He proposed, indeed, before the return of the servant from Dunscombe, to
walk over to Beechcote. The road lay through woods, two miles of shade.
He pined for exercise; Diana and her young sympathy acted as a magnet
both on him and on Sir James; and it was to be presumed she took a daily
paper, being, as Ferrier recalled, "a terrible little Tory."

In less than an hour they were at Beechcote. They found Diana and Mrs.
Colwood on the lawn of the old house, reading and working in the shade
of a yew hedge planted by that Topham Beauclerk who was a friend of
Johnson. The scent of roses and limes; the hum of bees; the beauty of
slow-sailing clouds, and of the shadows they flung on the mellowed
color of the house; combined with the figure of Diana in white, her
eager eyes, her smile, and her unquenchable interest in all that
concerned the two friends, of whose devotion to her she was so
gratefully and simply proud--these things put the last touch to
Ferrier's enjoyment. He flung himself on the grass, talking to both the
ladies of the incidents and absurdities of Cabinet-making, with a
freedom and fun, an abandonment of anxiety and care that made him young
again. Nobody mentioned a newspaper.

Presently Chide, who had now taken the part of general adviser to Diana,
which had once been filled by Marsham, strolled off with her to look at
a greenhouse in need of repairs. Mrs. Colwood was called in by some
household matter. Ferrier was left alone.

As usual, he had a book in his pocket. This time it was a volume of
selected essays, ranging from Bacon to Carlyle. He began lazily to turn
the pages, smiling to himself the while at the paradoxes of life. Here,
for an hour, he sat under the limes, drunk with summer breezes and
scents, toying with a book, as though he were some "indolent
irresponsible reviewer"--some college fellow in vacation--some wooer of
an idle muse. Yet dusk that evening would find him once more in the
Babel of London. And before him lay the most strenuous, and, as he
hoped, the most fruitful passage of his political life. Broadstone, too,
was an old man; the Premiership itself could not be far away.

As for Lord Philip--Ferrier's thoughts ran upon that gentleman with a
good-humor which was not without malice. He had played his cards
extremely well, but the trumps in his hand had not been quite strong
enough. Well, he was young; plenty of time yet for Cabinet office. That
he would be a thorn in the side of t