myself inadequately,' Tommy lazily corrected.

Betty acknowledged his greater accuracy.

'But,' she added, after a moment, 'it was a real impression, all the
same.'

She thought it over, looking across the bay towards Naples.

'Life in a populous city,' she murmured, after a moment, 'has its
problems, its trials, its disappointments.... Mrs. Venables told me a
story at tea the other day; I'll tell it to you if you like. There was a
man once who had a lot of gold; at least, he supposed it was gold. It
wasn't really; it was a base metal, most of it. Do you know what a base
metal is? Well, anyhow, it's something that melts very easily when you
put it into a fire. So he put it into the fire----'

'What an ass.'

'Yes; but don't interrupt. And he couldn't help putting it into the
fire, because the fire is Life--it's an allegory, did I tell you?--and
everything has to pass through it. Well, all his metal melted, and ran
away, and he saw it had been nothing but a base metal after all. But one
little bit he found which was pure gold; and that he kept, you see,
always. But it was horribly disappointing for him that there wasn't
more. When he was young he thought he had such a lot; that was where he
was wrong. That's all that story. And Mrs. Venables says if we are lucky
we may all end with a little piece of gold. Life, you see, is
a smelting-furnace, a crucible for the testing of ultimate
values.... Don't, Tommy, I can't bear it; I'll stop, really I will----'

She warded off with her arm an irritated shower of sand.

'That story didn't amuse me,' Tommy remarked resentfully. 'If that was
the funniest thing Mrs. Venables said at tea yesterday, I'm sorry for
you.'

'How shallow you are, Tommy. It wasn't meant to amuse you. And Mrs.
Venables didn't make it up; she'd read it somewhere. Personally, I was
wondering if there was anything in it. I told Mrs. Venables I thought it
very striking. But you've got such a--such a _borne_ mind. I've been
trying not to be _bornee_; I don't believe you ever do. Never mind; now
we'll go to sleep till it's time for Mass.'

It was very still on the beach and very warm, with the winter morning
sunshine on the sand. Beneath the wide blue sky the pure blue sea
stretched, with a little stir and glitter from the ruffling breeze that
just rumpled the broad blue basin's edge, crisping and whitening it,
making it tumble over with spurtling laughter, like a tiny child at
play, and draw back lispin