from the bottom of his heart.

"There are some men and women--I've met one or two--who're just made up
of Truth. You know it the minute you're with them. And they'll have
pluck too, of course--Courage goes with it. Our family," she ended, "are
of course the most terrible liars that have ever been--ever----"

"Oh! I say----" he began, protesting.

"Oh! but yes--they run everything on it. My uncle Richard ran through
Parliament beautifully because he never said what he meant. And Aunt
Adela--_and_ Uncle John, although he's a dear. But then my grandmother
brought them up to it. My grandmother would have about three clever
people and then muddle all the rest so that the three clever ones can
have everything in their hands----"

"Look here," he broke in, "I'm most awfully fond of your
grandmother--we're tremendous pals----"

"You may be--I hate her. Oh! I don't hate her with melodrama, I don't
want to strangle her or beat her face or burn her, but I'm frightened of
her and she's always making me do things I'm ashamed of. That's the best
reason for hating anyone there is."

"But she's such a sportsman. One of the old kind. One----."

"Oh! I know all that you can say. I've heard it so many times. But
she's all wrong. There isn't any good in her. She's just remorseless and
selfish and stubborn. She thinks she ran the world once and she wants to
do it still."

"That's all rather fine, _I_ think," said Roddy. "I agree with her a
bit. I think most people have _got_ to be run--they just can't run
themselves, so you have to put things into them."

"Well, that's just where we differ," she said sharply. "It isn't so.
That's where all the muddle comes in. If everyone were just himself
without anything _borrowed_--Oh! the brave world it'd be----"

Then she laughed. "But I'm all wrong myself, you know. I'm as muddled as
anyone. I've got all the true, real me there, but all the Beaminster
part has slurred it over. But I've got a horrid fear that Truth gets
tired of waiting too long. One day, when you're not expecting it, it
comes up and says--'Now you choose--your only chance. _Are_ you going to
use me or not? If not, I'm going'--How awful if one didn't realize the
moment was there, and missed it."

She was laughing, but in her heart that other woman in her was stirring.
For a startled, trembling second the wood seemed to flame, the gardens
to blaze with the challenge:

"Are you, for the sake of the comfort and safety of lif