"No. Curiously enough, he didn’t seem to want to talk much about the artist. He just said that he was an interesting fellow to talk to, but they’d decided not to ask him to the Castle. He had his daughter with him, and I suppose they’d have had to ask her too, though Wilbraham didn’t give that as a reason, and only just mentioned her. But he seems to have gone up to talk to the father most afternoons." "You know the village gossip about the artist, don’t you?" said Mrs. Grant. "I don’t encourage village gossip," said the Vicar. "How very superior you are!" said Miss Minster. "I love it." "Perhaps you would rather I didn’t tell you what they say, dear," suggested Mrs. Grant. "I think it’s my duty to hear it," said the Vicar with a grin. "Well, they say he was a hard drinker, and the number of empty bottles he left behind him was past belief." "Perhaps Mr. Wilbraham went there to drink with him," said Miss Minster, "and that accounts for his moroseness." "You oughtn’t to say a thing like that," said Grant. "Wilbraham is a teetotaler. None of them drink anything at the Castle." "Perhaps that’s why he liked going to see the artist," said Miss Minster, impenitently. "And he doesn’t even drink a glass of claret when he lunches or dines here. No, you ought not to say that, even in fun. I think what’s the matter with him is that his teaching of Harry is coming to an end. Of course he has been here for many years, and I suppose he’ll have to look about for something else to do. I don’t suppose he really likes handing Harry over to Hamerton for a lot of his work. In fact, he said as much. He’s devoted to the boy." "Everybody is," said Mrs. Grant, "and at the Castle everything centres round him. Poor Lady Brent seems more stiff and stand-offish than ever. I suppose she feels it too, that everything she has lived for, for years past, is coming to an end, and now it will be tested whether she has been right in bringing a boy up as she has Harry, shut away from the world." "I shouldn’t call Lady Brent stiff and stand-offish," said Grant. "I only meant in everything that has to do with Harry. One would like to talk to her about him, but——" "Surely she’s always ready for that!" interrupted Miss Minster. "Only on the surface. She wouldn’t think of telling one anything that she must be feeling about the future. Oh, I do hope everything will turn out right. It is dangerous to keep a boy shut up as Harry has been, but I think it will pay with him. He’s good right through, and he’s a splendid boy too—physically, I mean." "A good man on a horse," said Grant, in a voice indicative of quotation marks. "Yes, he’s not been mollycoddled. I’m afraid he’ll have some rude shocks when he gets among other young fellows of his age, but he’ll be just as good as they are in the things that young men admire, and he has a fine character to carry him through. I hope she’ll be justified in the course she has taken. I think she will."