rfield, Bart., as a Home
Rule Unionist and Protectionist Free Trader. Only if it was that, it
was the first she had ever known of her father being aware of the
Bart.'s admiration for herself. So she made the tea, and waited
till the pen-scratching stopped, and the Sabellians or Bopsius were
blotted, glanced through, and ratified.

"There, that'll do for that, I suppose." His tone surrendered the
grievance as an act of liberality, but maintained the principle.
"Well, have we found it?"

"Found what?"

"The heroic rescue--at your place--Saint Somebody--Saint Senanus...."

"No! Do show me that." Laetitia forms a mental image of a lifeboat
going out to a wreck. How excited Sally must have been!

"Here, give it me and I'll find it.... Yes--that's right--a big lump
and a little lump. I'm to take less sugar because of gout. Very good!
Oh ... yes ... here we are. 'Heroic Rescue at St. Sennans' ... just
under 'Startling Elopement at Clapham Rise'.... Got it?"

Laetitia supplied the cup of tea, poured one for herself, and took
the paper from her father without the slightest suspicion of what was
coming. "It will have to wait a minute till I've had some tea," she
said. "I'm as thirsty as I can be. I've been to see my mother-in-law
and Constance"--this was Julius's sister--"off to Southend. And just
fancy, papa; Pag and I played from nine till a quarter-to-one last
night, and he never felt it, nor had any headache nor anything." The
topic is so interesting that the unread paragraph has to wait.

The Professor cannot think of any form of perversion better than
"Very discreditable to him. I hope you blew him well up?"

"Now, papa, don't be nonsensical! Do you know, I'm really beginning
to believe Pag's right, and it _was_ the little galvanic battery.
Shouldn't you say so, though, seriously?"

"Why, yes. If there wasn't a big galvanic battery, it must have been
the little one. It stands to reason. But _what_ does my musical
son-in-law think was the little galvanic battery?"

"Oh dear, papa, how ridiculous you are! Why, of course, his nerves
going away--as they really _have_ done, you know; and I can't see
any good pretending they haven't. Yesterday was the fourth evening
he hasn't felt them...."

"Stop a bit! There is a lack of scientific precision in the structure
of your sentences. A young married woman ought really to be more
accurate. Now let's look it over, and do a little considering.
I gather, in the first place,