for me, Boy,

the broad hearth there was a blazing log fire, and the

so wa

roat, from which the collar of a green silk coat fell gracefully on either side-so much a cunning painter might have charmed faithfully on to canvas. But the little air of im

her stead. Berry had accompanied his wife, but Jonah and I had stayed in the country with Jill, l

aves from their galleries, to send them scudding up the cold grey roads. Worse still, by noon the sky was big with snow, so that befo

ewed her

ould quench it for ever. When I had kissed my cousin, I blew steadily and fiercely from the south-west. Instantly a

nd began

hild," said I

d to leave it for you. Jonah nearl

more air you give it, the fiercer it burns.

aid I, taking

nd of th

ay next time? It's not my face I'm worrying about,

so I took the lamp away from he

e swine," I

ut of my hand, the flame was extinguished in a flurry that

letter for you from Berry. Do see what

"Strange as it may seem,

fresh little voice my

Dar

s horrified, but he said he was quite all right, and explained that it was muscular rheumatism. I stopped a taxi and tried to make him get in, for people were beginning to look. Do you think he would? Not a bit of it. Stood there and said it was a judgment, and that he must stay where he was till it had passed. "That may not be for years. They'll put railings round me after a bit, and people will meet at me instead of the Tube. You will be responsible for my meals, some of which you will cook on the spot. I'll have a light lunch to-day about 1300 hours."

ph

engaging," said Jonah. "Sli

ful he took seven million times before swallowing. That's

cal allusion was so marked that it seemed only prudent t

read the co

Bro

Bond Street just opposite the drinking-fountain. Believing it to be appendicitis, I demanded a chirurgeon, but nobody could spell the word. The slightest movement, however, spelt anguish without a mistake. My scruff was in the grip of Torment. Observing that I was helpless, the woman, my wife, summoned a hackney carriage and drove off, taunting and jeering at her spouse. By thi

ruining the streets. No efforts are made to stop

of you and my contempt for Jonah. I have much more to say, but I have, thank Heaven, something better to do than to communicate with a debauched connection, whose pleasure has ever been my pain, and from whom I have learn

rr

matism?" said Jill, g

Jonah, "and you get stuck. Hu

age. "Will you be ready by hall-past ele

"But you and Jonah said it w

in an hour and a half, and if we start again a

nd limped to

" he said. "It's going to

was

ls slid through the country like a great grey bird, sailing and swooping and swerving so gracefully that it was difficult to believe the tale which the speedometer told. Yet th

ye with such grave glory that the late loss of Summer and her pretty ways seems easier to bear. Orange and purple copper and gold, russet and crimson-these in a hundred tones tremble and glow in one giant

tes of a private house attracted our attention. A little knot of men stood arguing in the roadway, three cars and an old

tents of Cranmer Place were to be sold by auction" this day, "including a quantity of

still. "Don't say you want to go and watch the rector's wife

door, descended stiffly into the road. As I helped Jill to follow me, "You push o

said Jill, "we might s

hook hi

umed oak. Only the dud stuff's left. However, have it your own way." With a sigh,

ough mine, which she

ens like this. You see, it isn't as if we were looking for a sale. We'

we started to cross the road. "All the same, Jonah's probably righ

ne square hall, where a dresser and a large gate-table, each conspic

nd two overcoats, which he wore open, regarding the furniture with an appraising look. With difficulty he extracted a card

I don't

d hastily, turning away in response to a cry which had arisen for "Mr. 'Olly

d into my pocket

ng alone in its dignity at t

Jill gave a little cry and began to chatter, till

ow it's good, but we needn't seem over-anxious. Try and look as if

-oh,

judged, in the reign of Queen Anne. The walnut which had gone to its making was picked wood, and its drawers were faced with oyster-shell and inlaid with box. Their han

carefully as I dared, I winked at

y was aw

I addre

crazy about it, but it's about the right size for a recess in my

in a fat notebook. "Lot 207

sita

. But the cheaper you get it, t

jor. Will you

telegraph to that address this eve

good

owards Highlands and, while Jill was talking ex

tered th

about it," I said. "

