that Paul had brought a dog, and to Leo it was
excruciatingly funny to see General Boldero with this dog. He would have
Lion brought in--he from whose path all the animals belonging to the
lower stratum of household society fled by instinct--and his efforts to
coax the big, gentle creature from beneath his master's chair were
continuous. Whenever conversation flagged, Lion was admired and petted.
Finally he made a joke. Leo and Lion? Ha, ha, ha! Upon which Paul raised
his eyes which were mainly bent upon the ground, and Leo saw them fully
for the first time. They were dark grey and very soft. They had an
infinite amount of expression, and although she certainly could not call
them sad at the moment, she felt that they might once have been so and
might be so again.

But she was not anxious to speak to Paul, and every one else was. By
Maud, as was natural, he was chiefly appropriated, but he listened to
every remark that was made, and without opening his lips took as it were
a leading part in the conversation.

General Boldero was eager to describe his shooting; he had planned how
to put its best side forward, and, while deprecating its merits as
superlative, to leave no doubt as to its being superior to that of his
neighbours.

He hoped Paul would not expect too much; on the other hand, such as it
was, and it was not--hum, ha--to be exactly despised, it had been
carefully saved up for him.

"You are very good, sir," said Paul, gratefully.

"I was coming home from church last Sunday morning," continued the
general--and stopped, apparently to pick up his stick which slipped, but
in reality to let the words sink in--"we walk across the fields from
church, it cuts off a mile--and I marked a covey of sixteen. That's not
a bad covey, is it?"

"It is so long since I shot in England, sir, that I am afraid I hardly
know a large covey from a small one."

"You have been tracking bigger game. I envy you that. But we poor
stay-at-homes must be content with what we can get. Valentine
Purcell--that's a young neighbour of ours--walked home from church with
me on Sunday, and he was astonished at the size of our coveys. We are to
shoot his, later on in the week."

Having thus twice brought in that he had been at church, though the
tenor of his speech was partridge-shooting, the general felt that he had
acquitted himself to admiration, and cast a glance of triumph at Maud.
Maud had been apprehensive of his manners forsooth? He h