so that I could think for a
moment. Then I turned my face to the wall. But I brought myself round
pretty quickly, and felt very displeased with Jack. Things were much
worse than I thought they were, if he could throw away all decency and
simply insist on coming. Had I wanted him I should have asked him.

"I had a letter from Mrs. Marten this morning, asking me to settle the
time with you," he said.

"Any time will suit me," I answered, "except that I may go away with a
reading party, and I am afraid you will find it most awfully slow."

"I shan't find it slow," he asserted with conviction.

"There's nothing much to do except loll about," I said.

"That will suit me down to the ground," he said, and I turned over once
more. It isn't much good talking to a man who confesses that he likes
lolling about; but I thought I would make things out as bad as possible.

"We do nothing but slack down there," I said; "there's not much
cricket, and we only keep one fat cob, which is a sort of
horse-of-all-work."

"Got a river?"

"A sort of glorified brook."

"And a boat?"

I had to say that we had a boat, but I explained that it was very old.

"That's all right," he said most cheerfully, and I believe he would
have been pleased if I had told him that we lived in a barn with
several holes in the roof.

He was beginning to think it was time for him to go to bed, when I
heard somebody else blunder into my sitter, and in a moment Lambert
appeared at the door. Now Lambert, who was only gorgeous by day,
frequently became aggressive at night, and I told him to clear out
jolly quickly. But instead of doing what he was wanted to he lit a
huge cigar, and began smoking the thing in my bedder. He also made a
number of stupid remarks about my personal appearance, and though I
hate getting out of bed when once I am comfortable I really could not
put up with the man, for he compared me to several people, ancient and
modern, who suffered from various defects. Jack Ward told him several
forcible things, but he went on insulting me, and then cackled as if he
had made a joke. So at last I hopped out of bed, and he, escaping from
my bedder, continued to cackle in the next room; I just stopped to put
on a pair of shoes, and then I went after him; he ran down the dark
staircase as hard as he could, and I, anxious to give him one kick, for
the sake of honour, pursued him. Both of us got safely to the bottom
of the stairs, and I fai