“You shall, Richard,” he exclaimed.  “You are the very man to hear it.  Your aunt, Richard, is of too practical a mind for such speculations.  It’s a most curious problem.  Hubbard quite failed to throw any light upon it.  I myself am, I confess, bewildered.  And I wonder if a fresh young mind can help us to a solution.”  He patted his son on the shoulder and then took him by the arm.

“The fresh young mind will have a go, father,” said Dick.  “Fire away.”

“I was walking in the fields, my boy.”

“Yes, sir, among the cows.”

“Exactly, you put your finger on the very point.  How is it, I asked myself—­”

“That’s quite your old style, father.”

“Now isn’t it, Richard, isn’t it?” Mr. Hazlewood dropped Dick’s arm.  He warmed to his theme.  He caught fire.  He assumed the attitude of the orator.  “How is it that with the advancement of science and the progress of civilization a cow gives no more milk to-day than she did at the beginning of the Christian era?”

With outspread arms he asked for an answer and the answer came.

“A fresh young mind can solve that problem in two shakes.  It is because the laws of nature forbid.  That’s your trouble, father.  That’s the great drawback to sentimental enthusiasm.  It’s always up against the laws of nature.”

“Dick,” said Mrs. Pettifer, “by some extraordinary miracle you are gifted with common-sense.  I am off.”  She went away in a hurricane as she had come, and it was time that she did go, for even while she was closing the door Stella Ballantyne came out from her cottage to cross the meadow.  Dick was the first to hear the gate click as she unlatched it and passed into the garden.  He took a step towards the window, but his father interposed and for once with a real authority.

“No, Richard,” he said.  “Wait with us here.  Mrs. Ballantyne has something to tell us.”

“I thought so,” said Dick quietly, and he came back to the other two men.  “Let me understand.”  His face was grave but without anger or any confusion.  “Stella returned here last night after I had taken her home?”

“Yes,” said Thresk.

“To see you?”

“Yes.”

“And my father came down and found you together?”

“Yes.”

“I heard voices,” Mr. Hazlewood hurriedly interposed, “and so naturally I came down.”

Dick turned to his father.

“That’s all right, father.  I didn’t think you were listening at the keyhole.  I am not blaming anybody.  I want to know exactly where we are—­that’s all.”