working in a fresh direction.

"I am sure," she said, "that Millicent will be very glad to see you.
In a place like that where there can't be anybody to talk to--"

"Even I might be welcome. I'll look her up every Sunday. I'll dine
with her if she asks me on week-days; but I'm not going to stay with
her in the house she has taken. I like to be a free bird of the wild
when I'm on my holidays. The local inn, which is called the Imperial
Hotel, and owned by a man named Doyle, is the place for me. I've taken
rooms in it."

"I'm sure they'll cook abominably. You'll be half-starved."

"Potato cake and bottled porter," said Sir Gilbert. "That's what I
always live on when I go to Ireland. In Scotland I have oatcake and
whisky. Last summer, in Norway, I throve on smoked salmon."

"I hear the carriage. I hope all your things are properly packed, and
that nothing is forgotten."

"As long as I have my rods and my fly book," said Sir Gilbert, "I shall
be able to get along. Good-bye, my dear. I shall dine at the club,
and catch the night mail from Euston."

"Do write to me, Gilbert."

"I'll write on Sunday, not sooner, unless I find that Milly has got
into a scrape."

Sir Gilbert travelled comfortably, and enjoyed his journey. At Euston
he got into the carriage with an Irish Member of Parliament, a
Unionist, who was returning to his native Dublin after making himself
as brilliantly objectionable as possible for six months to a Liberal
Chief Secretary. He mistook the judge for an Irish country gentleman,
and gave expression to political opinions which Sir Gilbert found
extremely amusing. On the steamer he fell in with another Member of
Parliament, this time a Nationalist, who had travelled third class in
the train, and only emerged into good society at Holyhead. He, getting
nearer to the truth than his enemy, thought the judge was an English
tourist, and explained the good intentions of the Congested Districts
Board at some length. The judge found him amusing too, and sat up
talking to him in the smoking-room. In the morning he introduced his
two acquaintances to each other at five o'clock, just as the steamer
reached Kingstown pier. He was delighted with the result. They both
looked round them cautiously, and satisfied themselves that there was
no one on the pier who knew them. Then they fell into an animated
conversation, and found each other so agreeable that they travelled
together in a second-class