“What has happened to you?” said Jack at the end of the morning.  “You have not been thinking about what you are doing.  You seem like a man who has been stroking a winning crew.  Has the Master been made a Dean, and have you been elected Master?  They say you have a chance.”

Howard laughed and said, “You are very sharp, Jack!  I have not been attending.  Something very unexpected has happened.  I mustn’t tell you now, but you will soon know.  I have drawn a prize.  Now don’t pump me!”

“Here’s another prize!” said Jack.  “You are to lunch with us to-morrow, and to discuss my future career.  There’s glory for you!  I am not to be present, and father is scheming to get me invited to luncheon here.  If he fails, I am to take out some sandwiches and to eat them in the kitchen garden.  Maud is to be present, and ‘Confer,’ he says, ’though without a vote’!”

Howard met Mrs. Graves in the drawing-room; she kissed him, and holding his hand for a moment said, “Thank you for your note, my dear boy.  That’s all settled, then!  Well, it’s a great joy to me, and I get more than I give by the bargain.  It’s a shameless bribe, to secure the company of a charming nephew for a sociable old woman.  Some time I shall want to tell you more about the people here—­but I won’t bore you; and let us just get quietly used to it all.  One must not be pompous about money; it is doing it too much honour; and the best of it is that I have found a son.”  Howard smiled, kissed the hand which held his, and said no more.

The Vicar turned up in the afternoon, and apologised to Mrs. Graves for asking Howard to luncheon on the following day.  “The fact is,” he said, “that I am anxious to have the benefit of his advice about Jack’s future.  I think we ought to look at things from all sorts of angles, and Howard will be able, with his professional knowledge of young men, to correct the tendency to parental bias which is so hard to eliminate.  I am a fond father—­fond, but I hope not foolish—­and I trust we shall be able to arrive at some conclusion.”

“Then Jack and Maud can come and lunch with me,” said Mrs. Graves; “you won’t want them, I am sure.”

“You are a sorceress,” said Mr. Sandys, “in the literary sense of course—­you divine my thought!”—­but it was evident that he had much looked forward to using a little diplomacy, and was somewhat disappointed.  He went on, “It will be very kind of you to have Jack, but I think I shall want Maud’s assistance.  I have a great belief in the penetration—­in the observation of the feminine mind; more than I have, if you will excuse my frankness, in their power of dealing with a practical situation.  Woman to interpret events, men to foresee contingencies.  Woman to indicate, man to predicate—­ perhaps I mean predict!  No matter; the thought, I think, is clear.  Well, then, that is settled!  I claim Howard for luncheon—­a very simple affair—­and for a walk; and by five o’clock we shall have settled this important matter, I don’t doubt.”