UNCLE GEORGE. And before we were his age, I had broken my collarbone and you had won the county steeplechase from me by a head, Jervas. Ha, that was a race, lad, never enjoyed anything more unless it was when the "Camberwell Chicken" went down and couldn't come up to time and the crowd-- AUNT JULIA. You were both so terribly wild and reckless! UNCLE JERVAS. No, my sweet woman, just ordinary healthy young animals. AUNT JULIA. My nephew is a young gentleman. UNCLE GEORGE. Ha! UNCLE JERVAS. H'm! A gentleman should know how to use his fists--there is Sir Peter Vibart, for instance. UNCLE GEORGE. And to shoot straight, Julia. UNCLE JERVAS. And comport himself in the society of the Sex. Yet you keep Peregrine as secluded as a young nun. MY AUNT. He prefers solitude. Love will come later. UNCLE JERVAS. Most unnatural! Before I was Peregrine's age I had been head over ears in and out of love with at least-- MY AUNT. Reprobate! UNCLE GEORGE. So had I, Julia. There was Mary--or was it Ann--at least if it wasn't Ann it was Betty or Bessie; anyhow, I know she was-- AUNT JULIA. Rake! UNCLE JERVAS. Remember, we were very young and had never been privileged to behold the Lady Julia Conroy-- UNCLE GEORGE. Begad, Julia--and there y'have it! MY AUNT. We were discussing my nephew, I think! MY UNCLE JERVAS. True, Julia, and I was about to remark that since you refuse to send him up to Oxford or Cambridge, the only chance I see for him is to quit your apron strings and go out into the world to find his manhood if he can. My aunt turned upon the speaker, handsome head upflung, but, ere she could speak, the grandfather clock in the corner rang the hour in its mellow chime. Thereupon my aunt rose to her stately height and reached out to me her slender, imperious hand. "Peregrine, it is ten o'clock. Good night, dear boy!" said she and kissed me. Thereafter, having kissed the hand that clasped mine, I bowed to my two uncles and went dutifully to bed. CHAPTER II TELLS HOW AND WHY I SET FORTH UPON THE QUEST IN QUESTION "Ladylike!" said I to myself, leaning forth from my chamber window into a fragrant summer night radiant with an orbed moon. But for once I was heedless of the ethereal beauty of the scene before me and felt none of that poetic rapture that would otherwise undoubtedly have inspired me, since my vision was turned inwards rather than out and my customary serenity hatefully disturbed. "Ladylike!" Thus, all unregarding, I breathed the incense of flowery perfumes and stared blindly upon the moon's splendour, pondering this hateful word in its application to myself. And gradually, having regard to the manifest injustice and bad taste of the term, conscious of the affront it implied, I grew warm with a righteous indignation that magnified itself into a furious anger against my two uncles.