By the time, however, that Aldous Raeburn came within sight of the windows of Maxwell Court his first exaltation had sobered down.

The lover had fallen, for the time, into the background, and the capable, serious man of thirty, with a considerable experience of the world behind him, was perfectly conscious that there were many difficulties in his path.

He could not induce his grandfather to move in the matter of Richard Boyce without a statement of his own feelings and aims.

Nor would he have avoided frankness if he could.

On every ground it was his grandfather's due.