settled, and he knows pretty well what his tether will allow him; when the appetite is still good and the digestive organs at their full power; when he has ceased to care as to the length of his girdle, and before the doctor warns him against solid breakfasts and port wine after dinner; when his affectations are over and his infirmities have not yet come upon him; while he can still walk his ten miles, and feel some little pride in being able to do so; while he has still nerve to ride his horse to hounds, and can look with some scorn on the ignorance of younger men who have hardly yet learned that noble art. As regards men, this, I think, is the happiest time of life; but who shall answer the question as regards women? In this respect their lot is more liable to disappointment. With the choicest flowers that blow the sweetest aroma of their perfection lasts but for a moment. The hour that sees them at their fullest glory sees also the beginning of their fall.
On one morning before the trial Sir Peregrine rang his bell and requested that Mr. Peregrine might be asked to come to him. Mr. Peregrine was out at the moment, and did not make his appearance much before dark, but the baronet had fully resolved upon having this interview, and ordered that the dinner should be put back for half an hour. 'Tell Mrs. Orme, with my compliments,' he said, 'that if it does not put her to inconvenience we will not dine till seven.' It put Mrs. Orme to no inconvenience; but I am inclined to agree with the cook, who remarked that the compliments ought to have been sent to her.
'Sit down, Peregrine,' he said, when his grandson entered his room with his thick boots and muddy gaiters. 'I have been thinking of something.'
'I and Samson have been cutting down trees all day,' said Peregrine. 'You've no conception how the water lies down in the bottom there; and there's a fall every yard down to the river. It's a sin not to drain it.'
'Any sins of that kind, my boy, shall lie on your own head for the future. I will wash my hands of them.'
'Then I'll go to work at once,' said Peregrine, not quite understanding his grandfather.
'You must go to work on more than that, Peregrine.' And then the old man paused. 'You must not think that I am doing this because I am unhappy for the hour, or that I shall repent it when the moment has gone by.'
'Doing what?' asked Peregrine.
'I have thought much of it, and I know that I am right. I cannot get out as I used to do, and do not care to meet people about business.'
'I never knew you more clear-headed in my life, sir.'
'Well, perhaps not. We'll say nothing about that. What I
