Vanitas

r, to Greenleaf, seated, the catalogue before him and the pen in his hand, at a long deal table-"it's very unfair, and it i

ke in an undertone, and her eyes were looking down upon the platter; but it struck him at once that she was a Celt once more, and that the Celtic waywardness and emotion were bursting out the more irresistibly for that long repression due to the Spartan undemonstrativeness of smart society. He noticed also a trait he had forgotten, and which

me, that it's only fair you should know that, on account of the pots, I have-well, got to dislike you. You see," she went on, tur

g at lunch, that Miss Flodden seemed to have very little in commo

writers to the Times. The second wife being dead, and sundry aunts installed in her place, the younger generation of Floddens, after gradually emerging from the nursery, ran wild in brooks and streams, stables and haylofts, until the boys were packed off to civilisation and Eton, pending further civilisation and Sandhurst; and the girls were initiated into their proper form of civilisation by being taken to a drawing-room and then hustled into further female evo

ly of a puzzle, and regarded with the mixed awe and suspicion due to her having been recently an admittedly pretty woman, and now showing signs of becoming an

at Greenleaf might have understood Miss Flodden's passionate clinging to her

public spirit exhibited by the young lady; so inevitably do we expect other folk to possess even our most eccen

kenness, which never struck him as otherwise than natural, he answered very gravely: "Of course I understand how fond you must be of these beautiful things, and how much it must have been to you-it would b

these heirlooms, as if she herself had done the incredible thing of pointing out the pecuniary advantage. Then, apparently, she reflected that if this man was so obtuse, h

's sad to think what sort of things-what stupid amusements and useless necessaries these lovely things will be exchanged for, merely because the world is so id

misconception of his meaning as she had

hundreds of people will be afforded pleasure, instead of only one or two-one, namely yourself, by your own account. Besides, do you really think that any private individual has a moral right to keep for himself any object capable

to the fact that he could not realise such ideas, so very fam

on its edge, and looked at Greenleaf with surprise in her blue eyes, whi

e you speaking seriously? But then-wha

ere would be no longer either active or idle; everyone would

cept for real enjoyment and as a result of fairly earning them? People would all have books and beautiful trees and fields to look a

hers" had them, things so futile, so foreign to his mind, extraordinarily like a child t

ourse

for marrying and giving in marriage. One would live quite free; free

, for his own thoughts were too fore

ure. Some mightn't, perhaps, because some would always, perhaps, want to work too much, and because things matter to me-I

oss the girl's face, and she an

at would be

igrees, crops, how many fish the boys had caught, in what houses friends were staying, whom sundry young ladies of the neighbourhood were likely to marry, and how many bags had been made at the various shoots. Still, despite these irrelevant interests, Miss Flodden seemed to have understood why Greenleaf had expected her to like the sale of the collection, and Greenleaf to have understood why Miss Flodden should have been vexed at the collection being sold. At least

He nearly always played, when he did play, with men; and he hated the way in which the fiddle crushes the starched hideous shirt, the movement of bowing rucks the black sleeve and hard white cuff too high above the red, masculine wrist; and among the dreams of his life there had always been a very silly one, of a younger sister-he always thought of her as called Emily-who would have learned the violin, and who would have stood before him like this, bow in hand, while he looked up from his piano. It seems odd, perhaps, that the fair violinist

having satisfied themselves in the newspapers about the number of brace of grouse, had sneaked off to prepare flies for the next day's fishing; and still the duet went on, the

olica-into its case, and looking round at the sleepy faces of the family. "Jack, give Mr. Greenleaf his candle. And," she added,

rden and paddock, the big library and loft full of books; and among it all there wandered about,