The Duke nodded.

“It must indeed have been serious,” he said, “for you to have had your hair cut and your beard trimmed, and to have attired yourself in the garments of civilization.  You are the last man whom I should have expected to have seen in a coat which might have been cut by Poole, if it wasn’t, and wearing patent boots.”

“Jolly uncomfortable they are,” Andrew remarked, looking at them.  “However, I didn’t want to be turned away from your doors, and I still have a few friends in town whom I daren’t disgrace.  Honestly, Berners, I came up to ask you something.”

The Duke was sympathetic but silent.

“Well?” he remarked encouragingly.

“The fact is,” Andrew continued, “I wonder whether you could help me to get something to do.  We have decided to let the Red Hall, Cecil and I. The rents have gone down to nothing, and altogether things are pretty bad with us.  I don’t know that I’m good for anything.  I don’t see, to tell you the truth, exactly what place there is in the world that I could fill.  Nevertheless, I want to do something.  I love the villager’s life, but after all there are other things to be considered.  I don’t want to become quite a clod.”

The Duke produced a cigar box, passed it to Andrew, and deliberately lighted a cigar himself.

“Friend Andrew,” he said, “you have set me a puzzle.  You have set me a good many since I used to run errands for you at Eton, but I think that this is the toughest.”

Andrew nodded.

“You’ll think your way through it, if any one can,” he remarked.  “I don’t expect anything, of course, that would enable me to afford cigars like this, but I’d be glad to find some work to do, and I’d be glad to be paid something for it.”

The Duke was silent for a moment.  He looked down at his cigar and then suddenly up again.

“Has that young idiot of a brother of yours been making a fool of himself?” he asked.

“Cecil is never altogether out of trouble,” Andrew answered drily.  “He seems to have taken bridge up with rather unfortunate results, and there were some other debts which had to be paid, but we needn’t talk about those.  The point is that we’re jolly well hard up for a year or two.  He’s got to work, and so have I. If it wasn’t for looking after him, I should go to Canada to-morrow.”

“D——­d young idiot!” the Duke muttered.  “He’s spent his own money and yours too, I suppose.  Never mind, the money’s gone.”

“It isn’t only the money,” Andrew interrupted.  “The fact is, I’m not altogether satisfied, as I told you before, with living just for sport.  I’m not a prejudiced person.  I know that there are greater things in the world, and I don’t want to lose sight of them altogether.  We De la Bornes have contributed poets and soldiers and sailors and statesmen to the history of our country, for many generations.  I don’t want to go down to posterity as altogether a drone.  Of course, I’m too late for anything really worth doing.  I know that just as well as you can tell me.  At the same time I want to do something, and I would rather not go abroad, at any rate to stay.  Can you suggest anything to me?  I know it’s jolly difficult, but you were always one of those sort of fellows who seem to see round the corner.”