“That means that you won’t be here at all, Major Mallett.”

“Oh, no, it does not mean that, I can assure you.  I shall run down for a month three or four times a year; say for shooting in September or October, and for hunting a month or two later on; besides, I have to renew my acquaintance with my tenants and see that everything is going on comfortably.  I expect that I shall spend four or five months every year on the estate.”

“Till you settle down for good?”

“Yes, till I settle down for good,” he laughed.  “I suppose it will have to be someday.”

“Then you don’t think of passing much time in London, Mallett?”

“No, indeed.  Fortunately my father sold his town house three years ago.  He did not care about going up, and of course it was of no use to me.  I have never had any opportunities for society, and my present idea is that it would bore me horribly.  But I’ll dare say that I shall be there for a month or so in the season.

“Of course, there is my club to go to, and plenty of men one knows; but even if I had a longing for society, I know no one in what are termed fashionable circles, and so should be outside what is called the world.”

“Oh, you would soon get over that, Major Mallett.  Why, Lady Greendale would introduce you everywhere.”

“It is not likely I shall trouble her to do that,” Mallett answered.

Frank had told George Lechmere that, as soon as they arrived, he would be at liberty to go off at once to his father and mother.

“Stay as long as you like,” he said.  “I shall get on very well without you for a few days.”

“I shall come up again tonight, sir, and get your things brushed and your bath ready in the morning.  I should not be comfortable if I did not do that.  Then after breakfast, if you do not want me, I can go to the farm for a few hours.  Of course I shall have lots to tell the old people about India.  But for that I don’t know what I should do to pass the time away, with no work on hand.”

“Oh, you will have your old friends to look up, George.  After being over two years on service, you have a right to a month’s leave.  As you have got your six months’ batta in hand, besides your savings, you have enough cash to go on with; but when you want money, you know that you have only to speak to me.”

“I have a good bit, sir.  I have scarcely spent a penny since I joined, and in the two years have laid by a nice little sum.  Besides, we all picked up a bit.  Most of those native chiefs and their followers had money or jewels about them, and all of us got something; some good prizes.  So one way or another I have made as much or more in the two years’ soldiering as I should have done in two years’ farming; but if I had not above a few shillings in my pocket, I should do well here, for I have no occasion to spend any money with all my friends wanting me to go round to see them and tell them of our doings.”