"If you ask my advice, my lord, I would say better wait a year. It will be advisable for you to go yourself to South Africa and look into your uncle's investments there--as a private individual, of course, not as a public servant. Two-thirds of the receipts have fallen off since the war; learn what may be saved from the wreckage, or if there be a wreckage. I'm inclined to think not all, for the investments were varied. Your uncle may have been a silent member, but he was certainly a man of good business judgment--" Mr. Stretton paused and coughed a little apologetically before adding: "Not an inherited talent, only--ah--cultivated--cultivated--you know. Good business judgment is not a trait inherent in our peerage, as a rule." David was amused and entered the drawing-room with a smile on his face. His mother was pleased and rose instantly, coming forward with both hands extended to take his. He understood it as a welcome back to the family circle, the quiet talks and the evening lamp, less formal than the oppressive dinner had been. He held her hands thus offered and kissed the little anxious line on her brow, then playfully smoothed it with his finger. "We mustn't let it become permanent, you know, mother." "No, David. It will go now you are at home." He did not know that his mother and Laura had been having a lively discussion apropos of the silent tilt at the dinner-table, his sister pleading for a return to the old ways, and a release from such state and ceremony. "At least while we are by ourselves, mamma. Anyway, I know David will just hate it, and I don't see what good a title is if we must become perfect slaves to it." David crossed the room and sat down before the piano. "How strange this old place seems without the others--Bob, and the cousins, and uncle himself! We weren't admitted often--but--" "Sh--sh--" said Laura, who had followed him and stood at his ride. "Don't remind mamma. She remembers too much--all the time. Play the 'King's Hunting Jig,' David. Remember how you used to play it for me every evening after dinner, when I was a girl?" "Do I remember? Rather! I have done nothing with the piano since then--when you were a girl. I'll play it for you now, while you are a girl." "But I really am grown up now, David. It's quite absurd for me to go about like this. It's only because mamma chooses to have it so. She even keeps a governess for me still." "To her you are a child, and to me you are still a girl, and a mighty fine one." "It's so good to have you back, David! You haven't forgotten the Jig! Where's your flute? Get it, and I'll accompany you. I can drum a little now--after a fashion. We'll let them talk."