Spring Days

suspected that the firm of which he was junior partner had not played fair with him. Anyhow, he was going to get out of the business, having something better in view-a sho

e missus he would put in as shopwoman, and, there was no doubt of it, she would make as good a shopwoman as you could find, after a little practice; the child could run on errands, so it should be all profit. "I shall have none of the expenses that other people have to contend with. In the garden at the Manor House about three times as much stuff is grown as required. I shall buy all the fruit, vegetables, and flowers from my father at cost price, or a little over, and shall sell in my shop at retail price, that is, twenty or thirty per cent more. There is, therefore, no reason why the shop should not bring in from three to four hundred a year. And-would you believe it?-my father, who will be benefited by my

view of Mr. Brookes more in harmony with Willy's. He was, as usual, enthusiastic about his friends, and was effervescing with love and goodwill. He saw nothing of their faults-they were the best and truest people he had eve

ry aspects-the spires of the village churches, the porches of the villas, the rich farmhouses and their elm trees, the orchards jammed between masses of chalk, the shepherds seen against the sky of the Downs. It is true that he felt that this country was alien to him, but he was not individually conscious that his love of suburban Sussex was a morbid affection, opposed to the normal and indissoluble bonds of inherited aspirations and prejudices, and the forms and colours that had filled his eyes in childhood. Consciousness in Frank Escott was always slow, and always so governed and coloured by the sentiment of the moment that his comprehension of things were always deformed or incomplete. In his mind the phenomenon of life was ever in nebulae, and though very often one thought would define itself, no group of thoughts, or part of a group, ever became clear, so there was no abiding principle, nothing that he might know and steer by. He was, of course, aware that the Brookes were not equal to him in rank, but he did not know, or, rather, he would not know, that they were vulgar; nor did he think that Mount Rorke might marry again, if he were to marry Maggie or Sally. All that was really alive and distinct in him was love of them; and this love thrived in a sensation of class which he would not acknowledge, even to himself, had any existence. The glass-houses, and swards, and laurels had a meaning and fascination for him that he could not account for or describe, and he found these feelings, which were mainly class feelings of an unusual kind, not only in the aspect of the country but in the accent and speech of his friends, in the expression of their eyes and very hands. The English servants pleased him, and he strove to detect qualities in the carriage and horses, and he compared them to their advantage wit

m to do fifteen miles in the hour. There was not a pair of horses in England equal to them. That was Mrs. Berkins's riding horse-was it possible to imagine a more perfect cob? He could get a hundred for him any day, he did not know of anything like him. "Did any of you gentleman ever see anything like him?" They went to the kennels. A brace of Irish setters were declared to be the finest dogs that Ireland had eve

came upon a bas

ss, but I think I am right in saying, Jackson,

in Sussex seems to come down here-a regular little sun trap, I think that's what you

t just here the climate is equal to the south of Europe! I ask you to look at these peaches, it seems im

. "I am devoted to peach-growing, and I confess I am quite at a loss. Gardene

but the little man, who had been taken on his hobby, was n

e peaches ripened without

on, when I was living with Lord --, we couldn't get our fruit forward, use whatever heat he might, an

e little man would find himself obliged to follow, but chance was against hi

without heat. I wouldn't mind giving you five

e down here, sir, and then

nd he said: "I should like to see some of those peaches of your

me will not believe without seeing;

them into a glass-house where there were hot water-pipes, and when his tormentor pointed triumphantly to the pip

d fatty, "your south of Europe is no better than my

bout these peaches. I keep no one in my employment whos

an to do, if you will have everyt

oung man were discovered hiding in the potting shed; and to make matters worse, in the very next house they visited, they suddenly came upon Maggie sitting with another young man in strangely compromising circumstances. Explanations were attempted, and some stupid remarks were made. Berkins was s

d you in tears? What would they think I had been saying to reduce you to such a condition? It is veryunfortu

is a very trying one." Then, with a sudden burst of laughter, "H