Dare was down early the following morning, much too early for the convenience of the house-maids, who were dusting the drawing-room when he appeared there.

He was usually as late as any of the young and gilded unemployed who feel it incumbent on themselves to show by these public demonstrations their superiority to the rules and fixed hours of the working and thinking world, with whom, however, their fear of being identified is a groundless apprehension.

But to-day Dare experienced a mournful satisfaction in being down so early.

He felt the underlying pathos of such a marked departure from his usual habits.

It was obvious that nothing but deep affliction or cub-hunting could have been the cause, and the cub-hunting was over.