Scarlet and Hyssop

that the same fact shall strike the majority

nd without further preamble, to take the case in point, London settles without consultation, but with considerable unanimity, when spring may be considered to have stopped and summer to have begun. It is hardly necessary to state that London is, if not always, at any rate very frequently, completely deceived-like the buttercups and daisies-about a point so apparently palpable as even this, and a few biting frosts about mid-May usually send it back to its furs again; but the fact remains that on or about the same day the streets suddenly wear a completely different garb. On all sides the chrysalises burst, and butterflies gay or sober, according

s. Brereton after lunch in a balconied window of her drawing-room in Park Lane looking over the haze and warmth of

d; "and a thing that everybody does is not in itself worth doing at all.

reton put down her parasol, and pointe

iginal? You have travelled, dear Marie, and have seen Aztecs and wigwams and the gorgeous

lston

ightmares origi

hich reminds me of beef and beer and Sunday. A little further down you will observe a kind of kiosk, and after that the front of the Erechtheum and something from the slums of Nürnberg. If one could l

Lady Alston; "and all of us who live here are like scraps for a dog's dinner, too. B

shade she affected was so difficult to please in a strong light, and she felt sure that at this moment

this lovely morning?" she aske

when one is dissatisfied with things in general, it means that one's vi

does the dissat

hands wide with an adm

thing ourselves. We can none of us stand solitude, which is in itself a complete confession of our stupidity, our parasitic nature. We go and hear people sing and act, and make music; and go and see horses race; we play cards for hours because we have not got the wit to talk-they say Bridge killed conversation. What nonsense! there was none to kill. Our whole brains, such as they are, are occupied in devising things to do to make the time pass. And we devise very badly: we are always glad

oved a little i

I am going to have it done again t

ed; she had notic

e why you find it worth while to do that. What object is served by your s

r, and that will be disappointing. Besides, my hair is beginning to be neatly picked out with gray, and when your hair is gray it looks as if you were no longer young. Nor am I. I am thirty-six. But I have still a

ng young if it is only to b

Most delightful things are of no use whatever, and useful things are

f social crimes-and we drift along like thistle-down. We are vicious; we are idle. No one has any dignity or any manners, and ther

id Mildred, "for whom many of us wo

riginality. We are bound hand and foot by conventions of our own making. Supposing I happened to go into the country for a fortnight, instead of grilling here in London, every

reat deal more than that

eedily invent several people. I beg the pardon of the people among whom we li

here to talk about? I share it; in fact, I have a particularly large helping, but it is the subject-matter of scandal which

on shook

this world is at our command-at any rate all the beautiful and interesting things in existence can be read or heard or seen by us. But we don't waste two thoughts on them all. We sit in corners and giggle like barmaids with our young men. And, as long as there is no public scandal,

n shrieked w

y ever accused you of changing hats with anybody. You don't draw them in, you know, dear. They call you 'Snowfl

n slightly, as if something had

e, as if they did not know what you meant. But I made Blanche stare in a different kind

not mind being

of one's voice, and eat too much, and laugh very loud at things which ought not to be said; but when I told her what sort of a picture she makes when she sits simpering and

on drew on

up looking-glasses to them, and make them see themselves; you point out what brutes they are, and scold them for it; but they

nceited enough to thi

nt if you are there, and sensibly flatter if you are not. I suppose it is because people are always talking about you, and it is so nice in one's

least likely person in the w

cano. How do you manage it? Do you get very angry inside, and determine not to say anything till the pressure is irresistib

up with a sud

brought up together almost. Then-well, then

reton. "Marriage often produc

easier or falser than that sort of innuendo. Besides, he

broad," said

y reason why I should not tell you. He propo

so," remarked

sort of plan of his own; he has always known what he meant to do, though he has not always done it. For instance, he wanted impossible things; he had

onaire, without anything South African about him: no local colour, in fact. He is

lston

to see Jim with society

rtain it wil

n raised h

ask? He is rich-that

e gives us halfpence, golden halfpence. And it is ve

did not at

in the mouth sometimes, Mi

you always tell one

t is why we

ton looked

of it, I s

of it. Ah!

