half, as bad a time as the schoolmistress."

I had hit upon the true line of consolation. The Canon smiled feebly,
and I pursued my subject.

"There won't, of course, be pigstys in the school, but----"

"I don't think a pigsty is absolutely essential to Lalage's comfort."

"Probably not. Lalage isn't the sort of girl who is dependent for her
happiness on the accident of outward circumstance. You know, Canon,
that our surroundings are not the things which really matter most. The
philosophic mind----"

I had unthinkingly given the Canon his opportunity. I could see a
well-known quotation actually trembling on his lips. I stopped him
ruthlessly.

"I know that ode," I said. "It's one I learned at school, but it doesn't
apply to Lalage. She isn't in the least content with things as she finds
them. That's her great charm. She's more like Milton's Satan."

I can quote too, though only English poets, unless after special
preparation beforehand. I intended to shoot off some lines out of
"Paradise Lost" at the Canon, but he would not listen. He may not have
liked the comparison suggested.

"I have to be off," he said. "Lalage is waiting to hear what your mother
has settled. I mustn't keep her too long."

"Did you tell her you were coming up here for advice?"

"Of course I did. She quite agreed with me that it was the best thing
to do. She always says that your mother is the only person she knows who
has any sense. Miss Battersby's sudden resignation was rather a shock to
her. She was in a curiously chastened mood this morning."

"She'll get over that all right," I said. "She'll be bringing out
another number of the _Anti-Cat_ in a couple of days."

I spent two hours after the Canon left me watching the building of a new
lodge at my back gate. My mother professes to believe that work of this
kind, indeed of any kind, is better done if I go and look at it.
In reality I think she is anxious to provide me with some sort of
occupation and to interest me in the management of such property as
recent legislation has left to an Irish landlord. But she may be right
in supposing that the builders build better when I am watching them.
They certainly build less rapidly. The foreman is a pleasant fellow,
with a store of interesting anecdotes. I give him tobacco in some form
and he narrates his experiences. The other workmen listen and grin
appreciatively. Thus a certain sedateness of progress is ensured and all
danger of hasty bu