tics; it would, however,
be equally absurd to claim that the person in whom they are all happily
combined, necessarily displays, side by side with his mastery of games and
his deep understanding of cricket in particular, that mastery or
understanding of the mysteries of life, that virtuosity in the art of life,
which would constitute him a desirable mate. There is a _savoir faire_,
there are problems and intricacies in life, which no degree of familiarity
with cricket, no vast fund of experience in the football field, can help a
man to master; and it is even questionable whether a young man's ultimate
destiny as a husband and a father, far from being assisted, is not even
seriously complicated by the extent to which he must have specialised in
games and sports in order to earn for himself the whiteflower of
"clean-mindedness." It is the wives of such men who are in a position to
throw the most light on this question. There is no doubt that they
frequently have a tale to tell; but the best among them are naturally
disinclined to admit the very serious reasons they may have for disliking
the silver trophies that adorn their homes.

As the dinner wore on, animation waxed greater; Sir Joseph dropped an
ever-increasing number of aspirates, and Leonetta was actually heard to
laugh quite merrily.

Cleopatra still noticed that Denis was very much interested in her, and
also observed that, from time to time, Leonetta now responded to his
attentive scrutiny.

The conversation turned on gymnastics. Denis, Guy, and Leonetta all
seemed to be talking at once; it was a subject that Cleopatra did not
know much about.

"We always had three quarters of an hour's gym a day," said Leonetta,
looking straight at Denis.

He laughed. "Oh, well," he exclaimed, "you have done me. I haven't
touched parallel bars or a trapeze for ten years."

"Neither have I," Guy added.

Thereupon Leonetta allowed Guy to feel the muscles of her arm.

"Iron!" he ejaculated, while Cleopatra looked on with just a little
surprise.

"You might at least say steel," she interjected, trying to sustain her
role as one of the juveniles at table.

In the midst of a very prosy conversation with Sir Joseph and Miss
Mallowcoid, Mrs. Delarayne found opportunities enough to watch the
younger people, and she was not a little relieved to see the cloud
gradually lifting from Leonetta's brow. She knew that in the
circumstances she had not been too hard, and gathered fro