CHAPTER XVIII
Lord Valleys, relieved from official pressure by subsidence of the
war scare, had returned for a long week-end. To say that he had been
intensely relieved by the news that Mrs. Noel was not free, would be
to put it mildly. Though not old-fashioned, like his mother-in-law, in
regard to the mixing of the castes, prepared to admit that exclusiveness
was out of date, to pass over with a shrug and a laugh those numerous
alliances by which his order were renewing the sinews of war, and indeed
in his capacity of an expert, often pointing out the dangers of too
much in-breeding--yet he had a peculiar personal feeling about his own
family, and was perhaps a little extra sensitive because of Agatha; for
Shropton, though a good fellow, and extremely wealthy, was only a third
baronet, and had originally been made of iron. It was inadvisable to go
outside the inner circle where there was no material necessity for so
doing. He had not done it himself. Moreover there was a sentiment about
these things!
On the morning after his arrival, visiting the kennels before breakfast,
he stood chatting with his head man, and caressing the wet noses of his
two favourite pointers,--with something of the feeling of a boy let out
of school. Those pleasant creatures, cowering and quivering with pride
against his legs, and turning up at him their yellow Chinese eyes, gave
him that sense of warmth and comfort which visits men in the presence
of their hobbies.
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