f I hadn't differed from him, or, I mean, if I'd only
understood what the----

_Happy Thought._--(_To ask seriously_), "Re-state, exactly, the premiss
I disputed." [I'm sure to catch a glimpse of the trap and horses as they
drive past the lake. Hang the Professor!]

"Simply," says he, "in putting the first premiss, I used the old
formula, viz., that the point in question was as clear as that two and
two make four."

"Good Heavens! have I been disputing _that_ with you?" I almost shout.

"What else?" he asks, astonished.

"Why ... I ..." I really cannot speak, I am so annoyed. I've lost a
whole morning, and whole day, perhaps, and a jolly party,
and--and--and--

"What's the matter?" asks Mrs. Boodels, handing her instrument of
torture to the Professor. "What does he say?"

"He says--" commences the Professor ....

_Je me sauve!_ (_Exit myself, hurriedly._) I rush to the stable.

"James! Where are they gone?"

"They said, sir, as they were gone to the meet. 'Ounds is out near
'ere."

[Illustration: "GONE TO THE MEET."]

CHAPTER IX.

A WET DAY.

RAIN--THE MEDFORDS--CONVERSATION--A PROPOSAL--ACCEPTED--THE TRICK--
THE LECTURE.

Provoking! "I do believe," says Miss Adelaide Cherton, "it's literally
set in for rain."

Mrs. Boodels, without troubling herself to raise her ear-trumpet, smiles
blandly and proceeds with her knitting.

_Happy Thought._ A deaf person can always talk to herself, and obtain a
hearing.

Miss Bella exclaims, "Oh, what shall we do if it rains?"

Whereupon Miss Medford observes that the gentlemen will amuse us.

[Miss Medford is an addition to our party. She was brought by Mrs. Orby
Frimmely, and Mr. Frimmely subsequently came down with her brother
Alfred Medford, a celebrated musical amateur, "of the nobility's
concerts." "A very interesting looking young man," Mrs. Boodels observes
aloud when he arrives, but she is a little afraid of him on finding that
he can do _a_ conjuring trick. He only has one.]

[Illustration: MISS MEDFORD. _Happy Thought._--"Japanese Tommy" style.]

I continue reading the newspaper. I determine to withdraw presently to
my own room, where I shall lock myself in and ....

_Happy Thought for Wet Day._ Write letters. Jenkyns Soames observes that
he shall devote his day to correcting his great work on Scientific
Economy for the press. Mrs. Orby Frimmely says, that "it's wonderful to
_her_, how Mr. Soames thinks of all t