“Good heavens, no!” said Saltash.  He gave Bunny an odd look from under brows that were slightly twisted.  “What made you think of that?” he asked.

Bunny’s face was red.  He leaned his arms on the gate and looked out across the valley.  “Sheila Melrose put it to me this afternoon,” he said, “though I must admit it had crossed my mind before.  She hasn’t met many people, you know, Charlie.  And—­as I said—­she’s young.  I don’t want to take an unfair advantage.”

“Life is too short to think of these things,” said Saltash abruptly.  “Marry her while you can get her and don’t be an ass about it!  If I had done the same thing in my youth, I should have been better off than I am at present.”

Bunny smiled a little.  “You would probably have been wishing you’d done the other thing by this time.”

“Much you know about it!” returned Saltash with a whimsical frown.  “Now look here!  What I’ve really come back for is to see you married.  All this preliminary messing about is nothing but a weariness to the flesh.  Get it over, man!  There’s nothing on earth to wait for.  Larpent’s willing enough.  In fact, he agrees with me—­the sooner the better.”

“He would!” said Bunny with a touch of bitterness.

“Well, you can’t ask for anything better,” maintained Saltash.  “He’s got his job, and he’s not what you could call a family man.  He’s not a waster either, so you needn’t put on any damned airs, mon vieux.”

“I didn’t!” said Bunny hotly.

Saltash laughed, and clapped a hand on his shoulder.  “Look here!  I’m talking for the good of your soul.  Don’t take any more advice—­certainly not Sheila Melrose’s!  You go straight ahead and marry her!  You’ve got money, I know, but I hope you won’t chuck your job on that account.  Stick to it, and you shall have the Dower House to live in while I yet cumber the ground, and Burchester Castle as soon as I’m under it!”

“What?” said Bunny.  He turned almost fiercely.  “Charlie!  Stop it!  You’re talking rot.  You always do.  I don’t want your beastly castle.  You’ve got to marry and get an heir of your own.  I’m damned if I’m going to be adopted by you!”

Saltash was laughing carelessly, mockingly, yet there was about him at the moment a certain royal self-assurance that made itself felt.  “You’ll do as you’re told, mon ami.  And you’ll take what the gods send without any cavilling.  As for me, I go my own way.  I shall never marry.  I shall never have an heir of my own blood.  Burchester means more to you than it does to me.  Therefore Burchester will pass to you at my death.  Think you and Toby will be happy here?”

“Damn it!” said Bunny, still fiercely disconcerted.  “You talk as if you were going to die to-morrow.”