Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/287

270 "can I not go out now? The sun is drying up all last night's rain."

The man in black looked up with a smile.

"You find it a hard task to wait?" he said.

"It is growing so late!"

"Not very late, my son. And you have not yet paid your respects to your lady mother."

"I will go to her at once."

"You have not yet been called to her presence."

Lord Conrad tapped his foot upon the oak floor. frown came on his young face.

"It is tiresome to be kept in a leash always, as the hounds are kept," he muttered. "But some day I shall be a man, and then I shall be free."

"To be able to control one's self—that is the only true freedom," said his tutor.

Conrad could make no reply, for at this