The Chronicles of Clovis

art of a stately spacious garden that had almost made up its mind to be a park. The shallow stone basin of an old fountain, on wh

stive of a certain mournful listlessness, as though a weary dignity of caste held them back from the joyous bustling life of the lesser waterfowl. Elaine liked to imagine that they re-embodied the souls of unhappy boys who had been forced by family interests to become high ecclesiastical dignitaries and had grown prematurely Right Reverend. A low stone balustrade fenced part of the shore of the lake, making a miniature terrace above its level, and here roses grew in a rich multitude. Other rose bushes, carefully pruned and tended, formed little oases of colour and perfume amid the restful green of the sward, an

ons at her feet reclined Courtenay Youghal, smoothly preened and youthfully elegant, the personification of decorative repose; equally decorat

mother. She disapproved, it is true, of a great many of her son's friends and associates, but this particular one was a special and persistent source of irritation to her from the fact that he figured prominently and more or less successfully in the public life of the day. There was something peculiarly exasperating in reading a brilliant and incisive attack on the Government's rash handling of public expenditure delivered by a young man who encouraged her son in every imaginable extravagance. The actual extent of Youghal's influence over the boy was of the slightest; Comus was quite capable of deriving encouragement to rash outlay and frivolous conversat

he had sat in conscientious judgment on the motives that guided or misguided Charles and Cromwell and Monck, Wallenstein and Savonarola. In her present stage she was equally occupied in examining the political sincerity of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, the good-faith of a honey-tongued but possibly loyal-hearted waiting-maid, and the disinterestedness of a whole circle of indulgent and flattering acquaintances. Even more absorbing, and in her eyes, more urgently necessary, was the task of dissecting and appraising the characters of the two young men who were favouring her with their attentions. And herein lay cause for much thinking and some perturbation. Youghal, for example, might have baffled a more experienced observer of human nature. Elaine was too clever to confound his dandyism with foppishness or self-advertisement. He admired his own toilet effect in a mirror from a genuine sense of pleasure in a thing good to look upon, just as he would feel a sensuous appreciation of the sight of a well-bred, well-matched, well-turned-out pair of horses. Behind his careful political flippancy and cynicism one might also

f appeal was constantly engaged in examining witnesses as to character, most of whom signally failed to give any testimony which would support the favourable judgment which the tribunal was so anxious to arrive at. A woman with wider experience of the world's ways and shortcomings would probably have contented herself with an endeavour to find out whether her liking for the

rt, and then she would ruefully recall certain episodes in which he had figured, from which honesty had been conspicuously

n," said Comus to her, "as if you had invented this

ovements anywhere I think I should

rgyllshire, who spends his time producing improved breeds of sheep and pigs and chickens. So patronising

hen laughed, and fina

to talk sense t

ea of Heaven might be like if the Jews hadn't invented one for us on totally different lines. It's dr

y fond of the Je

ed a good deal in Easte

eography," said Elaine; "in Engla

ead. "I know a grea

quietly receded from the landscape. Elaine sat like a grave young goddess about to dispense some

ambled to

," he said; "I shall

tle silver basket-dish conta

laughed

aid, "to go off with our on

to put in some disparaging criticism of Comus, and Elaine sat alert i

s thoroughly practical and calculated. He will have great difficulty in getting the swans to accept his offering

horoughly baffled. If Youghal had sai

uld have gone into a flood of tears at the loss of her bread-and-butter, and Comus would have figured ever after in her

u are rather fond of Comus. And I-am

f eternal happiness. Youth and comeliness would always walk here, under the low-boughed mulberry trees, as unchanging as the leaden otter that for ever preyed on the leaden salmon on the edge of the old fountain, and somehow the lovers would always wear the aspect of herself and the boy who was talking to the four white swans by the water steps. Yo

e grass swinging the empt

nd-butter dish as a souvenir of a happy tea-party. I may really have it, mayn't I?" he co

t," said Elaine. Some of the ha

tched off and my own

e, who did not share Comus's view that because you were ri

sulkily, "and you've heaps of othe

dish at all costs; a look of greedy determination dominated his face,

trifle; at the same moment a sense of justice was telling her that Comus was displaying a good deal of rather shabby

want it, so I'm going to

t to argue,"

the desired time and temperature. I have to go and argue, or what is worse, listen to ot

ue about a bread-and-bu

l, but we busy ourselves with making rules how it shall be cut up, and the size of the slices, and how much butter shall go on how much bread

areer in which he was involved did not, however, jar on her susceptibilities. She knew him to be not only a lively and effective debater but an industrious worker on committees

go?" she asked,

hoot came through the air, as of an owl joyously challenging the sunlig

ried. "The Gods have given me an hour in thi

lmost whispered, "It's the

s really keenly enthralled in the work that lay before him. It was the one little in

the prospect of being temporarily stranded without a smoke. Youghal took

ved, as he gave one-half to the doubtfully

more in the hal

ours effect," said Youghal; "I hate smoking

s later Elaine could see glimpses of his white car as it rushed past the rhododendron bushes. H

girl-figure who walked in it was still distinctly and unchangingly herself, but her comp

He knew almost exactly where the punctuations of laughter and applause would burst in, he knew that nimble fingers in the Press Gallery would be taking down each gibe and argument as he flung it at the im

ividly reminded of Comus for days to come, when she took her afternoo