A Great Success

se, much added to at various times, and now a pleasant medley of pillared verandahs, tiled roofs, cupolas, and dorm

ad at once divined a possible harbour of refuge from the terrors of the situation. Arthur was strolling up and down the lawn with the Home Secretary, smoking and chatting-talking indeed nineteen to the dozen, and entirely at his ease. A few other groups were scattered over the grass; while girls in white dresses and young men in flannels were playing tennis in the distance. A lake at the bottom of the sloping garden made light and space in a landscape otherwise too heavily wal

eat oppressed her. She was making play with a cigarette and her half-shut eyes were fixed on the "lion's" wife. The eyes fascinated Doris

ur," said Doris. "Unfor

at the speaker. Doris too was in a white dress, of the simplest stuff and make; but it became her. So did the straw hat, with its wreath of wild roses, w

thought. "Let's see what

ng?" said Lady Dunstable, still with

if I proposed it. He never lets an

" Was Lady Dunstable's smile just touched with sarcasm?

pond

not really. I always thou

pected such a run-

y. "I think I did-sometimes. The

miling, at he

the whiskers stoope

rld. But that of course is wh

e sake of conversation. "I never could un

he pleasure. Of course you agree, Rachel!"-he turned to her-"else why did you read me that very doleful poem yesterday, on th

Dunstable, coldly. "I read it to you to see

an who wrote it says he l

ps, is why h

e laugh

him the other night-going to Dunstable to be consoled.

I married him. George s

free to do th

smiling broadly, and showing some very white teeth. A signal passed

ches that were apparently frequent between them. They fell to discussing a party of guests-landowners from a neighbouring estate-who seemed to have paid a visit to Crosby Ledgers the day before. Lady Dunstable had not enjoyed them, an

nt out and amused himself.... Why did she marry him? Ah, that's more difficult to answer. Is one obliged to c

?" Doris vent

aid Lady Duns

ghed over hi

? Well, Rachel, all the

company i

d Lady Dunstable, quie

talking about?" said a

a handsome man with gri

husband and I have been having a jolly talk. My word!-he's a clever chap. Le

e feelings towards a stranger, in which his wife appeared to be conspicuously lacking, were to be discerned on first acquaintance. Doris wa

h of literature. Doris saw at once that Lady Dunstable was the centre of it, and she was not long in guessing that it was for this kind of talk that people came to Crosby Ledgers. Lady Dunstable, it seemed, was capable of talking like a man with men, and like a man of affairs with the men of affairs. Her political knowledge was astonishing; so, evidently, was her background of family and tradition, interwoven throughout with English political history. English

eadows-the new captive of her bow and spear; to find out what was in him; to see if he was worthy of her inner circle. Throwing all compliment aside, she attacked him hotly on certain statements-certain estimates-in his lectures. Her knowledge was personal; the knowledge of one whose father had sat in Dizzy's latest Cabinet, while, through the endless cousinship of the English landed families, she was as much relate

all unwilling, when hard pressed

ns,-throwing themselves on the grass, around the two disputants. Finally Lady Dunstable carried off the honours. Had she not seen Lord Beaconsfield twice during the fatal week of his last general election, when England turned against him, when his great rival triumphed,

ound of clapping hands went round the circle. Lady Dunstable, a little flushed and panting, smiled and was silent. Meadows, meanwhile, was thinkin

d, his attention fixed on his wife. As the group broke up, and the chairs were p

s's side towards the house. Every trace of animation and charm had now vanished from that lady's manner. She was as languid and monosyllabic as before, and Doris coul

everely. "And of course your maid will ask for what she wants." At the word "maid," did Doris dream it, or was ther

osed on Lady Dunstable before an agi

ite her mistres

o have an evening dress-or

you mean?" said Do

an' they've all on 'em got dresses V-shaped, or cut square, or something. This black dress, ma'am, wo

'll lend you my spare blouse. You can turn it in at the neck

t the bewildered Jane about her business, after having shown her first how to unpack her mistress's modest belongings, and s

ss, and on the splendid oaks lifting their dazzling leaf to the purest of skies. The roses in the garden sent up their scent, there was a plashing of water from an invisible fountain, and the deer beyond the fence wandered in and out of the broad bands of shadow drawn across the p

