After all, the voyage might be stormy, and the lady--difficult.

Doris must be dull in London,--"poor little cat!" But then a very natural wrath returned upon him.

Why on earth had she stayed behind?
No doubt Lady Dunstable was formidable, but so was Doris in her own way.

"She'd soon have held her own.

Lady D.would have had to come to terms!" However, he remembered with some compunction that Doris did seem to have been a good deal neglected at Crosby Ledgers, and that he had not done much to help her.
* * * * * It was an "off" day for the shooters, and Lady Dunstable's guests were lounging about the garden, writing letters or playing a little leisurely golf on the lower reaches of the moor.