Roy and Willie were planning to run away from his house he was sitting in his study thinking of them and trying to understand what their words at dinner had meant.
"Old, am I?" he said to himself. "Like enough—though I did not know it! It needs young eyes to see that one has grown old: one is not ready to see it of one's self. Well, may be the lads have the right of the matter, and I have forgotten how I felt when I was a lad. I mind I got many a scolding for one ploy or another." He smiled to himself, the memories of boyhood beginning to flow in upon him. He had been rather a mischievous boy, as he realized now. Perhaps he had spoken a little sharply to the twins; he would be more patient in future. They were fine lads, bonny lads, with their mother's wide, honest gaze that feared nothing. A little time was needed to accustom them to the new life; he ought to
