She did not reply, only drew out her purse from her pocket, and Roy knew this was a signal for his dismissal.

“Now,” said Mrs. Bertram, “this is the sovereign that I usually give you.  I hope you will spend it wisely.  Tell me when it is gone what you have done with it.  I hope you will spend a happy day.  Give me a kiss and leave me.  Oh, if only you were more like your handsome father!”

Roy took his gift, thanked her for it, and giving his grandmother a kiss, left the room very quietly.

Outside the door he paused on the door-mat, and drew his jacket across his eyes with a strangled sob.

“It’s a pity God won’t make me strong, but I don’t seem to be able to do it myself.”

And then with a shout for Dudley, a minute after he was tearing round the house, showing his pet mice to all, and chattering away as if he had not a care upon him.

General Newton arrived soon after and took a more cheering view of his ward’s appearance than had his grandmother.

“You’ll grow into a splendid fellow yet,” he said, patting him on the shoulder, “and you’ll out-top your cousin.  Have you been in many scrapes lately?”

“They’re good boys on the whole,” replied Miss Bertram, smiling; “except when they try to be philanthropists, and then they come to grief.”

“Oh, that’s the last idea, is it?  When I was here before they were going to be travelling peddlers.  Have you made a choice of any profession yet, either of you?”

“Yes, I’m going to be a traveller and discoverer,” said Roy, with decision.

“Oh, indeed!  Then you’ve still the love for exploration.  How is your friend old Principle?  Is he still unearthing wonders and keeping them in his kettles?”

“He is busy in a cave now,” said Dudley, eagerly; “would you like to come and see it one day?”

“No, thank you.  And are you lads still devoted friends?”

“David and Jonathan, still,” said Miss Bertram; and the old general laughed heartily.

Before he left, he also gave Roy a sovereign, which made the little fellow confide to Dudley,

“I’ve put granny’s in my right hand pocket, and the general’s in my left, they won’t mix together well, because hers is such a solemn one, and his is so jolly!”

It was a happy little party that set off for Norrington Court.  The boys were on their ponies, and Miss Bertram in her pony trap, with Rob sitting behind, proud in the consciousness of a new suit of clothes, and delighted at being included in the number.

Up a long stately avenue of elms and beeches, with bracken and ferns covering mossy glades in the distance, and then Roy and Dudley flung themselves off their ponies before an old stone house with ivy-covered walls and turrets.  Everything had been brightened up for their visit.  The flowers on the terraces were one mass of sweet perfume and color, the drives weeded and rolled, and the velvet turf in only such a condition as centuries of care can make it.  The old housekeeper opened the door in her very best black silk, and two or three more faithful retainers stood in the background.