ou were lovers. Come here, Rorie, and tell me all that has
happened to you since we saw you at Lord's in July. Never mind these
Tempest people. They are of the smallest possible importance. Of
course, Rorie must have somebody to amuse himself with while we are
away."

"And now we are come back, he is off to Oxford," said Mabel with an
aggrieved air.

"You shouldn't have stayed so long in Switzerland then," retorted Rorie.

"Oh, but it was my first visit, and everything is so lovely. After all
the Swiss landscapes I have done in chalk, and pencil, and
water-colours, I was astonished to find what a stranger I was to the
scenery. I blushed when I remembered those dreadful landscapes of mine.
I was ashamed to look at Mont Blanc. I felt as if the Matterhorn would
fall and crush me."

"I think I shall do Switzerland next long," said Rorie patronisingly,
as if it would be a good thing for Switzerland.

"You might have come this year while we were there," said Lady Mabel.

"No, I mightn't. I've been grinding. If you knew what a dose of
Aristotle I've had, you'd pity me. That's where you girls have the best
of it. You learn to read a story-book in two or three modern languages,
to meander up and down the piano, and spoil Bristol board, or Whatman's
hot-pressed imperial, and then you call yourselves educated; while we
have to go back to the beginning of civilisation, and find out what a
lot of old Greek duffers were driving at when they sat in the sunshine
and prosed like old boots."

Lady Mabel looked at him with a serene smile.

"Would you be surprised to hear that I know a little Greek," she said,
"just enough to struggle through the Socratic dialogues with the aid of
my master?"

Roderick started as if he had been stung.

"What a shame!" he cried. "Aunt Sophia, what do you mean by making a
Lady Jane Grey or an Elizabeth Barrett Browning of her?"

"A woman who has to occupy a leading position can hardly know too
much," answered the Duchess sententiously.

"Ah, to be sure, Mabel will marry some diplomatic swell, and be
entertaining ambassadors by-and-by. And when some modern Greek envoy
comes simpering up to her with a remark about the weather, it will be
an advantage for her to know Plato. I understand. Wheels within wheels."

"The Duchess of Dovedale's carriage," announced the butler, rolling out
the syllables as if it were a personal gratification to announce them.

Mabel rose at once from the piano, and cam