"IRIS."
One sunny afternoon in spring, Lucian Leigh was sitting on a bench in
the garden at Ashfield Mount. Nearly two years had passed since he had
left Cleverley in the agony of his great disappointment, and he had now
come back to it for the first time.
The flowers were as gay as when he had walked among them during the
brief days of his betrothal, the house looked as cheerful and
comfortable as of old; the great deer-hound that sat at his feet was
unchanged during his absence, but Lucian himself had grown from youth to
manhood, and though the expression of his impassive, regular-featured
face had changed but little, it was so effectually bronzed, that hair,
and even eyes, showed light against the sunburn.
He sat still and smoked, and patted Donald's head--he liked the feel of
it--till footsteps approached, and he was hailed from the neighbouring
shrubbery.
"Ha, Syl!" he said, jumping up, "so there you are. Glad to see you."
"I'm uncommonly glad to see you," said Sylvester, grasping his hand. "I
began to think you were never coming home any more, but were permanently
given over to tigers and elephants. Did you like India?"
"No," said Lucian, "the big game is the only thing worth going there
for. I've had a shot, I believe, at everything there is there to shoot
at I know all the tracks of them, but so do so many other men. Now I
think of trying bears in the Rockies for a change; and I should like to
go north--an arctic expedition would be rather jolly."
"You want to add a polar bear's hide to all the tiger skins you have
sent home to adorn the hall at Toppings, before you settle down to pot
your own partridges."
"Yes," said Lucian.
"But what does Mrs Leigh say to that?"
"She doesn't like it. She wants me to go to London now, and, as she
calls it, `keep up our old connection,' and then keep open house at
Toppings in the autumn, have shoots, and so on. I have been there with
her now, you know, for two months."
"And you don't see it?"
"No, not yet. I must, of course, finally. But Evans is a very good
agent, and the Rectory people look after the tenants. I subscribe
properly to everything,--schools, and hunt, and county show, and so on;
but I'm not going to live there now. Why should I?"
"Well, you might see a little more of the world first, certainly."
"In two years' time Miss Carisbrooke comes of age, and the lease of this
house will be up. The mother will have to make a new start somewhere
then, and it will be time for Kate, at any rate, to come out. That
ought to be in our own neighbourhood, so I must be in England then."
"Does Miss Carisbrooke mean to live here?"
"I believe so. My mother had her to stay here, and liked her, before I
came home. You might try your luck, Syl, she's a catch. Her only
relation is a youngish uncle, her guardian. I believe he lives abroad a
good deal."