in a matter so complex, and must be
content to abide by the opinions of those who have knowledge and
experience."

Lady Engleton thus retreated hastily behind cover. That was a strategic
movement always available in difficulties, and it left one's companion
in speculation alone in the open, arrogantly sustaining an eagle-gaze in
the sun's face. The advantages of feminine humility were obvious. One
could come out for a skirmish and then run for shelter, in awkward
moments. No woman ought to venture out on the bare plain without a
provision of the kind.

Hadria had a curious sensation of being so exposed, when Lady Engleton
retreated behind her "good and wise men," and she had the usual feminine
sense of discomfort in the feeling of presumption that it produced.
Heredity asserted itself, as it will do, in the midst of the fray, just
when its victim seems to have shaken himself free from the mysterious
obsession. But Hadria did not visibly flinch. Lady Engleton received the
impression that Mrs. Temperley was too sure of her own judgment to defer
even to the wisest.

She experienced a pleasant little glow of humility, wrapping herself in
it, as in a protecting garment, and unconsciously comparing her more
moderate and modest attitude favourably with her companion's
self-confidence. Just at that moment, Hadria's self-confidence was
gasping for breath. But her sense of the comic in her companion's
tactics survived, and set her off in an apparently inconsequent laugh,
which goaded Lady Engleton into retreating further, to an encampment of
pure orthodoxy.

"I fear there is an element of the morbid, in all this fretful revolt
against the old-established destiny of our sex," she said.

The advance-guard of Professor Theobald's party was coming up. The
Professor himself still hung back, playing the Ancient Mariner to Joseph
Fleming's Wedding Guest. Most unwilling was that guest, most
pertinacious that mariner.

Hadria had turned to speak to Dodge, who had approached, broom in hand.
"Seems only yesterday as we was a diggin' o' that there grave, don't it,
mum?" he remarked pleasantly, including Hadria in the credit of the
affair, with native generosity.

"It does indeed, Dodge. I see you have been tidying it up and
clearing away the moss from the name. I can read it now. _Ellen
Jervis.--Requiescat in pace._"

"We was a wonderin' wot that meant, me and my missus."

Hadria explained.

"Oh indeed, mum. She didn't die in