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Page 28
"Exactly. Well, now, my friend, what I have to point out to you is this:
Betty is not only very dear to me; she is also my heir and my ward. I'm
speaking to you about it earlier than some men might have spoken,
because I don't want to cure heartaches--I want to prevent 'em. I'm
pretty certain there's no harm done as yet."
The Master managed to keep a straight face when Dick absently intimated
that he was afraid there was no harm done as yet.
"It would make Betty miserable to go against my wishes, I think,"
continued the Master, "and I don't want her to be made miserable. That's
why I'm talking to you now. She could not possibly become engaged,
except against my very strongest wishes, to a man who had never earned
his own living or done any work at all in the world. And that--well,
that--"
"That's me, of course," said the rueful Dick, cutting at his gaiters
with a crop.
"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
already proved yourself over the hurdles."
"Oh, that! But, of course, I love riding, and--"
"You'll find you'll love some other things, too, once you've mastered
them, as you have horses and dogs. I can tell you there's just as much
fun in mastering men as there is in handling horses. I used to think the
only thing I could do, besides breeding wolfhounds, was to write. And I
suppose I didn't do the writing very well. Anyway, it didn't bring in
money enough for the wolfhounds and--and some other matters. So I went
out to Australia and did something else. Now I can do the writing when I
like, and--well, old Finn there is in no danger of being sold to pay the
butcher."
"Ah yes, in Australia. I wanted the governor to let me go there when I
left Rugby, boundary-riding, and that. But of course he was dead set on
the pill-making for me, then. And now--"
"Now there's been a rather empty interval of seven years. Yes, I know.
Well, you think it over, old chap. I lay down no embargoes, not I. But I
do trust to your honor in this matter--for Betty's sake--and I'm sure
I'm safe. You think it over, and come and talk to me any time you feel
like it. Be sure I'll be delighted to give any help I can. Look here!
there's a friend of mine staying at the White Hart in Lewes: Captain
Arnutt, of the Royal North-west Mounted Police. Go and look him up and
have a yarn with him about how he made his start. He nearly broke his
heart trying to pass into Sandhurst without getting the necessary stuff
into his hard head. But, begad! there isn't a finer man in the
North-west to-day than Will Arnutt. I'll write him a letter if you'll
go. Will you?"
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