sked the
district lady. Mrs Stidson refused to answer. ("Untidy, intractable
woman!") But a neighbour upspoke and said, "Tis her husband, mam, as
have give'd her a black eye." At which the district lady exclaimed, "My
good woman, why don't you leave him. You _ought_ to leave him--at
once!" Mrs Stidson has a number of young children.

[Sidenote: _TONY'S FOOT IN IT_]

It might have been expected, on the other hand, when Tony and myself
went on holiday up-country, stayed at a largish much-upholstered hotel,
and dined out several times as he had never done before, that he would
have been like a fish out of water, very awkward, and would have
committed a number of bad _faux pas_. Nothing of the sort. He was
nervous, certainly, and the numerous knives, forks and glasses somewhat
confused him at first. But Tony's good manners are not codified. He is
sensitive, kindly, desirous of pleasing, quick to observe. On that
basis, he invented for himself, according to the occasion, the manners
he had not been taught. At the same time he remained himself. And he
was a complete success. Nobody had any reason to blush on Tony's
behalf. Except once; when he remarked to some ladies after dinner that
he found Londoners very nice and free-like; that a pretty young lady
had stopped him in the Strand the evening before, and had called him
Percy; that he hadn't had time to tell her she'd made a mistake, and
that, in fact, he might have knowed her tu Seacombe, only he didn't
recollect.

There was a bad pause.

Tony doesn't think ill of anybody without cause. _Honi soit qui mal y
pense_ might very well be _his_ motto.

2

News has come along from Plymouth that the boats there have fallen in
with large shoals of herring. The air here has since been charged with
excitement--the excitement of men who earn their livelihood by gambling
with the sea. The drifters have fitted out. Most of the boats are up
over--lying on the sea wall--but a few days ago many busy blue men slid
the big brown drifters down their shoots to the beach. Looking along,
one saw a couple of men standing in each drifter and, with the
leisurely haste of seamen, drawing in their nets. It gave a peculiar
savour, a hopeful animation, to the blank wintry sea. It was as if the
spring had come to us human beings prematurely, before it was ready to
seize on nature.

[Sidenote: _ON THE CLIFFS_]

Yesterday afternoon I felt too unwell to lend a hand in shoving off the
boats. So