other "everything." She had omitted nothing, except
that her mother's letter had dropped somewhere, either in the library or
the staircase, and she could not find it again. If it had dropped in the
library, somebody had picked it up. Supposing the Warden had picked it
up and read it? The clear sharp understanding of "honour" possessed by
the best type of Englishman and Englishwoman was not possessed by
Gwen--it has not been acquired by the Belindas of Society or of the
Slums. But no, Gwen felt sure that the Warden hadn't found it, or he
would have been very, very angry. Then who had picked it up?

CHAPTER V

WAITING

If Pilate had uttered the sardonic remark "What is truth?" in Boreham's
presence, he would certainly have compelled that weary official to wait
for definite enlightenment. Boreham would have explained to him that
although Absolute Truth (if there is such a thing) lies, like our
Destiny, in the lap of the gods, he, Boreham, had a thoroughly reliable
stock of useful truths with which he could supply any inquirer. Indeed
to Boreham, the discussing of truths was a comparatively simple matter.
Truths were of two kinds. Firstly, they were what he, himself, was
convinced of at the moment of speaking; and secondly, they were _not_
what the man next him believed in. Boreham found intolerable any
assertion made by people he knew. He knew them! _Voila!_ But he felt he
could very fairly well trust opinions expressed by the native
inhabitants of--say Pomerania--or still better--India.

Boreham had already some acquaintances in Oxford to whom he spoke, as he
said himself, "frankly and fearlessly," and who tolerated him, whenever
they had time to listen to him, because he was entirely harmless and
merely tiresome. But he was not surprised (it had occurred before) that
the Warden refused his invitation to lunch at Chartcote. The ladies had
accepted; and when Boreham said "the ladies," on this occasion he was
thinking solely of Mrs. Dashwood. Lady Dashwood had accepted the
invitation because it was given verbally. She made no purely social
engagements. The Warden, himself, did not entertain during the war, and
the only engagements were those of business, or of hospitality of an
academic nature.

The day following May Dashwood's arrival was entirely uneventful. The
Warden was mostly invisible. May was as bright as she had been on her
arrival. Gwen went about wide-eyed and wistful, and spoke spasmodically.
Lady