on the ground, and responded almost with nervous
agitation to Lord Henry's remarks. It was as if she felt their
perfunctory nature, their conspicuous jejuneness, and nevertheless,
like him, was utterly unable to broach the discussion of more serious
things.

Stephen, too, was a little disappointed with his hero, and wondered what
could have come over him, that he should suddenly have grown as
commonplace as Sir Joseph himself. He constantly looked back with
curious longing, as the laughter from behind became more persistent, and
it was only hope still undefeated that made him cling to Lord Henry's
side.

When a man on a walk calls the attention of his companions to the
condition of the hedges; when he notices that the road wants mending, or
that the ditches are either clean or overgrown; when, moreover, he
comments on the early discolouration of the leaves of certain distant
trees, it can clearly be due only to one of two causes: either his
conversation never rises above the level of such subjects, or else, some
influence is active which has so severely shaken his composure as to
leave him utterly destitute of thought.

If women divine, even half-consciously, that the latter is the reason,
they are, however, patient and tolerant, where his temporary stupidity
is concerned. But Stephen was not a woman, neither was Agatha
half-consciously aware of the true cause of Lord Henry's transient
dullness.

On the way home there was a general shuffling of the members of the
party, and to Lord Henry's relief, Leonetta, Mrs. Tribe, and Guy
Tyrrell sprang eagerly to his side, while Agatha, Cleopatra, and
Stephen joined Denis, Vanessa, and the Incandescent Gerald in front.

Cleopatra's persistent and yet unaffected affability to Denis had now
become one of the added terrors of Brineweald to this unfortunate young
man, and what struck him as particularly strange was that the more
animated and hilarious became the conversation behind, between Lord
Henry and Leonetta, the more perfectly natural and cheerful did
Cleopatra appear to grow. He had done his utmost to convey to Leonetta
on the walk out that he insisted on her returning with him at her side.
He hoped that the girl had seen what he himself thought he
perceived--that is to say, a growing intimacy between Lord Henry and her
sister,--and that this would induce her to do as he desired. Leonetta,
however, was at times unaccountably dense. She had escaped from him at
Sandlewoo