avant le spectacle_?'

'_Non, je n'avais guere le coeur a manger_.'"

Well, that's easy enough. But I doubt if it is one of the most
characteristic passages. It doesn't give you a clue to Laforgue's manner,
any more than "'Must I sit here, mother?' 'Yes, without a doubt you
must,'" tells you all that you want to know about Meredith. There's more
in it than that.

And I've got to tell him.

But fancy holding forth on an author's style after reading him
laboriously with a dictionary!

However, I must do my best; and in my more hopeful moments I see the
conversation going like this:--

"Well?"

"Oh, wonderful." (_With emotion_) "Really wonderful."

"You see them all there?"

"Yes, yes. It's really--wonderful. Meredith--I mean--well, it's
simply--(_after a pause_) wonderful."

"You see Meredith there most?"

"Y-yes. Sometimes. And then (_with truth_) sometimes I--I don't. It's
difficult to say. Sometimes I--er--Shaw--er--well, it's--" (_with a
gesture somewhat Gallic_) "How can I put it?"

"Not Thackeray at all?" he says, watching me eagerly.

I decide to risk it.

"Oh, but of course! I mean--Thackeray! When I said Meredith
I was thinking of the _others_. But Thackeray--I mean Thackeray
_is_--er--" (_I've forgotten the author's name for the moment and
go on hastily_) "I mean--er--Thackeray, obviously."

He shakes me by the hand. I am his friend.

But this conversation only takes place in my more hopeful moments. In my
less hopeful ones I see myself going into the country for quite a long
time.

III. SUMMER DAYS

A SONG FOR THE SUMMER

_Is it raining_? Never mind--
Think how much the birdies love it!
See them in their dozens drawn,
Dancing, to the croquet lawn--
Could our little friends have dined
If there'd been no worms above it?

_Is it murky_? What of that,
If the Owls are fairly perky?
Just imagine you were one--
Wouldn't you _detest_ the sun?
I'm pretending I'm a Bat,
And I know I _like_ it murky.

_Is it chilly_? After all,
We must not forget the Poodle.
If the days were really hot,
Could he wear _one_ woolly spot?
Could he even keep his shawl?
No, he'd shave the whole caboodle.

THE SEASON'S PROSPECTS

The great question in the Mallory family just now is whether Dick will
get into the eleven this year. Confident as he is himself, he is taking
no risks.

"We're going to put the net up to-morrow," he said to me as soon as I
arrived, "and then you