“I’m the caretaker,” he said.

“Caretaker at Milton Priory!”

“From now on.”

“Is it up for sale?” I asked.

“Reckon.”

“I hadn’t heard.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Someone must have bought it,” I said.

“Could be so.”

“I see. I’m sorry. It has been empty so long and no one ever minded before. We just thought we’d explore a little.”

“Well, I wouldn’t try exploring round here anymore if I were you. Angus wouldn’t like it and Angus can be a pretty fierce customer, I can tell you.”

“Well, now we know,” I said. “I’m sorry, Andrée. That’s all you are going to see of Milton Priory.”

“It’s disappointing,” she said. “I should have loved to know the history of the place. I wonder who will come here?”

“No doubt we shall know in good time. They will be my father’s constituents, so he will soon be after their votes.”

Miss Carruthers said it was an interesting place. A little too early for William and Mary, she mused. There was a touch of the Stuart…early Stuart. “It will need a good deal of restoration, I imagine. How long did you say it had been empty, Lucinda?”

“I’m not sure. But a long time.”

We rode back to Marchlands, and then we went to the hospital to see if our services were wanted.

At the weekend my father came down, as he often did. My mother was eager to tell him how everything was progressing.

I remember, at dinner that night, he told us how unpopular the Prime Minister was becoming.

“The war is still going on, so they look round for a scapegoat. Poor Asquith! He fits the case very well. Especially with Lloyd George waiting to spring into his shoes. Margot Asquith is furious. If anyone can keep the old man going, it will be his formidable wife.”

Dr. Edgerton was dining with us that night. He was seated next to Miss Carruthers.

“Lloyd George is a very able man, I believe,” said the doctor.

“Perhaps that fiery Welshman will have all the energy which Asquith lacks,” suggested Miss Carruthers.

“Oh, I’m not sure of that,” replied the doctor, and he and Miss Carruthers went into a discussion about the merits of Lloyd George and Asquith.

My father said, “I’m sorry for the old man, but people are beginning to wonder whether it wouldn’t be better if he resigned in favor of L.G.”

“What of Churchill?” asked my mother.

“Oh, he’s in disgrace over the Dardanelles. He was so sure it was the right course to take. I suppose he is not all that certain now.”

“Are things very bad?” I asked.

“Never so bad as the press makes out. It’s the bad news they find sensational. And if there is someone they can possibly blame, they will. People are always more interested in the bad than the good. Let us say that things could be better.”

My mother said, “We were talking about Milton Priory the other day. Lucinda was saying that they have a caretaker there with a fierce dog.”

I fancied my father looked alert. “Milton Priory?” he said. “What’s this about it?”

“It seems someone’s making it ready to sell. Lucinda went there to have a look at the house…to show Andrée in fact.”

“I was with them,” said Miss Carruthers. “The caretaker was rather officious and told us to keep away…in no uncertain terms.”

I explained to my father exactly what had happened. “The dog was very fierce. He looked as though all he needed was his master’s command to tear us all apart.”

“I expect the man knew how to handle him. Did you get the idea that they were preparing the house for sale?”

“That seemed most likely.”

“We shall know in good time,” said my mother. “I wonder who the new owners will be.”

“I hope they will be good little Liberals,” I said. “Otherwise we shall have to convert them.”

My father smiled at me. “How was the place different?” he asked.

“I think the windows had been cleaned…and then, of course, there was the caretaker. I suppose they will have to smarten it up if they hope to sell at a reasonable price.”

“We’ll watch and await developments,” put in my mother.

“I should keep away from it if I were you,” said my father. “I don’t like the sound of that dog.”

“We’re certain to hear when it’s sold,” added my mother. “You can’t keep things like that secret here.”

Then the talk switched back to the coalition and the possibility of Mr. Asquith’s handing over the premiership to Mr. Lloyd George.

Very soon after that Robert Denver came to see us. He looked really handsome in his uniform. He was still too thin and looked taller than ever, but less “disjointed,” as Annabelinda had once described her brother’s physique.

I was delighted to see him. I studied him with awe.

“Oh, Robert,” I cried. “You’re through. You’ve got your commission!”

“I’m pleased,” he admitted. “I feel like a man again.”

“Free of those bullying sergeant majors. Poor Robert. I could imagine how you felt about it.”

“Necessary, I suppose. But hard to take at times.”

“So it is good-bye, Salisbury Plain.” My face fell. “And now…the battlefield.”

“The battlefield is to be postponed…probably for a month or more. What do you think? I’m going on a course.”

“A course? I thought you’d just come through your training.”

“So I have. But this is different. Do you know, Lucinda, I was by no means a model soldier? It’s a bit of luck that I got my commission. But I discovered a method of memorizing the Morse code. The others couldn’t understand how I did it. To tell the truth, I couldn’t myself. Well, since I could work the thing more quickly than the others, I was selected to go on this course.”

“That means you’ll be sending messages…on the battlefield.”

“Something like that, I imagine. I’ll have my mechanic with me. He’ll fix the phones….That sort of thing would be beyond me. I’ll take the messages and send others…or something like that, I suppose.”

“Oh, Robert, I’m proud of you.”

“I’ve done nothing to be proud of.”

“You have, and you will do more.”

“Oh, I’m not made in the heroic mold. That’s for people like Major Merrivale. By the way, have you seen him lately?”

“No. He’s in Gallipoli.”

Robert looked grim.

“So is Uncle Gerald,” I went on. “We’re quite anxious.”

Robert nodded in understanding.

My mother greeted him warmly. So did Aunt Celeste, who was often at Marchlands and enjoyed helping in the hospital.

There was a good deal of talk, and Miss Carruthers and Andrée joined us. Then my mother, Andrée and I took Robert along to see Edward.

“He’s growing fast,” commented Robert.

Andrée looked at Edward with pride. “He’s going to be a big boy, aren’t you, Edward?”

Edward muttered something and smiled benignly.

We had lunch, and afterward my mother said, “Why don’t you and Robert go for a little ride, Lucinda? You used to love to ride round these lanes.”

“I like the idea,” Robert said. “Don’t you, Lucinda?”

“I do,” I said.

Soon we were out, riding through the familiar countryside, as we used to before I went away to school and there was a war.

We kept recalling incidents from the past.

“Do you remember when we found the baby blackbird lying in the road?” Robert said.

“Oh, yes. He’d fallen out of the nest. And you climbed a tree because we guessed the nest would be up there…and we put him back….And the next day we came to see if he was all right.”

“Do you remember when your horse tripped over a log in the forest and you landed in a heap of leaves?”

We laughed at the memory. There was so much to remember.

“It seems so long ago,” I said, “because everything has changed.”

“It will come back to normal.”

“Do you think so?”

“I do. I shall be back with the estate and in time it will seem as though this never happened.”

“I think that when this sort of thing comes it changes people and they can never be the same again.”