y American, came now and
stood at the doctor's elbow. She seemed moved to play the part of chorus
to the two upon the stone.

"When V.V. gets going," she remarked, "she makes things come alive."

Dr. Martineau hated to be addressed suddenly by strange ladies. He
started, and his face assumed the distressed politeness of the moon at
its full. "Your friend," he said, "interested in archaeology?"

"Interested!" said the stouter lady. "Why! She's a fiend at it. Ever
since we came on Carnac."

"You've visited Carnac?"

"That's where the bug bit her." said the stout lady with a note of
querulous humour. "Directly V.V. set eyes on Carnac, she just turned
against all her up-bringing. 'Why wasn't I told of this before?' she
said. 'What's Notre Dame to this? This is where we came from. This is
the real starting point of the MAYFLOWER. Belinda,' she said, 'we've got
to see all we can of this sort of thing before we go back to America.
They've been keeping this from us.' And that's why we're here right
now instead of being shopping in Paris or London like decent American
women."

The younger lady looked down on her companion with something of the calm
expert attention that a plumber gives to a tap that is misbehaving, and
like a plumber refrained from precipitate action. She stood with the
backs of her hands resting on her hips.

"Well," she said slowly, giving most of the remark to Sir Richmond and
the rest to the doctor. "It is nearer the beginnings of things than
London or Paris."

"And nearer to us," said Sir Richmond.

"I call that just--paradoxical," said the shorter lady, who appeared to
be called Belinda.

"Not paradoxical," Dr. Martineau contradicted gently. "Life is always
beginning again. And this is a time of fresh beginnings."

"Now that's after V.V.'s own heart," cried the stout lady in grey.
"She'll agree to all that. She's been saying it right across Europe.
Rome, Paris, London; they're simply just done. They don't signify any
more. They've got to be cleared away."

"You let me tell my own opinions, Belinda," said the young lady who was
called V.V. "I said that if people went on building with fluted pillars
and Corinthian capitals for two thousand years, it was time they were
cleared up and taken away."

"Corinthian capitals?" Sir Richmond considered it and laughed
cheerfully. "I suppose Europe does rather overdo that sort of thing."

"The way she went on about the Victor Emmanuele Monument!" said