The Chronicles of Clovis

movement and alert stagnation appropriate to the time and place. The seekers after health, the seekers after notoriety and recognition, and the lovers of good exercise were all we

ulators, might be excused from ins

m-roan gelding Anne de Joyeuse. That delicately stepping animal had taken a prize at Islington and nearly taken the life of a stable-boy of whom he disapproved,

family of commercial solidity and enterprising political nonentity. She had a devoted husband, some blonde teachable children, and a look of unutterable weariness in her eye

the animal likes it, and one

Trader, isn't she?" someone

woman whose dresses are made in Paris and whose marriage has been ma

slow critical appraisement, and there was a note

admired your attack on Sir Edward immensely, though of course I don't agree with a word of it. Your description of him building a hedge round

d integrity that makes him so expensively dangerous. The average Briton arrives at the same judgment about Roan's handling of

. Who is that who bowed to you?" she continued, as a dark young man with an inclination to stoutness

ow and is certain to be extremely popular all over Russia. In the first three acts the heroine

ns really such

are accused of taking our pleasures sadly. Have you noticed that dreadful Klopstock youth has be

he at an agricultural colle

farmer, he told me. I didn't ask

la, trying to look as if she thought so; "reme

some truths her voice r

t of Heaven," said Youghal, with intense complacency, "

rails and delivered himself of loud, cheerful greetings. Joyeuse laid his ears well back as the ungainly bay cob and his

h and had lots of strawberries there, then I had a lot more in London, and now I've been having a late crop of them in H

rawing-room." And with a sweep of his wide-brimmed hat to Lady Veula he t

as Joyeuse sprang into a light showy canter that gave full recognition to

ud, as one does in the e

loved that

most, whe

ch carried

and s

re than all

ss beyond

her from his mind. With the constancy of her sex she thought about him, his

ter than usual, and the grave serenity of the Leonardo da Vinci portrait seemed intensified in her face this morning. In his leisurely courtship Comus had relied almost exclusively on his physical attraction and the fitful drollery of his wit and high spirits, and these graces had gone far to make him seem a very desirable and rather lovable thing in Elaine's eyes. But he had left out of account the disfavour which he constantly risked and sometimes incurred from his frank and undisguised indifference to other people's interests and wishes, including, at times, Elaine's. And the more that she felt that sh

always flung away a portion of his borrowings in some ostentatious piece of glaring and utterly profitless extravagance, which outraged all the canons of her upbringing without bringing him an atom of understandable satisfaction. Under these repeated discouragements it was not surprising that some small part of her affection should have slipped away, but she had come to the Park that morning with an unconfessed expectation of being gently wooed back to the mood of gracious forgetfulness that she was only too eager to assume. It was almost worth while being angry with Comus for the sake of experiencing the pleasure of being coaxed into friendlin

for, and the chair-ticket vendor in due t

e remainder in the palm of his hand. Elaine felt a sudden foreknowledge of s

s, reflectively. "It's a ridiculous sum to last me for the

his exchequer statement. Surely, she was thinking hurriedly to hersel

nuisance," pursued Comus, w

you?" asked Elaine; "don't you put by

st have fallen by the way. If I can pay the two pounds to-day I daresay I shall win something more to go on with; I'm hold

rt was assembling in haste to consider new evidence, and this time

ul topic for a few moments and then Comus br

a fiver for a few days, Elaine," he said quickly;

n." She spoke quietly and with great decision. "And I shall not be at the Connor's dance to-night," she continued; "

Wisely he made no immediate attempt to force himself back into

ellent if he had not forgotten

n, that he fell far short of those qualities. She had been willing to lower her standard of moral requirements in proportion as she w

erate lover. Elaine walked towards the Park gates feeling that in one essential Suzette possessed something tha

e and take me out to lunch

an old Viennese friend of mine and looks after me beautifully. I've never been there with

could see the café reading-room, with its imposing array of Neue Freie Presse, Berliner Tageblatt, and other exotic newspapers hanging on the wall. She looked across at the young man seated opposite her,

t all those foreign newspapers hanging there and know that most o

al la

your portrait. When once you've seen your features hurriedly reproduced in the Matin, for

n the nearest mirror, as an antidote against possible i

ent to Ministers at question time and in debate, was showing himself equally well-informed on the subject of her culinary likes

nay had settled the bill, and she had finished collecting her sunshade

he seemed quite crestfalle

when he's looked after us so charmingl