as I entered the lounge

e said languidly. "I've just finished telli

d me," said I. "All the same, I thou

ce, watching us curiously. "Let me introduce my brother-in-law. Carefully kept from me before marriage and

ead and laughed. I observ

"After all, we can't expect him to remember e

st time you were on a towel, leaning against a b

n to maudlin memories of the Great War. Did I ever tell you that a Spaniard once

d you lend h

more about ferns,

h, I suppose," s

looked about him with the expression of

f his outburst I was giving evidence against him for cruelty to a bullock. A

tter and eggs. They're usually sent, but the housekeeper's ill, and, as

afar, and I knew that I must call up all my

s with you,

to mention that he wanted to go to Pistol to-day, so I

d he want to com

etting. "He wouldn't tell you and he didn't tell Captain Mansel the truth, so I shan't give him away." She looked at a tiny w

come wi

inly.

ere Jill was sc

half-past three," I sai

ed abstr

er a cigarette. Ber

rtable coupé, which Miss Childe was driving

don't you?" flas

ood

u hate being driv

from between two motor-lorries and a traction-engine. As we wer

being frighte

own one of the steepest hills I have ever seen, with two bends in it, at

e played for a second

ly frightened of is a ha

e are half a dozen round t

ile de

t all right?"

when we

this road

ou didn't. Seriously, I don't want to abuse your hospitality, but we're going

fond of

r them as a child. In the morning and the

hesitated be

afraid of their being toadstools

oms full of toadstools at the cross-roa

t belie

full of logs and a limousine full

id faint cries

when you come to a level-cr

" said Mi

till in front of a high white gate bearing the legend "Private," and keeping a thin brown r

the matter

laid a han

she said in a c

id I. "With or

the gate,

'So that the automobile may pass unobstru

arth did

backwards into the road. "I'm always l

entered

entedly. "It's such a relief to feel there's no

I could tru

our chauffeurs live

, they grow old

tily. "I myself have aged consid

ming bracken, all red and gold and stuck with spreading oak trees that stood sometimes alone, sometimes in

ar to

sed to gather the mushroom

ref

etim

e of th

no

hed.

nd a small soda," I said. "Now I feel like a sonne

ary. I've seen a sonnet 'To

st it to you or pin it to

head in the direction

said, "is

h the afternoon sun had set afire, and a moment later we swept by the front of

front of this my companion br

rang the bell and ente

de. "We've given up showing it since the Suffr

Gluckstein," said I,

at the end of the flagged

" she said. "I'll come and find

away in the directio

nst the panelling of the walls. I descended its two stairs, expecting to find it devoted to china and nothing else. But I was

at it sp

de to stare,"

Miss Childe fram

swelled from under a flowered stomacher so monstrously, that the tiny blue-heeled slipper upon the second stair seemed

before rep

ly chest," I

hilde. "Flogged once a wee

ogg

tain

music, and a jubilant chorus

paniel, and a

eat them, the

melod

t about the butter and eggs? Will you p

rgest one pound not

d shortly. "Chang

ughter floated in

that?"

are here, and he's laughing at them. I t

hine-gun fire

choes di

of potpourr

ead bags. Do you mind putting some coal on the fi

, so I took off my right boot and put it i

red the closet and was standing a-tiptoe before

07," s

Miss Childe. "Didn't yo

an to pluck the delicate flowers with which it was painted and gather them into a nosegay. In some dudgeon, I blew

my lady. "Shall

uld. It's rath

re th

said a faint voice

ye do?"

ill. All these years I've c

it there five minutes ago. You se

within me, and great folk have stood about me telling each other of my elegance, and once a baby child

that rose into a wail of the wind, and a ca

a dog wa

was gone, and the chamber had become g

lamation made

her hunted eyes sat Fear dominant. The sweet face was drawn and colourless, and her bre

ned to seek the ca

e nosegay held betwixt his finger and thumb-the little nosegay that she had gathered so lightly from the painted plate. A wide-skirted coat of red fell nearly to his knees and hid his breeches. His short black periwig was bobbed, and a black silk tie was knotted about his neck. Stoc

chorus rose up an

paniel, and a

eat them, the

as the same, the voices were harsh, and there was a dr

heard

The last time--" The hurrying voice faltered and stumbled piteously over a sob. "The last time I was near spent, Ralph.

