looming in the near
future. He called for a batch of morning papers and skimmed rapidly
through the speeches of the Chancellor, Quinston, and other Ministerial
leaders, as well as those of the principal Opposition champions, and
then sank back in his chair with a sigh of relief. Evidently the spell
had ceased to act after the tragedy which had overtaken its invoker.
There was no trace of angel anywhere.

THE REMOULDING OF GROBY LINGTON

"A man is known by the company he keeps."

In the morning-room of his sister-in-law's house Groby Lington fidgeted
away the passing minutes with the demure restlessness of advanced
middle age. About a quarter of an hour would have to elapse before it
would be time to say his good-byes and make his way across the village
green to the station, with a selected escort of nephews and nieces. He
was a good-natured, kindly dispositioned man, and in theory he was
delighted to pay periodical visits to the wife and children of his dead
brother William; in practice, he infinitely preferred the comfort and
seclusion of his own house and garden, and the companionship of his
books and his parrot to these rather meaningless and tiresome
incursions into a family circle with which he had little in common. It
was not so much the spur of his own conscience that drove him to make
the occasional short journey by rail to visit his relatives, as an
obedient concession to the more insistent but vicarious conscience of
his brother, Colonel John, who was apt to accuse him of neglecting poor
old William's family. Groby usually forgot or ignored the existence of
his neighbour kinsfolk until such time as he was threatened with a
visit from the Colonel, when he would put matters straight by a hurried
pilgrimage across the few miles of intervening country to renew his
acquaintance with the young people and assume a kindly if rather forced
interest in the well-being of his sister-in-law. On this occasion he
had cut matters so fine between the timing of his exculpatory visit and
the coming of Colonel John, that he would scarcely be home before the
latter was due to arrive. Anyhow, Groby had got it over, and six or
seven months might decently elapse before he need again sacrifice his
comforts and inclinations on the altar of family sociability. He was
inclined to be distinctly cheerful as he hopped about the room, picking
up first one object, then another, and subjecting each to a brief
bird-like scr