ugustus's property to Amelia were finished, I went over
to France. I should stop at Versailles for a month and see the Marquis
in Paris, and then, perhaps, go back to the cottage.

I had often heard from Lady Tilchester--charming, sympathetic,
feminine letters. I must come to them at Harley whenever I decided to
go out a little, she said. I felt the whole of the world was opening
fairly for me.

I stopped a day or two in Paris to do a little shopping on my way to
Versailles, and coming down the steps at Ritz one day I met Mr. Budge.
He had come over for a breath of gayer air, he told me, after the
Coronation fiasco.

"You are looking wonderfully well," he said, "and not quite fifty
years old now."

"I am hardly more than thirty," I informed him, "and hope, if the
weather keeps fine, to grow a little younger still."

He said he was glad to hear it, and prayed I would let him come and
see the process.

"One grows in the night, when one is asleep," I said, "so no one can
see it. But if you would care to take tea with me in the afternoon,
I shall be very pleased to see you."

He came the next day.

We talked gravely, as was befitting my mourning. He gave me news of my
friends at Harley.

Lady Tilchester, he said, had a new scheme on hand for the employment
of the returning volunteers whose places in business had been filled
up in their absence. She was absorbed in this undertaking, but when
not too busy was more charming than ever.

"I spent a Sunday at Harley a couple of weeks ago." he said. "I don't
think many of the people were there that you met before--none, I
believe, but Sir Antony Thornhirst."

"And how was he?" I tried to say as naturally as possible.

"He seemed in the best of health and spirits. There is an intelligent
person, if you like. I wish he would enter Parliament."

"But Sir Antony is a Tory, I understand, Mr. Budge! He would be no
use to you," I said.

"Yes, indeed, he would. We want some brilliancy just now in the House
to wake us up. It does not matter which side it comes from."

"Don't you think he is too casual to care enough about it? He would
not give himself the trouble to enter Parliament, I believe."

"That is just it. The ablest people are so lazy. Lady Tilchester has
often tried to persuade him, but he has some whimsical answer ready,
and remains at large."

I should like to have talked much more on this subject, but Mr. Budge
changed the conversation. He drifted into s