cross her eyes, she bowed her head upon it, as do weeping children, an

withers we

l thing that feasts on Anguish. Then he let fall t

e frozen and par

oom and to spare for his brutality. At this delay my lady fell upon her knees, in a wild hope, I think, to turn her respite into a reprieve, but the beast cried out upon he

od there

ce was pale and his eyes shifted uneasily. The devil looked out of them yet, but Fright looked with him. Two paces brought the fellow before the tallboy. He put up his hands as if to pull open a drawer, when something

under which I lay seemed to be lifted, and I s

not have been there. The more ince

pacity of your stomach, why advertise your intemperance in a public place?" He lifted his hand from my shoulder to

r Jill, who was standing a-tiptoe befor

ming," said I.

about it to-night, after you've had your bat

I tell you. For Heaven's sake let me think. Oh, what was it?" My cousin

rly. "Green hoops leading by

ed hi

Let me think.

thought and thought.... But to

the time racking my brain feverishly for some od

in the Rolls, with my foot upon the s

ked what had

tored down here with Miss Childe, and now they'v

ted. "Miss Child

matter?" said Jonah,

I remember it all. It

ne we saw?"

odd

," I said. "We simply must

ong way, I swung the car in the direction from which we

hed into the hall, w

rson I saw w

come u

at him, casting st

go over fifty, neither. Might 'a bin the owner 'isself, the way 'e was runnin' us up. An' when we was in the eighties, I sez to meself, I sez, 'The one as calls a nundred first 'as it. So 'ere goes.' 'Eighty-ni

ellow who boug

Major. I tell you 'e mea

t I mastered

ere he is? Or, if he

'alf think--There 'e is," he cried, suddenly, nodding over my

ther-in-law languidly descending the s

Do you mind not ask

took out a one pound note. "I'm much obliged for your trouble. 'Not a bid after twenty-five pounds,' I think you

teadily, "if this gentleman

to purchase some furniture for me. Unfortunat

is eyes to hea

my strongest point, but I make i

he turned to

he tune of eighty pounds. Shall I faint here or by the hat-st

s it's in the fam

thing is, we've got it. And

nds," said Berry.

five before the War," said Mi

what's thirty-five? A bagatelle, brother,

ere in Patagonia, I suppose I should b

ll dissolved into

ndefinitely postponed. Other children shall feel sick in the monkey-house and be taken to smell the bears. But you, never." He turned to Mi

olls met with stern opposition, but in the end I prevailed, an

considerably tempered by the strange st

o the whereabouts of Colt. But the excitement which Daphne's production of a tape-measure aroused was onl

ittle satisfaction, the square measurements revealed considerably less, while, since no one of us was a mathematician, the calculation of the cubic

the beastly chest holds twenty-seven thousand point nine double eight recurring cubic inches of air. Some other fool can reduce that to rods, and there you are. I'm fed up with it. Thanks to the machinations of that congenital idiot with

r her to be going, and I elected to escort her as f

an you think," said I. "I never

do you

everyday life. Your partiality to mushrooms, your recognition o

ns!" cried

ldn't tell m

Seriously you do

as hid from me. Your

scream int

wful." We turned into the mews.

e, there's a dream

ast one. We can start after l

them. They were bare, t

und, Miss Childe

said, as she slid i

ed my hat. "By the way

flung me a d

sisters,"

returned t

essly surveyed, and began to finger it idly, wondering all the time whether my dream was wanton, or whether there was indeed some secret which we might

nt I withdrew the first, and placed it exactly upon the top of the second, so that I m

of where the first drawer had lain. At first I could find nothing, then my right hand encountered a round hole in the wood, just l

awn the panel out of its sta

as I thrust them into

g to dress?" said Jonah

heavy riding-whip whose handl