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