ninepence for it. Do let me read you how it opens:

"'Beatrice Lady Cullumpton entered the long, dimly-lit drawing-room, her
eyes blazing with a hope that she guessed to be groundless, her lips
trembling with a fear that she could not disguise. In her hand she
carried a small fan, a fragile toy of lace and satinwood. Something
snapped as she entered the room; she had crushed the fan into a dozen
pieces.'

"There, what do you think of that for an opening? It tells you at once
that there's something afoot."

"I don't read novels," said Caiaphas sullenly.

"But just think what a resource they are," exclaimed the author, "on long
winter evenings, or perhaps when you are laid up with a strained ankle--a
thing that might happen to any one; or if you were staying in a house-
party with persistent wet weather and a stupid hostess and insufferably
dull fellow-guests, you would just make an excuse that you had letters to
write, go to your room, light a cigarette, and for three-and-ninepence
you could plunge into the society of Beatrice Lady Cullumpton and her
set. No one ought to travel without one or two of my novels in their
luggage as a stand-by. A friend of mine said only the other day that he
would as soon think of going into the tropics without quinine as of going
on a visit without a couple of Mark Mellowkents in his kit-bag. Perhaps
sensation is more in your line. I wonder if I've got a copy of _The
Python's Kiss_."

Caiaphas did not wait to be tempted with selections from that thrilling
work of fiction. With a muttered remark about having no time to waste on
monkey-talk, he gathered up his slighted volume and departed. He made no
audible reply to Mellowkent's cheerful "Good morning," but the latter
fancied that a look of respectful hatred flickered in the cold grey eyes.

THE HEDGEHOG

A "Mixed Double" of young people were contesting a game of lawn tennis at
the Rectory garden party; for the past five-and-twenty years at least
mixed doubles of young people had done exactly the same thing on exactly
the same spot at about the same time of year. The young people changed
and made way for others in the course of time, but very little else
seemed to alter. The present players were sufficiently conscious of the
social nature of the occasion to be concerned about their clothes and
appearance, and sufficiently sport-loving to be keen on the game. Both
their efforts and their appearance came under the