"Better come and try," she said, smiling. "Don't forget that I've seen you look the part, anyway--your wig and gown suited you very well." "Theatrical properties," he replied, laughing. "The wig was too small, and the gown too long. Well--we'll see. But in the meantime, I'm going away for four months--to India." "To India--four months!" she exclaimed. "That sounds nice." "Legal business," said Collingwood. "I shall be back about the end of April--and then I shall probably come down here again, and seriously consider Eldrick's suggestion. I'm very much inclined to take it." "Then--you'd leave London?" she asked. "I've little to leave there," replied Collingwood. "My father and mother are dead, and I've no brothers, no sisters--no very near relations. Sounds lonely, doesn't it?" "One can feel lonely when one has relations," said Nesta. "Are you saying that from--experience?" he asked. "I often wish I had more to do," she answered frankly. "What's the use of denying it? I've next to nothing to do, here. I liked my work at the hospital--I was busy all day. Here----" "If I were you," interrupted Collingwood, "I'd set to work nursing in another fashion. Look after your brother! Get him going at something--even if it's playing golf. Play with him! It would do him--and you--all the good in the world if you got thoroughly infatuated with even a game. Don't you see?" "You mean--anything is better than nothing," she replied. "All right--I'll try that, anyway. For--I'm anxious about Harper. All this money!--and no occupation!" Collingwood, who was sitting near the windows, looked out across the park and into the valley beyond. "I should have thought that a man who had come into an estate like this would have found plenty of occupation," he remarked. "What is there, beside the house and this park?" Nesta, who had busied herself with some fancy-work since Collingwood's entrance, laid it down and came to the windows. She pointed to certain roofs and gables in the valley. "There's the whole village of Normandale," she said. "A busy place, no doubt, but it's all Harper's--he's lord of the manor. He's patron of the living, too. It's all his--farms, cottages, everything. And the woods, and the park, and this house, and a stretch of the moors, as well. Of course, he ought to find a lot to do--but he doesn't. Perhaps because my mother does everything. She really is a business woman." Collingwood looked out over the area which Nesta had indicated. Harper Mallathorpe, he calculated, must be possessed of some three or four thousand acres. "A fine property!" he said. "He's a very fortunate fellow!"