He had done without them; he would do without them again; but there they were exceedingly good creatures of God, while they lasted; and only the hypocrites pretended otherwise.

His sympathy, in the old poverty-stricken days, would have been all with the plaintive American--"There's d-----d good times in the world, and I ain't in 'em." All the same, the fleshpots of Pitlochry had by no means put his wife out of his mind.

His incurable laziness and procrastination in small things had led him to let slip post after post; but that very morning, at any rate, he had really written her a decent letter.

And he was beginning to be anxious to hear from her about the yachting plan.

If Lady Dunstable had asked him a few days later, he was not sure he would have accepted so readily.