And yet it was not the fear of accidents that really troubled him. What he feared most was that she might become disillusioned. As yet she had not awakened to the meaning and reality of life. She was like a child asleep, wandering through a fairyland of dreams and illusions. But she might awake at any moment--awake to the passion of love, awake to the romance as well as the reality of life. The appeal as yet had been to her vanity--to her sense of self-importance. There had been no appeal to her heart or affections. She did not know what love was, and if she married Lord Probus it would be well for her if she never knew. But love might awake when least expected; her heart might be stirred unconsciously. Some Romeo might cross her path, and with one glance of his eyes might change all her life and all her world; and a woman in love was more intractable than a comet. Sir John would not like to be brought into such a position that he would have to coerce his child. Spendthrift that he was, and worse, with a deep vein of selfishness that made him intensely unpopular with all his tenants, he nevertheless loved Dorothy with a very genuine affection. Geoffrey, his son and heir, had never appealed very strongly to his heart. Geoffrey was too much like himself, too indolent and selfish. But Dorothy was like her mother, whose passing was as the snapping of a rudder chain in a storm. The gritting of wheels on the gravel caused Sir John to turn suddenly on his heel, and descending the steps at the end of the terrace, he walked a little distance to meet the approaching carriage. Lord Probus was not expected, but he was not the less welcome on that account. "The day is so lovely that I thought I would drive across to have a peep at you all," Lord Probus said, stepping nimbly out of the landau. He was a dapper man, rather below the medium height, with a bald head and iron-grey, military moustache. He was sixty years of age, but looked ten years younger. "I am delighted to see you," Sir John said, with effusion, "and I am sure Dorothy will be when she returns." "She is out, is she?" "She is off riding as usual. Since you presented her with Jess, she has spent most of her time in the saddle." "She is a good horsewoman?" "Excellent. She took to riding as a duck takes to water. She rode with the hounds when she was ten." "I wish I could ride!" Lord Probus said, reflectively. "I believe horse exercise would do me good; but I began too late in life." "Like skating and swimming, one must start young if he is to excel," Sir John answered. "Yes, yes; and youth passes all too quickly." And his lordship sighed. "Well, as to that, one is as young as one feels, you know." And Sir John led the way into the house.