her. She liked him so well that, womanlike, she could not
quite forbear the pleasure of hearing him even pretend that he loved
her--she supposed he would feel bound to pretend so much; and his
proposal would give to her an opportunity of saying one or two things to
him--of preaching that affectionate sermon, in fact, that she had long
ago written in her thoughts.

Sweet women love to preach to those whom they like, and Lady Locke liked
Lord Reggie very much, and wished strongly to have the chance of telling
him so.

But he said nothing that night, and she had to wait for a while. The
weather, which had certainly shown the most graceful politeness to the
Surrey week, was still in a complaisant frame of mind when Monday
morning dawned, and the tents were put up for the school children, and
the Aunt Sallies and other instruments of amusement were posed in their
places about the garden, without any fear arising lest the rain should
prevent their being used. Esme Amarinth spent the morning in reflecting
upon his address, and constructing pale paradoxes; and the rest of the
party at the "Retreat" did nothing with all the quiet ingenuity that
seems inbred in the English race.

At four o'clock the sound of lusty singing in the dusty distance
announced the approach of the expected guests, who, under the direction
of Mr. Smith, expressed their youthful feelings of anticipation and
excitement in a processional hymn, whose words dealt with certain
ritualistic doctrines in a spirit of serene but rather incompetent
piety, and whose tune was remarkable for the Gounod spirit that pervaded
its rather love-lorn harmonies. As Mr. Amarinth said, it sounded like a
French apostrophe to a Parisian Eros, and was tinged with the amorous
music colour of Covent Garden.

Mrs. Windsor received the party with weary grace, and a general salute
that might have included all the national schools in the kingdom, so
wide and so impersonal was its manner. She impressed the children as
much as Madame Valtesi frightened them by examining them with a stony
and sphinx-like gravity through her tortoise-shell eyeglass. The
teachers conducted the programme of games--in which, however, Lady
Locke, Tommy, and Lord Reggie fitfully took part; and after tea had been
munched with trembling delight in the largest of the tents, and more
games had been got through, Mr. Smith distributed small presents to all
the children, some of whom were quite unstrung by the effort