“Best to get it over, Mr. Jack.  I know it’s like going to the dentist.  But it can’t be as bad as you think.  It never is.  Besides, you’ll have somebody to hold your hand, so to speak.”

“I hope I shan’t scream out loud,” observed Jack.  “Yes, we’d better go—­if you don’t mind.”

He stood up and waited.  Jenny rose at once.

“I’ll go and get a hat.  Wait for me here, will you?  I needn’t tell father till this evening.”

(II)

The park looked delicious as they walked slowly up the grass under the shade of the trees by the side of the drive.  The great beeches and elms rose in towering masses, in clump after clump, into the distance, and beneath the nearest stood a great stag with half a dozen hinds about him, eyeing the walkers.  The air was very still; only from over the hill came the sound of a single church bell, where some infatuated clergyman hoped to gather the lambs of his flock together for instruction in the Christian religion.

“That’s a beauty,” said Jack, waving a languid hand towards the stag.  “Did you ever hear of the row Frank and I got into when we were boys?”

Jenny smiled.  She had been quite silent since leaving the Rectory.

“I heard of a good many,” she said.  “Which was this?”

Jack recounted a story of Red Indians and ambuscades and a bow and arrows, ending in the flight of a frantic stag over the palings and among the garden beds; it was on a Sunday afternoon, too.

“Frank was caned by the butler, I remember; by Lord Talgarth’s express orders.  Certainly he richly deserved it.  I was a guest, and got off clear.”

“How old were you?”

“We were both about eleven, I think.”

“Frank doesn’t strike me as more than about twelve now,” observed Jenny.

“There’s something in that,” admitted Jack....  “Oh!  Lord! how hot it is!” He fanned himself with his hat.

* * * * *

There was no sign of life as they passed into the court and up to the pillared portico; and at last, when the butler appeared, the irregular state of his coat-collar showed plainly that he but that moment had put his coat on.

(This would be about the time that Frank left the village after his interview with the priest.)

Yes; it seemed that Lord Talgarth was probably in the garden; and, if so, almost certainly in the little square among the yews along the upper terrace.  His lordship usually went there on hot days.  Would Miss Launton and Mr. Kirkby kindly step this way?

No; he was not to trouble.  They would find their own way.  On the upper terrace?

“On the upper terrace, miss.”

* * * * *