his mouth has such a nice expression. He went on treating me as a child, and father seemed to think it was quite natural. He likes to pretend I am young, poor dear, so that I may be his playmate as long as possible.

Yesterday father went in to see some cottagers, and Mr Dudley and I sat outside on a log of wood, and talked while we waited for him like this. He—patronisingly—

“I suppose it’s a great treat for you to getaway from school for a time. Where is your school? Town or country? Brighton—ugh!” and he made a grimace of disgust. “Shops—piers—hotels—an awful place! Not a bit of Nature left unspoiled; the very sea looks artificial and unlike itself in such unnatural surroundings!”

“Plenty of crocodiles on the bank, however—that’s natural enough!” I said pertly. I thought it was rather smart, too, but he smiled in a superior “I-will-because-I-must,” sort of way, and said—

“How thankful you must be to get away from it all to this exquisite calm!”

I don’t know much about young men, except what I’ve seen of Spencer and his friends, but they would call exquisite calm by a very different name, so I decided at once that Mr Will Dudley must have had a secret trouble which had made him hate the world and long for solitude. Perhaps it was a love affair! It would be interesting if he could confide in me, and I could comfort him, so I looked pensive, and said—

“You do get very tired of the glare and the dust! Some of the girls wear smoked glasses in summer, and you get so sick of marching up and down the front. Do you hate Brighton only, or every towny place?”

“I hate all towns, and can’t understand how anyone can live in them who is not obliged. I have tried it for the last five years, but never again!” He stretched his big shoulders, and drew a long breath of determination. “I’ve said ‘Good-bye’ for ever to a life of trammelled civilisation, with its so-called amusements and artificial manners, and hollow friendships, and”—he put his hand to his flannel collar, and patted it with an air of blissful satisfaction—“and stiff, uncomfortable clothing! It’s all over and done with now, thank goodness—a dream of the past!”

“And I am just beginning it! And I expect to like it very much,” I thought to myself, but I didn’t say so to him; and he went on muttering and grumbling all the time he was rolling his cigarette and preparing to smoke.

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