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changed attitude towards my guardians ceased to perplex me, so delicious and pervasive was my feeling of desire. For days she had occupied the chief place in my thoughts and now it seemed strange to me to reflect that I had other things to think about, had indeed been thinking about them to the exclusion of all else since the dinner party. But now I could not pursue my inquiries, for from the time when breakfast was over until the time when we were due to start for the show I had no opportunity to speak in private either to the Rector or to his wife, and shortly after eleven o'clock we all three walked across the road to the Manor, for we had arranged to visit the show together with the Squire and his sister. I began to feel somewhat ill at ease as we walked down the drive that was edged with neatly clipped cypresses, for I knew that my friends had every reason to be affronted by my behaviour of last night and yet, even now, I could not see how I could have acted differently. But the manners both of the Squire and of his sister very soon reassured me. They were waiting for us in the oak-panelled hall, the walls of which were hung with a variety of interesting objects--cutlasses, riding-whips, swords, guns, oars, cricket-bats, knobkerries, musical instruments, and miniature portraits. The Squire was sitting in a high-backed chair with a rug over his knees. He did not rise to greet us, for he was, so his sister informed us, indisposed, and would be unable to accompany us to the show. "I wanted him to allow me to stay with him," she said, "but he won't hear of it." The Squire looked up at us with eyes that twinkled in his grey and sunken face. "We old men," he said "mustn't be allowed to make ourselves a nuisance. Florence" (he turned to his sister) "will be extremely happy in your company, if you are quite sure that you can make room for her in your car." "She will give us the greatest pleasure if she will come with us," said the Rector. "I am only sorry that you cannot come yourself," and his wife added: "Are you sure that there is nothing that we can do?" "Nothing, thank you," said the Squire, and his sister went upstairs to put on her coat and hat. While she was away the Squire tapped nervously with one finger on the arm of his chair, and seemed ill at ease now that the necessary courtesies had been exchanged. He was evidently relieved when his sister returned and waved to us as we went towards the door. "I am afraid that my weak health always interferes with the pleasures of others/ he said. "Please forgive me. I wish it could be avoided." The Rector's wife turned her head towards him and said brightly: "You mustn't say things like that. You know how fond of you we all are," and, as we left the hall, the Squire smiled at her as though he found her words incredible. "In a way I hate to leave him," said his sister, while we were walking up the drive, "but he would never rest if he thought I were depriving myself of anything for his sake." "He is quite a saint," the Rector said, but by now we had reached the end of the drive where we found our car which Joe, the gardener, had just brought round for us. Joe stood beside the car, his feet firmly placed apart and one hand raised in the air. He had recently taken the part of the Archangel Gabriel in a nativity play and still, on any ceremonial occasion, would adopt this stance which he had learnt to hold throughout the tableau of the Annunciation. "A fine day, Joe," said the Rector, and the Squire's sister inquired about his wife. To the statement and the question Joe replied appropriately, and then we all got into the car, with the Rector driving and myself sitting by his side. We drove up the village street and, past the pub, turned to the right into the main road that ran alongside the aerodrome. As we passed one of the great gates flanked by high pylons from which flags were flying I heard the Squire's sister say: "It seems difficult to imagine the village as it used to be,