ther you had gone to Langrigg. It's possible Janet has
made some plot for Jim's advantage."

"I hardly imagine him a promising subject for experiments."

"You mean he's not compliant? What else?"

"I haven't known him very long and would sooner reserve my judgment."

Bernard gave him an ironical smile. "You don't want to prejudice me
against him? Well, you're always tactful and it's comforting to feel
you're sometimes just. However, I want to form an opinion. Write and
ask him to come."

"He has friends at Langrigg. Perhaps you know?"

"I do know. Ask his friends. You may state that I'm an old man and am
unable to go to him. I can leave you to strike the right note; you
have some talent for that kind of thing."

Mordaunt said he would write. He was used to Bernard's bitter humor
and on the whole thought it advisable that he should see Jim's friends.
It was possible he would get a jar, but one could not tell. The old
man was capricious and hard to understand.

"Didn't Evelyn join the party that went to welcome Jim?" Bernard
resumed. "Rather a happy thought of Janet's! Do you know how he
impressed Evelyn?"

"I do not. She did not give me her confidence," said Mordaunt, as
shortly as he durst.

Bernard's eyes twinkled. "Was it necessary? With your talent, one
ought not to find it difficult to read a girl's mind."

"I haven't always found it easy," Mordaunt rejoined.

"Well, I suppose Evelyn is really a woman now; when one gets old one
forgets that the young grow up," Bernard remarked. "Besides, she has
an admirable model in Janet. But take me in; I soon get cramped in
this confounded chair."

Mordaunt set off and on his way to the house carefully skirted a spot
where a tree had been uprooted and the turf relaid. To his surprise
Bernard made an impatient sign.

"Go straight across!"

They crossed the freshly-sodded belt and when Mordaunt stopped on the
terrace Bernard said: "It will not be your job to roll out our tracks."

"I thought it would bother you if I went across," Mordaunt replied.

Bernard gave him a sour smile. "I well know my relations' views about
my character and in the main they're just; but they sometimes go wrong
when they imagine their rules are mine. Probably you have not felt it
would be a relief to plow through things, without bothering about the
marks you left."

"No," said Mordaunt, "I don't think I have felt this."

"You're a logical fellow," Bernard rej