The Westcotes

his second legion the jejune page of Suetonius records neither where they landed nor at what limit their victorious eagles were stayed. Yet will the patient

devastated fields, arms yield to the implements and habiliments of peace, and the colonist, who supers

ndured him because the experience was new, and their ear

ffice. She had heard the lecture many times before, and with repetition its sonorous perio

s of two stories surrounded it, in place of the old colonnaded walk. Out of these opened the principal rooms of the house, and above them, upon a circular lantern of clear glass, was arched a painted dome. Sheathed on the outside

e recess beneath the gallery had been deepened to admit a truly ample fireplace, with a flat hearthstone and andirons. Here were screens and rich Turkey rugs, and here the Bayfield household ordin

side, facing the staircase, two heavy curtains had been looped back from the atrium, and there a ray of wintry suns

or two and then-satisfied, as their hostess rose, that he had really come to an end-tendered their applause, and, breaking into promiscuous chatter, trooped

y; he looked up, to find the hall deser

of vine-leaves and crossed thyrsi; though that, to be sure, is usual enough. And this next? Ah, I remember-'Tu cum parentis regna per arduum'; but what a devil of a design! And, above all, wha

ssus

t must seem a poor trifle-though it by no means exhausts our list of interest

my own Provence-so closely has it kept the origi

s. "You shall try, M. Raoul, you shall

h. The villa stands about two hundred ya

er walls did not run exactly tru

y, then, it was a domain of much importance, and the granaries, mills, stables,

ess than three hundred yards away. A hypocaust lay

l, is how these southern settler

maeval face of Somerset on this side of the fens, and through which Vespasian's road-makers literally hewed their way. Given these forests-which, by the way, extended over the greater part of England-we must infer a climate totally un

lant of helichryse or a rose-cutting from Paestum, to

ith a look. "He has had no tea yet; it was cruel of you to detain him. My brother, sir," she turned to Rao

at that moment of the things w

s of a blush, and half angry t

that happens to be one of them

his tea; but he must come with me afterwards, while there is li

d across

uest and leading the way, "by a small detour we can

he service rooms, the other to the library. Flat columns relieved the blank wall of this passage, with monstrous copies of Raphael's cartoons filling the interspaces; on the other hand four tall windows

fate must have overtaken all these pleasant scattered homes-sack and fire and slaughter- slaughter for all the men, for the women slavery and worse. Does one hear of any surviving? Out of this warm life into silence-" He paused and shivered. "Very likely they did not guess for a long while. Look, Mademoiselle, at the Fosse Way, stretching yonder across the hills: figure yourself a

d her hand. His face was

captive: to feel one's best days slipping away, and fate still denying to us poor devils the chance which even the luckiest-God knows-find little enough." He laughed, and to Do

nderstand," said

ome day you shall pause by this window and see a cloud of dust on the Fosse Way-the last of us prisoners as they march us from Axcester to the place of our release; and, seeing it, you shall close the book upon a chapter

ater, Narcissus came bustling through the

e cried. "I was start

tea-room or forgot all about it; and M. Ra

sir, will tell you whether I am right or wrong about the climate of those d

me as the pair crossed the great hall beneath the dome. Then she turned the

the avenue at the heels of M. de Tocqueville and General Rochambeau. Twenty minutes later, while the servants were setting the hall in

t. She recalled Endymion's prophecy that these entertainments would throw the domestic mechanism-always more delicately poised on Sundays than on weekdays-completely oft

uches were in position, the cushions shaken up, the pot-plants placed around the fountain so accura

face downwards-a book cheaply bound between boards of mottled paper. She picked it up and read the title; it was a volume of Rousseau's Co

rs with it and past the s

t before she reached the front door she happened-though perhaps it was not quite accidental- to throw a glance th

o her room and

Run down to the small gate, that's a good girl-you will overtake him easily

the park to the nurseries-a sheltered corner in which the Bayfield gardener grew

es. She heard M. Raoul's footstep as she reached it, and, peering over, saw him befo

t and smiled up pleasantly. "Is it

showing a fin

t your book behind, and my mistress sent it after yo

pretty book, too, to be found in your ha

! Is it

you happen to open it.

d you I

ut! What's

re you doing to the book?" For M. Raoul had taken out a penknife and was

ou'll be reading it on the sly. Here, I must sit down: suppose you let me perch myself on the t

dn't thi

"I particularly want her to read M. Rousseau's reflections on the Pont du Gard;

danced with, at 'The Dogs,'

othing to do with dancing. If, as I suppose, you refer to t

don't know w

intend that

arker, and began to fold away the excised pages. "That's why I am ke

next instant his right arm was round her neck and he had kissed her full on the lips. "Oh, you

n his perch, when he happened to throw a look down into the road

sh figure in the uniform of the Axcester Volunteers-scarlet, with wh

him. "Good- evening, Corporal! We're both of us a lit

ed on his heels an

paused and rubbed his chin. "Her looked like Polly and her zounded like Polly . . . Dang this dimpsey old light, I've got a good mind to