iking," she returned affectionately.

And then she went out of the room. She always had plenty to do. Small
though he was, Robin was a marvelous consumer of his mother's time.

When Dion got to the gymnasium Mrs. Clarke and Jimmy were already there,
and Jimmy, in flannels and a white sweater, his dark hair sticking up in
disorder, and his face scarlet with exertion, was performing feats with
an exerciser fixed to the wall, while Mrs. Clarke, seated on a hard
chair in front of a line of heavy weights and dumb-bells, was looking
on with concentrated attention. Jenkins was standing in front of
Jimmy, loudly directing his movements with a stentorian:
"One--two--one--two--one--two! Keep it up! No slackening! Put some guts
into it, sir! One--two--one--two!"

As Dion came in Mrs. Clarke looked round and nodded; Jimmy stared,
unable to smile because his mouth and lower jaw were working, and he had
no superfluous force to spare for polite efforts; and Jenkins uttered a
gruff, "Good day, sir."

"How are you, Jenkins?" returned Dion, in his most off-hand manner.

Then he jerked his hand at Jimmy with an encouraging smile, went over to
Mrs. Clarke, shook her hand and remained standing beside her.

"Do you think he's doing it well?" she murmured, after a moment.

"Stunningly."

"Hasn't he broadened in the chest?"

"Rather!"

She looked strangely febrile and mental in the midst of the many
appliances for developing the body. Rosamund, with her splendid physique
and glowing health, would have crowned the gymnasium appropriately,
have looked like the divine huntress transplanted to a modern city
where still the cult of the body drew its worshipers. The Arcadian
mountains--Olympia in Elis,--Jenkins's "gym" in the Harrow
Road--differing shrines but the cult was the same. Only the conditions
of worship were varied. Dion glanced down at Mrs. Clarke. Never had she
seemed more curiously exotic. Yet she did not look wholly out of place;
and it occurred to him that a perfectly natural person never looks
wholly out of place anywhere.

"Face to the wall, sir!" cried Jenkins.

Jimmy found time for a breathless and half-inquiring smile at Dion as he
turned and prepared for the most difficult feat.

"His jaw always does something extraordinary in this exercise," said
Mrs. Clarke. "It seems to come out and go in again with a click. Jenkins
says it's because Jimmy gets his strength from there."

"I know. Mine used to do just the same