"Yes--and that'll suit her at all events." (Did he unintentionally hint that some other things would not?) "She's straight as a die, isn't she? Look at the straight way she's treated me! As soon as she saw me--well, inclined to be--oh, you know!--she put it all straight directly; and we're the best of pals--I'd go through fire and water for her--and I wished the old governor luck with all my heart." "I'm delighted to hear you feel like that about it--I really am. And I'm sure Miss Driver would be, too. I hope Lady Sarah is equally pleased?" His blue eyes twinkled. "You needn't put that on for me, Austin," he remarked, with a pleasant lapse into greater intimacy. "I imagine Aunt Sarah's feelings are no secret! However, she said all the proper things and pecked the governor's cheek. Couldn't ask more, could you?" He laughed as he stretched his shapely gaitered legs before the fire. "After all, there'll be two pretty big houses--Fillingford and Breysgate! Room for all!" "You'll be wanting one presently." "I shall live with the old folks--I say, how'd Miss Driver like to hear that?--till I get married--which won't be for a long while, I hope. Then we'll set Aunt Sarah up at Hatcham Ford. Octon will be gone by then, I hope! I saw the fellow in the town the other day. I wonder he doesn't go. It can't be pleasant to stop in a place where you're cut!" "Octon has his own resources, I daresay." "Sorry for the resources!" Lacey remarked. "I say, how long ought we to give the governor?" "Don't hurry matters." "It can't take very long, can it? The governor means to settle it out of hand; he almost said as much." "But then there's the lady. Perhaps she----" "Between ourselves, I fancy he thinks he's waited long enough." I had the same impression, but my mind had wandered back to another point. "When did you see Octon?" I asked. "I trotted Aunt Sarah down to that place--what's it called?--where the Institute offices are. Aunt Sarah's got very keen on the Institute; she must mean to queer it somehow, I think! Well, Octon was there, talking to the clerk. She cut him dead, of course--marched by the pair of them with her head up. Powers ran after her, and I addressed an observation to Octon. You remember that little spar we had?" "At the Flower Show? Yes, I remember." "I was a bit fresh then," he confessed candidly, "and perhaps he wasn't so far wrong to sit on me. But the beggar's got a rough way of doing it. Well, it didn't seem civil to say nothing, so I said, 'I haven't had that thrashing yet, and I'm getting a bit too big for it, like you, Mr. Octon.'" "Was that your idea of something civil?" I felt constrained to ask. "He didn't mind," Lacey assured me. "But he said a funny thing. He grinned at me quite kindly and said, 'You're just coming to the size for something much worse.' What do you think he meant by that, Austin?" "I haven't the least idea."