it, her lips trembled
with anger.

"Oh," she said, "didn't you know? There's nothing in that; it's the
latest thing!"

For a moment Lady Maiden wavered, then duskily flushed; her temperament
and principles had recovered themselves.

"If that," she said with some dignity, "is the latest thing, I think it
is quite time we were back in town."

She rose, and as she rose, such was her unfortunate conformation, it
flashed through Mrs. Pendyce's mind 'Why was I afraid? She's only--' And
then as quickly: 'Poor woman! how can she help her legs being short?'

But when she was gone, side by side with the pale daughter, the pale dogs
once more running behind the carriage, Margery Pendyce put her hand to
her heart.

And out here amongst the bees and blossom, where the blackbirds were
improving each minute their new songs, and the air was so fainting sweet
with scents, her heart would not be stilled, but throbbed as though
danger were coming on herself; and she saw her son as a little boy again
in a dirty holland suit with a straw hat down the back of his neck,
flushed and sturdy, as he came to her from some adventure.

And suddenly a gush of emotion from deep within her heart and the heart
of the spring day, a sense of being severed from him by a great,
remorseless power, came over her; and taking out a tiny embroidered
handkerchief, she wept. Round her the bees hummed carelessly, the
blossom dropped, the dappled sunlight covered her with a pattern as of
her own fine lace. From the home farm came the lowing of the cows on
their way to milking, and, strange sound in that well-ordered home, a
distant piping on a penny flute ....

"Mother, Mother, Mo-o-ther!"

Mrs. Pendyce passed her handkerchief across her eyes, and instinctively
obeying the laws of breeding, her face lost all trace of its emotion.
She waited, crumpling the tiny handkerchief in her gauntleted hand.

"Mother! Oh, there you are! Here's Gregory Vigil!"

Norah, a fox-terrier on either side, was coming down the path; behind
her, unhatted, showed Gregory's sanguine face between his wings of
grizzled hair.

"I suppose you're going to talk. I'm going over to the Rectory. Ta-to!"

And preceded by her dogs, Norah went on.

Mrs. Pendyce put out her hand.

"Well, Grig," she said, "this is a surprise."

Gregory seated himself beside her on the bench.

"I've brought you this," he said. "I want you to look at it before I
answer."

Mrs. Pendyce, who va