CHAPTER XXIV

ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS It was a brilliant morning with a fresh wind abroad that set leaves a-quiver with joyous fluttering, and creaking boughs a-swing to cast their shadows on the white road beneath, a jubilant day in every sense; yet Sir Marmaduke's feet lagged in the dust as, with head bowed in troubled thought, he followed whither Horace led, an erratic course that ended, finally, in a bed of thistles. "Life grows very difficult!" sighed he, staring at Horace with haggard eyes. "Hitherto I have reckoned myself…