252 



MAKING THE RUNNING 



How little we can guess what the future has in store for 

 us ! It had seemed to Cecil Holme that he only 

 wanted two things to make him perfectly happy — a 

 commission in such a regiment as the Hundredth 

 Hussars, and a knowledge that his affection for his 

 cousin Florence was returned. He had passed his 

 examination in due course, he was gazetted, some 

 tender passages with Florence had convinced him that 

 all was well in that quarter, and he furthermore had 

 reason to believe that her father, General Onslow, would 

 for his part show no opposition. Could he have been 

 assured a few months before that this would have been 

 his position, he would have laughed to scorn the idea 

 that anything in the world could by any possibility have 

 annoyed him ; nevertheless, on this December morning 

 he is about the most miserable man in London. 



That he could be troubled by money matters had 

 never struck him as possible. He had actually inherited 

 a very small amount, only some 10,000/., but an aunt 

 allowed him 600/. a year, besides paying certain of his 

 expenses, and he had reason to hope that, if all went well, 

 her large fortune, or at any rate the greater part of it, 

 would revert to him. But he had spent the year in 

 London — that is to say, his headquarters had been in 

 the capital, for he had temporarily resided at Newmarket 

 and in the neighbourhood of Ascot, Goodwood, Stock- 



