ly warm, and though the golfers had come back
earlier than usual, not because of the heat but because one of their
number had a train to catch, they agreed it was distinctly reviving to
find tea served out of doors.

Already Lady John was in her place on the pillared colonnade, behind the
urn. Already, too, one of her pair of pretty nieces was at hand to play
the skilful lieutenant. Hermione Heriot, tactful, charming, twenty-five,
was equally ready to hand bread and butter, or, sitting quietly, to
perform the greater service--that of presenting the fresh-coloured,
discreetly-smiling vision called 'the typical English girl.' Miss Heriot
fulfilled to a nicety the requirements of those who are sensibly
reassured by the spectacle of careful conventionality allied to feminine
charm--a pleasant conversability that may be trusted to soothe and
counted on never to startle. Hermione would almost as soon have stood on
her head in Piccadilly as have said anything original, though to her
private consternation such perilous stuff had been known to harbour an
uneasy instant in her bosom. She carried such inconvenient cargo as
carefully hidden as a conspirator would a bomb under his cloak. It had
grown to be as necessary to her to agree with the views and fashions of
the majority as it was disquieting to her to see these contravened, or
even for a single hour ignored. From the crown of her carefully dressed
head to the tips of her pointed toes she was engaged in testifying her
assent to the prevailing note. Despite all this to recommend her, she
was not Lady John's favourite niece. No doubt about Jean Dunbarton
holding that honour; and, to Hermione's credit, her own love for her
cousin enabled her to accept the situation with a creditable equability.
Jean Dunbarton was due now at any moment, she having already sent over
her luggage with her maid the short two miles from the Bishop's Palace,
where the girl had dined and slept the night before.

The rest of the Ulland House party were arriving by the next train. As
Miss Levering was understood to be one of those expected it will be seen
that a justified faith in the excellence of the Ulland links had not
made Lady John unmindful of the wisdom of including among 'the
week-enders' a nice assortment of pretty women for the amusement of her
golfers in the off hours.

Of this other young lady swinging her golf club as she came across the
lawn with the men--sole petticoat among them--it cou