e
that he himself had been the subject of their conversation. The situation
was more than a little awkward. Lord Redford stepped forward and welcomed
him cordially.

"I'm afraid you've been knocking yourself up, Mannering," he said. "I've
just been proposing to Culthorpe here that we bar politics completely for
twenty-four hours. We'll leave the dinner table with the ladies, and you
and I will play golf to-morrow. I've had Taylor down here, and I can
assure you that my links are worth playing over now. Then on Thursday
we'll have a conference."

"I was scarcely sure," Mannering said, with a slight smile, "whether
I should be expected to stay until then. Sir Leslie has told you of my
telegrams?"

"Yes, yes," Lord Redford said, quickly. "We've postponed the meetings for
the present. We'll talk that all out later on. You've had some tea, I
hope? No? Well, Eleanor, you are a nice hostess," he added, turning to
his wife. "Give Mr. Mannering some tea at once, and feed him up with hot
cakes. Come into the billiard-room afterwards, Mannering, will you? I've
got a new table in the winter-garden, and we're going to have a pool
before dinner."

Berenice came in and laid her hand upon her host's arm.

"You need not worry about Mr. Mannering," she declared. "He is going to
have tea with me at that little table, and I am going to take him for a
walk in the park afterwards."

"So long as you feed him well," Lord Redford declared, with a little
laugh, "and turn up in good time for dinner, you may do what you like. If
you take my advice, Berenice, you will join our league. We have pledged
ourselves not to utter a word of shop for twenty-four hours."

"I submit willingly," Berenice answered. "Mr. Mannering and I will find
something else to talk about."

CHAPTER X

THE END OF A DREAM

"You can guess why I brought you here, perhaps," Berenice said, gently,
as she motioned him to sit down by her side. "This place, more than any
other I know, certainly more than any other at Bayleigh, seems to me to
be completely restful. There are the trees, you see, and the water, and
the swans, that are certainly the laziest creatures I know. You look to
me as though you needed rest, Lawrence."

"I suppose I do," he answered, slowly. "I am not sure, though, whether
I deserve it."

"You are rather a self-distrustful mortal," she remarked, leaning back in
her corner and looking at him from under her parasol. "You have worked
hard al