Love Among the Chickens

s. The present one belonged

for explanations. An Irishman's croquet-lawn is his castle, and

nversation was opened by the other man, in whose restraining hand Aunt Elizabeth now lay, outwardly resigned but inwardly, as I, who knew her haughty spirit, could guess, b

aid the man pleasa

ved my hat before entering the hedge, and my hair was full of twigs and other foreign substances.

began, and ended th

my guilty conscience to be looking through me. Aunt Elizabeth sneered. The only friendly face was the m

g breath,"

eral, and

, but I would not risk it. It would have been mere bravado to attempt unnecessary words of five syllables. I took in m

ng to do with me. I am told by one who knows that hens cannot raise their eyebrows, not having any; bu

the man. "Though it's

partment, the taking hold, that the thing was bungled. Aunt Elizabeth slipped from my grasp like an eel, stood for a momen

ed retreat. You must know the way out. It was the lack of that knowledge that kept me standing there, looking more foolish than anyone has ever looked since the world began. I could not retire by way of the hedge

t Elizabeth, made us friends. In the first minute of the proceedings the Irishman was addressing me as "me dear boy," and the man, who had introduced himself as Mr. Chase-a lieutenant, I learned later, in His Maj

uted Mr. Chase. "In my direction if yo

eemed to me more than sinister. I did not like the idea of dashing young lieutenants in the

The more I study hens, the more things they seem able to get along without-which abruptly disturbed her calm detachment. Sh

rved Mr. Chase approvingly, "is

erly Irishman, who was, it seemed, a professor at Dublin University, by name, Derrick. Whatever it was that he professed, it was somethi

is," I said. "When you got out at Yeovil

ther men as regards the unfo

added, "I was

carriage coming down. I was confident I h

orget Garnet's as now exhibited. You seem to have collect

--" I said. "A w

"Tom, take Mr. Garnet off to your room, and then w

with my friend the lieutenant to the house. We imprisoned Aunt Elizabeth in the stables, to her prof

hospitably laying out a change of raiment for m

I said. "We travelled down fro

nts a chart in a strange sea-he can cut up rough. And, when he does, he goes off like a four-point-seven and the

would try to avo

t you like. Chatty remarks on Bimetallism would meet with his earnest attention. A lecture

now each ot

those men who seemed to do everything a shade better than anyone else-"for a

ment. The fact is, I've been lured down here by

ng. Tom Chase allowed the vinegar to trickle on to th

you're the man we've all been praying to meet for days past. You're the talk of the town. If you can

s. I know less. He considers it an advantag

sh, the grocer, said. I never forget a name. He is the gent

vering when anybody visited our farm. I admit that it was a pleasing spectacle to see my managing director in a pink shirt without a collar and very dirty flannel trous

ar," said Phyllis Derrick wi

ys them,

he thrilling interest we all take-at a distance-in your farm. We have been talking of nothing else for a week. I have drea

mustn't look on me as in any way responsible for the arrangements at the farm. I am merely a labourer. The brainwor

approval of the enthusiast towards a brother. "I'm

essional duties will per

played the professor and Tom Chase. Chase was a little better than myself; the professor, by

rofessor shaping at his ball at the other end of the lawn, "by an aut

Jeremy, Mi

rned a little pink. "Then

help it, I

what I was g

must have heard your criticisms in the

like you

a 'creature,'

s a 'creature,'" she r

n was setting as I left to return to the farm, with Aunt Elizabeth stored neatly in a basket in my hand. The air was deliciously cool, and full of that strange quiet which follows soothingly on the s

ssed th

ice to me. Very nice inde

equally polite to any other man whom she had happened to meet at her father's house. Mo

tar w

her Phylli

, in that beastly cynical, satirical way which has