far from being displeasing to him that it represented her nearest
approach to extreme charm. _He_ was not shy now, for he considered this
morning that he saw things very straight and in a sense altogether
superior and delightful. This enabled him to be generously sorry for his
companion--if he were the reason of her being in any degree
uncomfortable, and yet left him to enjoy some of the motions, not in
themselves without grace, by which her discomfort was revealed. He
wouldn't insist on anything yet: so he observed that her standard in
lakes was too high, and then talked a little about his mother and the
girls, their having gone home, his not having seen them that morning,
Lady Agnes's deep satisfaction in his victory, and the fact that she
would be obliged to "do something" for the autumn--take a house or
something or other.

"I'll lend her a house," said Mrs. Dallow.

"Oh Julia, Julia!" Nick half groaned.

But she paid no attention to his sound; she only held up her review and
said: "See what I've brought with me to read--Mr. Hoppus's article."

"That's right; then _I_ shan't have to. You'll tell me about it." He
uttered this without believing she had meant or wished to read the
article, which was entitled "The Revision of the British Constitution,"
in spite of her having encumbered herself with the stiff, fresh
magazine. He was deeply aware she was not in want of such inward
occupation as periodical literature could supply. They walked along and
he added: "But is that what we're in for, reading Mr. Hoppus? Is it the
sort of thing constituents expect? Or, even worse, pretending to have
read him when one hasn't? Oh what a tangled web we weave!"

"People are talking about it. One has to know. It's the article of the
month."

Nick looked at her askance. "You say things every now and then for which
I could really kill you. 'The article of the month,' for instance: I
could kill you for that."

"Well, kill me!" Mrs. Dallow returned.

"Let me carry your book," he went on irrelevantly. The hand in which she
held it was on the side of her on which he was walking, and he put out
his own hand to take it. But for a couple of minutes she forbore to give
it up, so that they held it together, swinging it a little. Before she
surrendered it he asked where she was going.

"To the island," she answered.

"Well, I'll go with you--and I'll kill you there."

"The things I say are the right things," Julia declared.

"It's