Charles Rex

t a meeting on the Graydown Race-course, a few miles from his ancient castle of Burchester. He was looking very well pleased with himself and certainly none the worse for the advent

r long. He was not the man to pursue any one object for any length of time. With characteristic volatility he had throw

ome very materially modified. He greeted Saltash now with the hand of friendship which Saltash on his part was always ready to accept with a baffling smile that was not wholly without irony. He was wont to say that any man could make an enemy of him, but no man could keep him as such. Perhaps it was that very volatility of his which made anything of the nature of prolonged enmity an impossibility. He possessed also that maddening sense of humour that laughs at deadly things.

lton had been cast in different moulds, and that which gave life-long satisfaction to the latter would have held the former for possibly but a very brief period. As a woman friend who knew him well had once said of him, Charles Rex was too rapid a traveller to gat

through the paddock to find Jake Bolton, whistling a careless air as he went. Several stable-boys saluted

arlie his name is. He's by the old Hundredth Chance and Queen of the Earth. Your lordship ought to see him. He is a royalty and no mistake; tam

ll right. I'll go round. Ah! Here is Sir Bernard! H

andsome, spare, and very upright, had come suddenly round t

for. How are you, I say? It was rotten luck for you to lose the poor old Nig

ash. "How are you? As skim

" protested Bunny. "I'm a

you're too damn slim! I should think Maud coul

t of physical shortcomings. "I'm well enough, so what does it m

" grinned

arm in his and drew him forward; they

monkey's, as to how far his next jump would carry him. "Depends upon Jake of cours

e you anyway. I know Maud will be awfully disappointed if you don't come and t

"Would it be rude to a

to know so far as I'm concerned," he said b

" protested Saltash. "I

s Brother Ja

in fact. Don't run away with that idea!" begged Bunny, turning still redder. "Only peopl

ndent action in this world. We all hang to each other like swarming bees

ve judgment. You'll have to come and see her. You really mus

her to tea once at the Castle. I am not supposed to have such a venomous

ed again. "There's Jake, l

rd and mercilessly keen, such was the man who had married Maud Brian eight years before, practically in the teeth of Saltash who had wooed her in her girlhood. There was no feud between them. Their enmity was long since dead an

ot wholly without reserve. He gave Saltash

my lord," he said, in a voice tha

al air of graciousness. "I share the sentiment. I know you would a

in order in that respect," said Jake Bolton with a sudden sm

ly, but I'll bet she gets her own way all the same.

and goes for a canter on The Hundredth Chance every day when I'm at home. You actua

ay," said Saltash, with

to call and view the

. "Are you-alone at the Castle,

ungeon! You will find nothing but the most monastic emptiness. I've turned into a hermit. Haven't they made that discovery yet? My recent deliverance from what I must admit was a decidedly awkward predicament in the Channel has sobered me to such an

h sudden heat. "You know Maud said you

nity. "It's not any business of yours anyway. We'll send

t his sallow boyish face colour

I'm as harmless as any sucking dove, I assure you. Y

ght o'clock if that suits you. Afraid I must go no

no pretensions either social or intellectual, yet

l, does he?" gibed Salta

old to be on a leadi

on't know him. He's not that sort of ass. W

n? It's the way he's made. Hewn out of raw material, but the real thing and no mistake. You must

ny. "But he's got to do you

, my dear chap, nobody ever

tried to make yourself out a worse rotter than you re

That's the rest of the world, mon ami. They like

indness during those days which nothing could now efface. Whatever Saltash's morals, he was a friend, and as such Bunny never failed to treat him. They spent the rest of the afternoon together in and out of the enclosure, and when amidst wild enthusiasm Prince Ch

to Charlie, Jake. I don't

rom under his rough red brows.