ies out in the dark places of hard work. "You can't
think," he said, showing his teeth in a smile, "how delightful it is to
be at home! You learn to love the old country when you're away from it."

Shelton often thought, afterwards; of this diagnosis of the vagabond, for
he was always stumbling on instances of that power of subtle criticism
which was the young foreigner's prime claim to be "a most awfully
interesting" and perhaps a rather shocking person.

An old school-fellow of Shelton's and his wife were staying in the house,
who offered to the eye the picture of a perfect domesticity. Passionless
and smiling, it was impossible to imagine they could ever have a
difference. Shelton, whose bedroom was next to theirs, could hear them
in the mornings talking in exactly the tones they used at lunch, and
laughing the same laughs. Their life seemed to accord them perfect
satisfaction; they were supplied with their convictions by Society just
as, when at home, they were supplied with all the other necessaries of
life by some co-operative stores. Their fairly handsome faces, with the
fairly kind expressions, quickly and carefully regulated by a sense of
compromise, began to worry him so much that when in the same room he
would even read to avoid the need of looking at them. And yet they were
kind--that is, fairly kind--and clean and quiet in the house, except when
they laughed, which was often, and at things which made him want to howl
as a dog howls at music.

"Mr. Shelton," Ferrand said one day, "I 'm not an amateur of
marriage--never had the chance, as you may well suppose; but, in any
case, you have some people in the house who would make me mark time
before I went committing it. They seem the ideal young married
people--don't quarrel, have perfect health, agree with everybody, go to
church, have children--but I should like to hear what is beautiful in
their life," and he grimaced. "It seems to me so ugly that I can only
gasp. I would much rather they ill-treated each other, just to show they
had the corner of a soul between them. If that is marriage, 'Dieu m'en
garde!'"

But Shelton did not answer; he was thinking deeply.

The saying of John Noble's, "He's really a most interesting person," grew
more and more upon his nerves; it seemed to describe the Dennant attitude
towards this stranger within their gates. They treated him with a sort
of wonder on the "don't touch" system, like an object in an exhibitio