this being, so she told Larry, had
gazed at her, raptly, had then assured her that she saw her aura (blue
shot with gold) and had told her that she had a very aged soul..

"I felt as if I were an old boot!" said Christian.

"Old idiot herself!" Larry said hotly; "what else did she pretend to
know about you?"

"She said she had met me before, in a previous incarnation. She
couldn't believe that I didn't remember her. But I couldn't."

"I'm glad you couldn't," said Larry, still angry. "I won't have you
remembering lives that I wasn't in! Anyhow, I don't believe they were
half as good as this one. I call this a thundering good life. _I_
don't want to have been Julius Caesar or Queen Anne."

"Oh, I daresay you weren't," said Christian, consolingly; "you don't
remind me of either of them. What would be more to the point would be
to know what you were going to be. In this life, I mean."

"Oh, a painter first," said Larry, responding with alacrity, as do
most people, to the stimulus of discussing himself; "but not
exclusively. I shouldn't mind having the hounds for a bit, and I
should like to travel--the gorgeous East, you know--that sort of
thing. And I must say," he hesitated, "I'm rather keen to have a shot
at politics."

He put down his palette and brushes and began to roll a cigarette,
while he walked backwards away from his easel, staring alternately at
his canvas and his model.

"Have you forgotten that I'm the prospective candidate for this
constituency? The Home Rule ticket, you know!" He looked at his
audience with a touch of defiance; "I don't know what _you_ may
think--_my_ notion is--"

The prospective candidate launched forth into a statement of his
notions; what, precisely, they were, is a matter that may here be
omitted. The kaleidoscope of Irish politics has made many new patterns
since Larry outlined his views for Christian, and the pattern of 1907
interests us no more. The affinity that exists between politics and
eggs is not limited to the function of the latter in emphasising
criticism of the former; it also extends to individual characteristics.
The morning newspaper and the morning egg should be equally recent.
Larry's political notions, when he stated them, had at least the merit
of freshness, and it shall be left to them.

Christian, listening to his ambitions, felt herself older than ever.

"I think I should be a painter all the time, and let Bill keep the
hounds for me," she said, indu