“I hear you are going to Canada.  What is taking you there again?” she asked.

“I am going to look after some farming property, for one thing.”

Ethel regarded him with amusement.

“Sylvia Marston’s, I suppose?”

“Yes,” George answered rather shortly.

“Then what’s the other purpose you have in view?”

George hesitated.

“I’m not sure I have another motive.”

“So I imagined.  You’re rather an exceptional man—­in some respects.”

“If that’s true, I wasn’t aware of it,” George retorted.

Ethel laughed.

“It’s hardly worth while to prove my statement; we’ll talk of something else.  Has Herbert told you anything about his business since you came back?  I suppose you have noticed signs of increased prosperity?”

“I’m afraid I’m not observant, and Herbert isn’t communicative.”

“Perhaps he’s wise.  Still, the fact that he’s putting up a big new orchard-house has some significance.  I understand from Stephen that he’s been speculating largely in rubber shares.  It’s a risky game.”

“I suppose it is,” George agreed.  “But it’s most unlikely that Herbert will come to grief.  He has a very long head; I believe he could, for example, buy and sell me.”

“That wouldn’t be very difficult.  I suspect Herbert isn’t the only one of your acquaintances who is capable of doing as much.”

Her eyes followed Sylvia, who was then walking across the grass.  Sylvia’s movements were always graceful, and she had now a subdued, pensive air that rendered her appearance slightly pathetic.  Ethel’s face, however, grew quietly scornful.  She knew what Sylvia’s forlorn and helpless look was worth.

“I’m not afraid that anybody will try,” George replied.

“Your confidence is admirable.” laughed Ethel; “but I mustn’t appear too cynical, and I’ve a favor to ask.  Will you take Edgar out with you?”

George felt a little surprised.  Edgar was her brother, a lad of somewhat erratic habits and ideas, who had been at Oxford when George last heard of him.

“Yes, if he wants to go, and Stephen approves,” he said; for Stephen, the lawyer, was an elder brother, and the Wests had lost their parents.

“He will be relieved to get him off his hands for a while; but Edgar will be over to see you during the afternoon.  He’s spending a week or two with the Charltons.”

“I remember that young Charlton and he were close acquaintances.”

“That was the excuse for the visit; but you had better understand that there was a certain amount of friction when Edgar came home after some trouble with the authorities.  In his opinion, Stephen is too fond of making mountains out of molehills; but I must own that Edgar’s molehills have a way of increasing in size, and the last one caused us a good deal of uneasiness.  Anyway, we have decided that a year’s hard work in Canada might help to steady him, even if he doesn’t follow up farming.  The main point is that he would be safe with you.”