quietly and had not many friends.

"I am getting nervous about it," she said. "It will seem so different to
the life I have been leading here. If I had only foreseen this I might
have saved up and bought myself another dress or two. Still, I know I
shall enjoy myself."

"Of course you will," the Major said heartily. "But you won't get much
gaiety at Haredale. They don't go in for society much. You see, there
are very few of the old families left. Times change, my dear, and we
change with them. I don't suppose, plainly speaking, that Sir George is
much better off than I am. I happen to know that much depends upon the
Blenheim colt winning this year's Derby. I was in the Post Club
yesterday with one or two of my----"

The Major coughed hastily as if his cigar smoke had gone the wrong way.

"What am I talking about?" he exclaimed. "Anybody would think I am still
interested in sport. Do you know, beyond an occasional day at a small
meeting, I have no time for that sort of thing. I was in the Post Club
on business, purely on business. It is a very sad thing to see young
men wasting so much of their time and money on horses. But I can't
prevent them from talking and am bound to hear the gossip that goes on.
That is how I came to know so much about Sir George's affairs