Miss Cheyne of Essilmont, Volume 2 by James Grant

'The last time we three shall ride out of this gate together. Whenever I do anything with a conviction that it is for the last time, I always feel unconsciously a kind of sadness come over me. What do you think, Jerry?'

The speaker was Goring, as he, Dalton, and Jerry Wilmot quitted the North Camp on horseback and separated -- the two former, in hunting costume, to have a 'spin' with the Royal Buckhounds, the latter to the household at Wilmothurst, to which an hour or two more brought him by train; and to the last interview with his mother, one brief enough -- too brief for Jerry's taste, as he found Lady Wilmot -- afternoon tea over -- preparing to pay some carriage visits in the vicinity.