He would be considerably relieved if it could be cured.
* * * * * The three men sat there for some while without interruption from the smoking-room, while the evening breeze died, the rosy sky paled, and the stars came out one by one, like diamonds in the clear blue.

They said, of course, all the proper things, and Dick heard a little more than he had previously known.
Dick was always conscious of a faint, almost impersonal, resentment against destiny when he stayed at Merefield.

It was obvious to him that the position of heir there was one which would exactly have suited his tastes and temperament.

He was extremely pleased to belong to the family--and it was, indeed, a very exceptional family as regards history: it had been represented in nearly every catastrophe since the Norman Conquest, and always on the winning side, except once--but it was difficult to enjoy the distinction as it deserved, living, as he did, in a flat in London all by himself.

When his name was mentioned to a well-informed stranger, it was always greeted by the question as to whether he was one of the Guiseleys of Merefield, and it seemed to him singularly annoying that he could only answer "First cousin." Archie, of course, was a satisfactory heir; there was no question of that--he was completely of Dick's own school of manner--but it seemed a kind of outrage that Frank, with his violent convictions and his escapades, should be Archie's only brother.