shedding our blood and treasure for the Empire we should not
be in a mood to see our country overrun by dirty aliens.'

'Dirty!' muttered Simon, as he read. 'Has she seen the Christian
slums--Flower and Dean Street?' And his handsome Oriental brow grew
duskier with anger. It did not clear till he came to:

'Let us meet at the Crystal Palace next Saturday, dear
quarrelsome person. Three o'clock, in the Pompeian Room. I
_have_ got an aunt at Sydenham, and I _can_ go in to tea after
the concert and hear all about the missionary work in the
South Sea Islands.'

XIII

Ensued a new phase in the relation of Simon and Lucy. Once they had
met in freedom, neither felt inclined to revert to the restricted
courtship of the drawing-room. Even though their chat was merely of
books and music and pictures, it was delicious to make their own
atmosphere, untroubled by the flippancy of the brother or the
earnestness of the father. In the presence of Lucy's artistic
knowledge Simon was at once abashed and stimulated. She moved in a
delicate world of symphonies and silver-point drawings of whose very
existence he had been unaware, and reverence quickened the sense of
romance which their secret meetings had already enhanced.

Once or twice he spoke of resuming his visits to Harrow, but the
longer he delayed the more difficult the conciliatory visit grew.

'Father is now deeper in the League than ever,' she told him. 'He has
joined the committee, and the prospectus has gone forth in all its
glorious self-contradiction.'

'But, considering I am the son of an alien, and I have fought for----'

'There, there! quarrelsome person,' she interrupted laughingly. 'No,
no, no, you had better not come till you can forget your remote
genealogy. You see, even now father doesn't quite realize you are a
Jew. He thinks you have a strain of Jewish blood, but are in every
other respect a decent Christian body.'

'Christian!' cried Simon in horror.

'Why not? You fought side by side with my brother; you ate ham with
us.'

Simon blushed hotly. 'But, Lucy, you don't think religion is ham?'

'What, then? Merely Shem?' she laughed.

Simon laughed too. How clever she was! 'But you know I never could
believe in the Trinity and all that. And, what's more, I don't believe
you do yourself.'

'It isn't exactly what one believes. I was baptized into the Church of
England--I feel myself a member. Really, Sim, you are a dread