e was that, when, at the finish of his school
mile, he overheard a vulgar bandsman say: "I like that young----'s
running; he breathes through his----nose." At that moment, if he had
stooped to breathe through his mouth, he must have won; as it was he had
lost in great distress and perfect form.

When, then, he had kissed Frances Freeland, and watched her ascend the
stairs, breathless because she WOULD breathe through her nose to the very
last step, he turned into his study, lighted his pipe, and sat down to a
couple of hours of a report upon the forces of constabulary available in
the various counties, in the event of any further agricultural rioting,
such as had recently taken place on a mild scale in one or two districts
where there was still Danish blood. He worked at the numbers steadily,
with just that engineer's touch of mechanical invention which had caused
him to be so greatly valued in a department where the evolution of twelve
policemen out of ten was constantly desired. His mastery of figures was
highly prized, for, while it had not any of that flamboyance which has
come from America and the game of poker, it possessed a kind of English
optimism, only dangerous when, as rarely happened, it was put to the
test. He worked two full pipes long, and looked at the clock. Twelve!
No good knocking off just yet! He had no liking for bed this many a long
year, having, from loyalty to memory and a drier sense of what became one
in the Home Department, preserved his form against temptations of the
flesh. Yet, somehow, to-night he felt no spring, no inspiration, in his
handling of county constabulary. A kind of English stolidity about them
baffled him--ten of them remained ten. And leaning that forehead, whose
height so troubled Frances Freeland, on his neat hand, he fell to
brooding. Those young people with everything before them! Did he envy
them? Or was he glad of his own age? Fifty! Fifty already; a fogey! An
official fogey! For all the world like an umbrella, that every day some
one put into a stand and left there till it was time to take it out
again. Neatly rolled, too, with an elastic and button! And this fancy,
which had never come to him before, surprised him. One day he, too,
would wear out, slit all up his seams, and they would leave him at home,
or give him away to the butler.

He went to the window. A scent of--of May, or something! And nothing in
sight save houses just like his own! He lo