epper and Miss
Allan, both of whom might have been supposed to have seen a fair share
of the panorama. "When I see how the world has changed in my lifetime,"
she went on, "I can set no limit to what may happen in the next fifty
years. Ah, no, Mr. Pepper, I don't agree with you in the least," she
laughed, interrupting his gloomy remark about things going steadily from
bad to worse. "I know I ought to feel that, but I don't, I'm afraid.
They're going to be much better people than we were. Surely everything
goes to prove that. All round me I see women, young women, women with
household cares of every sort, going out and doing things that we should
not have thought it possible to do."

Mr. Pepper thought her sentimental and irrational like all old women,
but her manner of treating him as if he were a cross old baby baffled
him and charmed him, and he could only reply to her with a curious
grimace which was more a smile than a frown.

"And they remain women," Mrs. Thornbury added. "They give a great deal
to their children."

As she said this she smiled slightly in the direction of Susan and
Rachel. They did not like to be included in the same lot, but they both
smiled a little self-consciously, and Arthur and Terence glanced at
each other too. She made them feel that they were all in the same boat
together, and they looked at the women they were going to marry and
compared them. It was inexplicable how any one could wish to marry
Rachel, incredible that any one should be ready to spend his life with
Susan; but singular though the other's taste must be, they bore each
other no ill-will on account of it; indeed, they liked each other rather
the better for the eccentricity of their choice.

"I really must congratulate you," Susan remarked, as she leant across
the table for the jam.

There seemed to be no foundation for St. John's gossip about Arthur and
Susan. Sunburnt and vigorous they sat side by side, with their racquets
across their knees, not saying much but smiling slightly all the time.
Through the thin white clothes which they wore, it was possible to
see the lines of their bodies and legs, the beautiful curves of their
muscles, his leanness and her flesh, and it was natural to think of the
firm-fleshed sturdy children that would be theirs. Their faces had too
little shape in them to be beautiful, but they had clear eyes and an
appearance of great health and power of endurance, for it seemed as if
the blood would