"Well, so far it does rather seem to fit, doesn't it?" continued the
Master. "But, mind you, Dick, don't you run away with the idea that I
have any down on you or want to put any obstacles in your way. Not a bit
of it. God knows I'm no Puritan, neither have I any quarrel with a man's
love of sport and animals; not much. But there's got to be something
else in a real man's life, you know, Dick. Beer and skittles are all
very well--an excellent institution, especially combined with the sort
of admirable knowledge of horses and dogs, and the sort of seat in the
saddle that you have, my friend. But over and above all that, you know,
I want something else from the man who is to marry our Betty. I don't
ask you to become an F.R.S., but, begad! Dick, I do ask you to prove
that you can play a man's part in the world, outside sport as well as in
it; and that, if you're put to it, you can earn your own living and
enough to give a wife bread and butter. And if you'll just think of it
for a minute, I believe you'll see that it's not too much to ask,
either. It's what I'd ask of a man before I'd trust him to carry out a
piece of business for me; and Betty--well, she's more than any other
piece of business I can think of to me."

Dick Vaughan saw it all very clearly. He quite frankly admitted the
justification for the Master's remarks.

"And so," he added, rather despondently--"so this is my notice to quit,
eh?"

"If you took it as that, and acted on it permanently, I should think I
had greatly overrated you, my friend," replied the Master, with warmth.
"No; but, as between men, it's my notice to you that I appeal to your
sense of honor to say nothing to Betty, to go no farther in the matter,
until--until you've proved yourself as well in other ways as you've