Scarlet and Hyssop

dozen people were staying in the house, but the most of them had come down from London to spend the afternoon and return after dinn

whom at the moment croquet seemed of more importance than his eternal salvation, was busy, with a tea-party of four balls, separating adversaries and making hoops with

zealot at length, "and now I'll mobilize with you. Then

s Martin; "but I know I'll miss. Oh, it's

hing very loud. They were recalled with difficulty, still lingering on the way, and the unpromising situation was carefully explained to them by the palpitating man in a voice in which the endeavour not to appear jubilant was rather too marked. It

ries. Anthony Maxwell occasionally took a hand at her table, and in the intervals chased Maud Brereton from terrace to terrace with a hunter's pertinacity, conscious of the approving eye both of his mother and of Maud's. The fathers of them both would no doubt have viewed his employment with equal approbatio

always the power to do, an air of distinction and success to the party. Wherever she was there was a crowd; wherever she was there was more constant laughter, more animated conversation. She had the gift, rare and inimitable, of making people play up. Dull folk aroused themselves when she talked to them, brilliant people coruscated, for there went from h

merely by having people to amuse us. It is not so; being amused depends almost entirely on on

like really best of all is the pantomime. You find in the pantomime exactly wha

e without the slightest reason. It is so like life; and, like the clowns, we belabour each other with bladders and throw

go flying over hedges and ditches, while if I, for instance, as much as look over a hedge, I am supposed to be there for no good purpose. I

e la

r an hour a day, to begin with

onsciousness of it, I want," said

in a discontented voice, "except, perhaps, promotion in

s casts doubt on things like Jonah and the whale, or tries to explain them by supposing it was not a whale, but an extinct animal with

successful one. Really, nothing matters nowadays except money. That is so convenient fo

r somebody. He also had the air of having found somebod

oquet," he said; "but I

happ

ity, except when other people used me for their

g simply an opportunity for other people seems to me the very type of a wasted life. I am continually being an opportunity

hey say?"

e to that pessimistic person who said that Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do. That I am idle is, of course, quite t

orld doesn't libel you

People go about saying all sorts of things about me which are

up from

of the obvious," she said. "Why don't you di

he world," said he, "for a suitable in

rie, "and expect neither inducement nor

er got up

t me come,

erest," said he; "and as a consulting doctor, although nobody has shown the slightest desire to consult me, I don't see why I shouldn't give my diagnosis. Briefly it is this: This exceeding war

eux consid

ould not be human if it was. She gave me a lecture the other day about the vulgarity of lying down to be trampled on. Now, any one that was human would know that that

t even call it l

t antique. It is absurd to treat me as if I was Old Testament history. But Marie is a great

course I adore her, simply because one has to-it is unheard of not t

ut. To put it baldly, she is a good woman. You get force from being good if you are clever as well. Yes,

ew is," s

se there whatever. Mere goodness is pretty colourless by itself; but Marie is everything else, and good as well. She is about five t

never quite comfortable with her," sa

, there's Lady Ardingly looking for people to make up her table. She has probab

aughed loud

h Jack had been carrying on for years, and which was now so stale that it had almost ceased to form a subject for gossip, and this thought was bitterly poisonous to his mind. Could it be possible, he wondered, that Marie knew and condoned it? that she had accepted that for which there was no remedy but divorce, played gooseberry to her husband, and knew what were his relations to the woman whose hospitality she was even now enjoying? That she and Jack had drifted into the apathetic estrangement which so often is the result of childless marriages, he did not doubt; but was the reason for it that which was so well known to everybody else? Again and again during this last fortnight this unworthy and debasing suspicion had assailed him, and, to do him justice, he had as often cast it from him, his trust and whole-hearted belief in her rejecting and strangling it; and as often as it presented itself, he vowed that he would give it no home. But the other alternative, the only other possible, though it left her stainless and unsullied, was hardly less painful; and it was an intolerable thought to him that she alone should be ignorant of that of which all his better mind told him she was ignorant. Three-quarters of the world, no doubt, if they ever gave a thought now to a piece of s

ter was communicated by some subtle brain-wave to her; in any case, her first words as they walked

e said. "There will

ible voice to his inaudi

e asked quickly, still

laug

r; but I always loved them. I expect other sorts of storms affect one similarly. I hate compromise, you know. If one is absolutely at cross-purposes with other people, it is much better to have it out fair and square, to upset the furn

bore directly on his stifled q

cular in your mind?

tched it up quite beautifully, and agreed that nothing was worth bothering about. I acquiesced, though I should personally have preferred to have it out. At least I

ent and glanced

ellently," she added, with just a

the most elementary courtesy forbade him to call attention to it. "As

," he said in a pe

nventionality was as obvious as hers; sh

mean will be a bigger storm than that. On that subject Jack and I are quite agreed. I mean a national storm, a general upheaval. My goodness! some high tower

she pointed across the field to the lawn visible beyond it, filled with gay figures, and bordered with th

But Sunday afternoon in the country is an i

money, money! That is a perfectly sound and legitimate cry if the means you adopt are those that increase wealth. But if I get a tip from a City man and speculate, I am merely snatching at what I want. Did you go to

tess before the Lord," sa

hear the truth if I was! But, Jack, I must te

phet's wife. Tell me

al like Isaiah. Did you hear or read his speech last week about the Army Estimates? The First Secretary had given his statement in an apologetic kind of way, apparently wishing to conciliate the Opposition for the estimates being so high. The usual bickering over rounds of ammunition followed, and then Jack got up. Instead of apologizing for their being so high, he

popular speech from a me

not one jot what either his own side or the Opposition think of him. The press th

er the next election? I should not think his party w

n the other hand, they are beginning to see that Jack means business. He thinks the army is wholly inadequate, and, judging from the length of the Boer War, would crumple under a great stress. You see, he considers that the walk-over which was anticipated has degenerated into a stroll. So, instead of joining in the hymn of praise to the Brit

editary legislator," said Jim. "But h

he does care about is the Empire-I think he cares for it more than anything else in the world-and what he knows about is the army. And if this cry for effic

were full of feather-hatted girls and amorous young men, who changed hats with each other, without finding the brilliancy of this wit grow the least stale even in endless repetition; took alternate mouthfuls of solid refreshment out of paper bags and of beer out of the same bottle, with shouts of laughter at slightly indelicate suggestions. The poor river was flecked with fragments of bun-bags and floating bottl

she said ha

y pleasant to him to find himself, a

he answered, replying to

to themselves. But-oh dear me, Jim! what an awkward and inconveni

on this point. She had refused deliberate

love for her surging up with bitterness

Marie suddenly stopped. From one side came the sound of laughter an

mind, and thanked him silently

very fact that I am different to most of m

e's steps in this world, and he had the justice to quench it without more ado. But he knew also that the void which she might have filled ached horribly, and by the irony of fate he had now in abundance that of which the lack years ago had made it impossible then

growing tall with hay, and redolent with the hundred unprized flowers of English meadows, her mind changed. He had loved her with an honourable love; she on her side had liked him, but it had been impossible-so she told herself rather h

you have come ba