"That he's not!" contradicted the Admiral with warmth. "He is too good for his party, that's what he is. Take him and be thankful, Clarice. But I doubt if he'll go to you; he told me he wanted to rusticate." "I'll drop in on Monica on my way home," said Mrs. de Cressiers. "And I'm going to plant myself firmly here till bedtime," said Austin. His mother looked at him reproachfully, and he added heartily: "I really ought to be canonised, mother, so don't overdo it. Think of my busy day, and let me have a little recreation now. I really will come home before the small hours of the morning." Mrs. de Cressiers rose to go. Her son accompanied her to the gate, where the carriage was waiting; then he came back joyously to Sidney. "Now, Sid, what shall we do?" "Go and tell them to bring down tea to us here," said Sidney, sitting down by her father's side and taking up her work again. He made a grimace, but obeyed. Admiral Urquhart looked after his retreating figure with twinkling eyes. "If he were a few years older I should take myself off, my dear. As it is, I don't intend to move. He'll never make a good landlord, and his mother knows it. When he comes into the property he'll spend all his father has saved." "Now, dad, you shall not abuse him. He is a dear boy, and will be more popular than any former de Cressiers. They are so alarming as a rule." Austin returned and flung himself into a hammock under the trees. "The mother is as keen as mustard on these dinners. They are to introduce Sir Walter Rame as possible member." "I thought he refused to be canvassed," Sidney said. "He is in doubtful mind. Our first dinner is for the cream of Thanning Dale, our second for the ordinary. Now, which is this new arrival? The mother will sort him with her eye in a twinkling." "I don't think he is ordinary," said Sidney slowly. "I wish you would enlighten me as to this Monica Pembroke. She has only appeared since I left home. Everyone seems to know her, but I don't." "I suppose not; but she used to live at Crawford Manor, only after her parents' death she lost all her money and left the neighbourhood. She had one brother abroad in New Zealand. He wrote to her, telling her his wife was dead, and he wanted to come home. He said he would take a farm in England if she would join him. And she worked hard at an agricultural college and was full of it, and then on his way home, her brother died, and a small imp of a boy arrived alone. Monnie has, of course, adopted him, has put her brother's money into a farm, as he wished, and means to bring up the imp to work it. Meanwhile, she's master, and is making a huge success of it. She's a dear. She succeeds in everything she puts her hand to. I wish I had half her energy and capability." "What would you do with it?" Sidney's eyes grew wistful. "I should like to be of use to my generation," she said.