"I would soon be enjoying myself! Arthur, lucky wretch

ing!" The reflection, however, was, on the whole, good-humoured. She did not feel, as yet, either jealous or tragic. Some day, she supposed, if it was to be her lot to visit country houses, she would get used to their ways. For Arthur,

g "Come in"-the door opened cautiously to admit the face of the substant

said Miss Field, "o

ried Doris. "I never wa

d the Muse of Mirth, if any Muse is ever forty years of age. The small, up-turned nose and full red lips were always smiling; so were the

een my cousin bef

ble? Is she

rent ways. Rachel can't do without me now, so I'm able to keep her in order. Don't ever be shy w

hem," said Doris, slowly. "S

the chief thing. You know she's a muc

pursued the two dista

t all. He's the real authority here, and when he puts his foot down Rach

. But she could not keep her curiosity out of

thing in politics, if she hadn't been so much more important than he. And then, naturally, she's made enemies-powerful enemies. Her friends come here of course-her old cronies-the people who can put up with her. They're devo

not help wis

uld 'go.' So on the Saturday morning she went over in her pony-carriage-broke in on the little Rectory like a hurricane-of course you know the people about here regard her as something semi-divine!-and told the girl she had come to take her back to Crosby Ledgers for the Sunday. So the poor child packed up, all in a flutter, and they set off

, her cheeks red,

same, there are fine things in Rachel. And in

?" Doris

shrugged he

since he was twenty-one he has a little money of his own. He hangs about in studios and theatres. His mother doesn't know any of his friends. What she suffers-poor Rachel! She'd have given everything in the worl

ur! That, however, was not a sentiment easily communicable; and she was just turning it

r husband

She's been awfully kind to us about the

hours as that she gave us on the lawn after tea-and all owing to him-he was so inspiring, s

he speaker was much amused by the Meadowses' situation-more amused than her sens

t Lady Dunstable will get o

raised he

eedn't be afraid-" and this most candid of cousins laughed aloud. "Rachel isn't a flir

ause. Then Mi

things about Rachel. I have to explain he

and always reappeared; the Dean, who in return for a general submission, was allowed to scold her occasionally for her soul's health; the politicians whom she could not do without, who were therefore handled more gingerly than the rest; the military and n

Meadows and Lady Dunstable, crossing the lawn. "Whatever you do, hold your own. If you don't want to play games, don't play them.

with exercise and pleasure. "The place is divine, and really Lady

dress. Meadows kissed her absently, and, with his head evidently still full of his walk, went to his dressing-room. When he reappeared, it

best with it, Arthur, but I'm not a genius at dressm

more on her dress. It was unseemly-absurd. She loo

" she said slyly, as she straightened his tie,

the staircase Meadows turned to s

em in Scotland-for two or three week

she?" sa

*

, snubbed, or contradicted. Only Arthur Meadows, indeed, measuring himself with delight, for the first time, against some of the keenest brains in the country, failed to see it. His blindness allowed Lady Dunstable to run a somewhat dangerous course, unchecked. She risked alienating a man whom she particularly wished to att

by Ledgers. "Gad, if I wouldn't sooner go in for the Indian Civil again!" said Sir Luke. Doris, with the most ingratiating manner, but quite firmly, begged to be excused. Lady Dunstable bit her lip, and presently, à propos de bottes, launched some observations on the need of co-operation in society. It was shirking-refusing to take a hand, to do one's best-false shame, indeed!-that ruined English society and English talk. Let everybody take a lesson from the French! After which the lists were opened, so to speak, and Lady Dunstable, Mea

ther-'Why is the Pope like a thermometer?' I did see some light on that!" His countenance cheered a little. "Wo

tence he had not noticed hitherto, more agreeable than Lady Dunstable's table with its racked countenances, and its too ample supply of pencils and paper. A deadly

ttle amusements?" she s

s her

of them," smile

*

s the train next morning pulled out of the Crosby Ledg

d been, so to speak, at his feet, and all her little court had taken their cue from her. He had been flattered, drawn out, and shown off to his heart's content, and had been most naturall

o make friends with Lady Dunstable. However, that'll be all right

ast. "Three weeks! I could

why?" he ang

r dislike to me, and I just had to be stubborn and thorny to get on at all. I'm awful

"And so would you, if you weren't so critical and censoriou

or me!" cried Doris, ho

ave to let me

s a reasonable woman! Lady Dunstable rouses all my powers; she gives me ideas which may be mos

her cheeks aflame. "But you won

s mostly agreed with him. But she wouldn't confess it, and it was presently understood between them t

elt more miserable in her life. The only person in the trio who returned to the Kensington house entirely happy was Jane, who spent the greater

RT