elf felt in some subtle and silent manner. As a rule he spoke but little; but his silence, as Mildred Brereton once remarked with more than her usual insight, took up all the time. It could not be described as a rich silence, for it was essentially dry, but somehow it compelled attention. Probably, if he had been short and squa

Mrs. Brereton, and sat down on a basket chair sideways

ildred," he said. "Summer at

d she. "Marie has been taking t

dered this

id at length. "Bad habit of Marie's, thou

are all wicked and stupi

e must have a hobby. Going

ok the hin

r. You send me to the right-about with the least possible ceremony. So I

k r

Wait a minute, Marie, if you're not in

," said Mildred. "

, and when they had passed the drawing-room, "Has she bee

attitude, fire-works, thun

ral reasons she had better stop. I

of a purchaser selecting the one that most struck her

"A man like you cannot form the least idea of what a woman

hick and masculine driving-gloves, while Jack crossed the hall and

she suspects any

playground. Also you must remember that she is the-how shall I say it!-the sensation, the latest, the fashion. You've got to be careful. She is capable of exploding some day, and if she did it w

el

course the person who is most like

and q's, in fact. That's

as she walked across the hall to the d

hall have more to say to you to-n

Lane in the most approved fashion, elbows square, a whip nearly perpendicular, and her horses stepping as if there were a succession of hurdles to negotiate, each to be taken in the stride. Her remarks about the importance of taking care had annoyed Jack a little, and still more his own annoyance at being annoyed.

yship's carriage ordered?

t three,

arter to four instead," he said,

ere he had left her, with her maid

, I will take it myself this afternoon. It is all wrong. Put it

d hat, and while Marie pinned the

to me?" she said, n

n silence a moment,

g on your hat

anting, just in order to see what happened, not to

she sa

has come ba

Mildred told

him. I find people have not forgotten th

fferent wonder, as if he had asked her

as far as I am concerned," she said. "Is that all you have to say t

come round till a quarter to

she said, "before you take it upon

se making a fuss," he said. "I wish merely to warn you that people have not forgotten. I wish also to as

se flu

arter of an hour in which

ted to

, Marie,"

g I choos

in your-your general style. I have often heard you criticising rather mercilessly the world you live in; Mildred tells me you were doing so this afternoon. I don't mind your doing that: you have a racy

d the end of his ciga

or the other in themselves," he continued,

what I do, but onl

ave quite grasp

e chair in which she h

imagine," she said. "F

say. I thought you mig

the least

r an early edition of the ev

ld tell me what

ing. Certainly I have no intention

how the slight

s in a certain way, she gets talked about. That is all. I have indicated to yo

ked about, so I am told; but I never knew that you con

ckly up, then turned back a

e, I should not mind how much you were talked a

did no

a friendly and, in a way, insignificant word of warning. But somehow you have put it all into capital letters. Th

have been u

d

reat effort

t. You see, we rub each other up the

not worth bot

his having to give way. It is only selfish people who cannot believe that they are selfish, and Jack never passed moral judgments on himself or anybody else. To be critical of any behaviour that did not annoy him personally he held to be an absurd attitude to adopt; it was only behaviour that might prove inconvenient to one's self that could reasonably be criticised, or, rather, not so much criticised as corrected. He knew quite well that the small but well-dressed fragment of the world that at all concerned him, was perfectly aware that his marriage with

tted that they represented its ground-motives with sufficient accuracy. But Jack was not in the habit of analyzing anything: inquiry into the reasons for conduct seemed to him a profitless pursuit, since-again to put the matte

sitive and negative. When once one no longer thinks it necessary to reflect whether one ought or ought not to do or to avoid a thing, the saving of time and tissue is quite enormous. For it is not so much doing things as thinking about them which consumes the minutes and the nerves, and once having made an unalterable rule to do a thing if it is pleasant, and refrain from it if it is not, one can get into a single day a number of delightful expe

that piecing together with their habitual amiability, their opinion of the ill-success of his own marriage with her, her frankly low opinion of the world, and the possibility of the renewed intimacy of his wife and this man, they would say things which would annoy him personally. He had hoped that Marie would see this, or if no