iscussion should be carried forward with gravity
and reserve. Seated in his high canonical chair, wrapped in his
dressing-gown, John would bend forward listening, as if from the
Bench or the pulpit, awaking to a more intense interest when some
more than usually bitter vial of satire was emptied upon the fair
sex. He had once amused Harding very much by his admonishment of a
Palais Royal farce.

"It was not," he said, "so much the questionableness of the play;
what shocked me most was the horrible levity of the audience, the
laughter with which every indecent allusion was greeted."

The conversation had fallen, and Mike said--

"So you are going away? Well, we shall all miss you very much. But
you don't intend to bury yourself in the country; you'll come up to
town sometimes."

"I feel I must not stay here; the place has grown unbearable." A look
of horror passed over John's face. "Hall has the rooms opposite. His
life is a disgrace; he hurries through his writing, and rushes out to
beat up the Strand, as he puts it, for shop-girls. I could not live
here any longer."

Mike could not but laugh a little; and offended, John rose and
continued the packing of his Indian gods. Allusion was made to
Byzantine art; and Mike told the story of Frank's marriage; and John
laughed prodigiously at the account he gave of the conversation
overheard. Regarding the quarrel John was undecided. He found himself
forced to admit that Mike's conduct deserved rebuke; but at the same
time, Frank's sentimental views were wholly distasteful to him. Then
in reply to a question as to where he was going, Mike said he didn't
know. John invited him to come and stay at Thornby Place.

"It is half-past three now. Do you think you could get your things
packed in time to catch the six o'clock?"

"I think so. I can instruct Southwood; she will forward the rest of
my things."

"Then be off at once; I have a lot to do. Hall is going to take my
furniture off my hands. I have made rather a good bargain with him."

Nothing could suit Mike better. He had never stayed in a country
house; and now as he hurried down the Temple, remembrances of Mount
Rorke Castle rose in his mind--the parade of dresses on the summer
lawns, and the picturesqueness of the shooting parties about the
long, withering woods.

CHAPTER VII

For some minutes longer the men lay resting in the heather, their
eyes drinking the colour and varied lights and lines of the vast
hor