Scarlet and Hyssop

into our lives. He needed but little thought to remember what it was, and as he lay watching with idle but wide-awake eyes his man putting his clothes out, he told over and over again

hich is more instinct with manliness than any sacrifice of years and youth to the mere watching of the unattainable shadow on the blind, he had gone out to the Transvaal, farmed there with the same fervour as that which he had thrown into his love-making, and subsequently, by the discovery of the reef on his land, had become, if not one of the richest men who had found colossal fortunes as sheep-farmers, at any rate one of the second rank-millionair

have shot all the autumn, hunted all the winter, and dozed and dined all the spring and summer, according to the traditional method of the English gentleman, whose obituary notice eventually teems with encomium on his useful and simple life, which means that he has been a J. P. But to pass one's life merely in hearing music and looking at or buying pictures seemed to h

e most masterly seat and hands, the broad brown expanse of the Ladies' Mile was plentifully dotted with riders. The little green seats, too, by the side were in high request, and she walked, or rather danced, very slowly up for a hundred yards or so, before le

woman on the sly, and I see you, there'll be the deuce to pay. Come and tell me frankly if you are going to do that sort of thing. Dear Madame Guardina, how are you? Do walk a little way with us. No, there's not a soul here this morning, is there? I've

e, a passion for Pagani, and an adoration for the particular set to which Mrs. Brereton belonged, was delighted to be

ss, "for I never was in better voice. And on Saturday I sing La Tosca.

you goin

ou've never been there yet, Mrs. Brereton. Do come down some

made a short

ve to," she said. "I

s and two dozen dogs,

off? Good-bye. About th

y d

a charming smile

said, "and it's barely ten yet. Pagani was just moving w

f as good-natured to

t can I do

a hopelessly unreasonable

ed her lips as

ly hold this untamed savage any longer. Come on, J

n in an arm-chair gives to a persistent fly on a summer afternoon. The consciousness that hundreds of people were looking at her added, if anything, to her unconcern; certainly also the fact that many who saw her saw also, and remarked, that Jack was with her gave an additional zest to her enjoyment. For her creed was that secrecy in this world was impossible, and the only way t

p of the mile, and Mil

rsed for the day. Now we'll go on talking. Expl

t a cig

aid, "and they bore me.

t ab

it's worth repeatin

but you are goi

r in a frown, hit his horse rather savagely for an imaginary s

Mildred," he said. "Nobody adopts that tone

laug

sake, don't put on schoolmaster airs. You know perfectly well that doesn't go down. Don't hit yo

ncer last night, driving him home in her brougham and saying she was

th you? W

with Jim Spencer people would talk, and if they talked it was absurd for her to keep up the sort

e a gesture

your pardon, that is by the way. You were saying that she walked of

shed a

ol of me before all the world, the sooner

ed Mildred in a tone in whi

her whether she really went to see Bl

e is as great a fool as

alf round o

ch language from

e, Jack, that you don't see what a dangerous and foolish game you are playing? Mon Dieu! mon Dieu! you are marrie

intention

. Now, if she was the sort of woman you seem to think she is, that would be the very way to drive her into it. Personally, I wish she was, but she isn't, and we must make the best of it.

lieved she went to Lady Devereux's or not. She also said that

laughed

rked. "That is the one thing out of the question. The impeccable attitude of guardian angel, my

a little whil

way, then," he

anage to put your foot in it! And I have to pul

cularly th

ction is its own reward, and I am bursting with an approving consci

elf pe

. I didn't think of mys

her face, and it was impossible to credit her with the six-and-thirty years which sh

ever gets tired

laug

t you get accustomed

it, but knowing that in managing men, as in managing horses, the real secret of their mutiny is not so much fear on their driver's part, as the knowledge of that fear in the driver, she was always, as in this particular instance, more than usually brutal, and was accustomed to make him, so to speak, more resonant under her hand, when she was not quite certain in the depths of her own mind that she was going to win. Then, when the stress was over, she

hat no knowledge at all was almost as hazardous. Indeed, it was supposed that this idea had gently begun to communicate itself to the Government itself. Anyhow, it was rumoured that more than a mere reshuffling of the old cards would take place, and Jack Alston's name was freely mentioned as a probable occupant of the office in Pall Mall. Until his succession to the title on his father's death six years ago, he had been a soldier of the practical, hard-working order, not content with figures and much polo, but busy with ideas on boots and rifles, and the knowledge he had thus acquired he had since used on more than one occasion with telling effect on discussions in the Upper House about military matters, and the cold, aloof attitude with which anything so out of taste as criticism founded on knowledge, or the discussion of practical questions in a practical manner, is usually treated in that august assembly had not produced the slightest effect on him. He asked awkward questio

never been any scandal, and London is a wonderfully tolerant town. It is, in fact, almost incapable of being shocked except by that which is printed in the daily papers. This constitutes the real power of the press. As long as definite publicity in black type on white or pink paper is not given, a fact, however well known, remains p

aid Mrs. Brereton, going back to her subje

t I say to Ma

see the extraordinary advantage to be gained by telling the truth. It is so easy, too: you can tell the tr

got the imaginative

amental detail is necessary to the simplest untruth, whereas if you are telling the truth th

I want proper rifles and the knowledge among the men

British public likes that. It says there is no nonsense about you. How odd it is that politically you

tforward eno

an that matter? But I don't think it has any doubt about you, Jack. It believes you to be a model of domesticity. Also by my advice, you see, you breed pigs and shorthorns. There is

e whole wo

y not to look glum, and tell Marie you are lunching with me. G