The Education of Eric Lane

and Melton turnpike, followed by three Irish miles of unaided forest track. Half of it lies under water for six months of the year; but in the summer a rutted ride proj

rrant geese make good their eleventh-century claim to free pasturage. At one end of the down-soft clearing, a Methodist chapel, two shops and five cottages constitute the village of Lashmar; at the other lies Lashmar Mill-House, slumbering half-hidden by beech trees to the unchanging murmur of the Bort. Th

through the forest. He was tired and uncommunicative, though his journey from Waterloo had been uneventful; once inside the carriage and tucked warmly into a corner, Barbara had closed her eyes, sighed and droppe

hat he was trying to render his return agreeably dramatic. Lady Lane assisted the conspiracy by inviting their few neighbours to meet him; Sybil was awaiting

on leave yester

I haven't seen him for

by the work and distractions of London. When the car stopped at the door of the Mill-House, he looked with affection at its squat, sleepy extent, punctu

Eric!" s

other," he answered, jumping o

Latin to help the boys with their home-work and had trained their characters in an austere school of aggressive Puritanism. If she were a little intolerant, at least she reared her children to a lofty sense of honour, a cold chastity of life and speech and a fierce refusal to compromise where truth or personal reputation was concerned. Thanks to her, three boys and one girl were now able t

e said, giving his arm a gentle

nged," said Er

them, a furtive, dark rectangle where they hurried through their meals. Eric had begged for years to have the back wall removed from the hall to make an adequate dining-room, but his mother had grown midd

the light. "Tell me what you've been doing all t

een doing a lot of work, meeting a lo

n the pockets of a short tweed skirt, staring idly at her own small feet in their brown stockings and thic

e other night," she interjected, in a pause,

making me later," Eric answered

and observed an expression of mixed curiosity

" said Sybil. "And Lady Barbara Neave. Are

h the Crawleighs to-day," he added without filling in the intervening encounters. "Lady Crawlei

ith them all at once!" Sybil comm

irl," Eric ans

ike what people ma

iled to

replied. Sybil was smiling mysteriously and exasperatingly

and an ill-smelling corn-cob drooping from beneath his unassertive grey moustache. In an arm-chair before the fire Geoff was contentedly dozing with the bog-mud steam

een sent to hunt you off to dress, father

ith a wintry smile. The boy in the arm-chair turned on to hi

ined Sir Francis. "The Grand Fleet doesn'

much as usual,"

s usual here," said his father,

and the presence of a wife as he would have accepted a new house and strange house-keeper; children had been born; after the publication of his Smaller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary the friend of a friend had recommended him, through a friend's friend, for a knighthood, and he had bestirred himself with wide-eyed, childish surprise for the investiture and a congratulatory dinner at the Athen?um, retur

d not at once accommodate himself to the le

Geoff!"

e suddenly active and projected himself across the room, tu

t, he could not at once accommodate himself to the simplicity of the Mill-House. "Pity you never turned t

ersistent but fruitless campaign against the s

ense. And we seem to struggle o

ggles as much as possible

he war's on," Sir Francis pointed out,

he was a school-boy, carefully protected from pampering. Sporadic attempts were made, whenever he launched an offensive against the domestic economy of the house; but th

d of emptying taps and a voice

f!" Eric cried, banging on the do

was surrendered to him. No man could have a hot bath and dress in five minutes

water wa