Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/263

 "That also is true."

"This happens to be one of the days when I do not transact business. The sky is too blue, the birds are singing too sweetly, the murmur of the water is too cooling and soothing, for any sane man to plunge into business. Business to-morrow, Mackeller, but never business to-day."

By this time they had arrived at the house, and Stranleigh saw, standing in the shade, that dejected animal whose shoe was loose, still attached to the one-horse vehicle it had dragged from the station.

Mackeller, a sullen frown on his brow, said curtly—

"Good morning: I'm sorry to have troubled you on a day that is sacred to indolence."

With that he walked to the victoria and stepped inside, sat down, and folded his arms, with grim determination across his breast. The edge of the situation, however, was somewhat dulled by the fact that the patient horse never lifted its head, and the driver, doubtless asleep somewhere, failed to appear. Stranleigh sauntered up alongside, a smile on his face.

"Peter," he said, "you make me feel inhospitable, somehow, although reason whispers to me that such a charge is absurd, because if I have failed at all, it has been in pressing my hospitality too