That he wrote I am certain, but his letter has not reached me, which I regret much." The six months at home passed rapidly.

Rupert fell into his old ways; rode and hawked, and occasionally paid state visits to the gentry of the neighbourhood, by whom, as one of Marlborough's soldiers, he was made much of.
"I think this soldiering life makes one restless, Master Rupert," Hugh said one day when the time was approaching for their start.

"I feel a longing to be with the troop again, to be at work and doing." "I feel the same, Hugh; but you would not find it so, I think, if you had come home for good.

Then you would have your regular pursuits on the farm, while now you have simply got tired of having no work to do.

When the war is over, and we have done soldiering, you will settle down on one of the farms of the Chace.