"Oh, I’m all right, dear," she said. "It’s very warm. Shall we go into the garden for a little? It’s lovely there now." "Yes; let’s," he said at once, though he had intended to go in and forage for food, for he was hungry again. They went into the garden through a tall iron gate in the wall, and walked up and down the long bowling green, which was hidden from the house by a high yew hedge. A fountain plashed in a pool at the far end of it; there were no flowers to be seen just here, but the air was full of their scent. The light had not yet faded out of the sky, but stars were beginning to twinkle in it. The grass was close cut, but wet with dew. He bent down to see whether she was fitly shod, and found she had put on goloshes. She laughed at him. "Nobody can see them," she said, "but you like taking care of your old mother, don’t you, darling?" "You’re not old," said Harry; "and of course you must be taken care of. Isn’t it lovely out here? I don’t think there can be any place so lovely as Royd in the whole world, though I haven’t seen much of the world, so far." "I think it’s lovely too," she said. "But I shouldn’t want to stay here always if you weren’t here. You’ve never _wanted_ to go away, have you, Harry?" He laughed at his remembrances. "Just for a little this afternoon, I thought I should like to go somewhere else," he said. "The children and I have been building our log cabin, and I rather wished it was a real one, quite away from everything, in some far-off country. But I suppose I shouldn’t like to be away from Royd for very long." "It won’t be very long before you do go away now," she said. "Oh, I do hope it won’t change you, Harry dear. It’s so different, out in the world. Sometimes I long for it, but I believe this is best, after all. If you told me I could go to-morrow I don’t think I would now. I wouldn’t go as long as you were here, and I knew you were happy being here." "I haven’t looked forward very much to going to Sandhurst," he said, thoughtfully. "I shan’t be nearly so free there as I am here, and I’m not sure I shall get on very well with the others. I’ve never had much to do with other people of my own age." "No, you’re different," she said. "But you’re much nicer. I don’t think you’d have been so nice if you had been brought up like other boys; or so happy, either. But you’ll have to be careful when you go away. There are lots of temptations which other boys of your age know about, and you don’t." He turned a smiling face on her. "Then hadn’t you better tell me about them?" he said. "Do you mean drinking and gambling? I was reading a book the other day about all that. It didn’t seem to me much of a temptation. I suppose I shall have as much money as I want without gambling for it, shan’t I? And why should I want to drink if I’m not thirsty?"