nd struggles--very gentle ones--for the mastery, which
he is not going to get. To-day he wanted me to go with him and Canon
Shackleton to see something or other about the poor of London. I would
not do it. I am so lonely, Ethel, I want to see some one. I feel fit to
cry all the time. I like Basil best of anyone in the world, but----"

"But in the solitude of a honeymoon among strangers you find out that
the person you like best in the world can bore you as badly as the
person you don't like at all. Is that so?"

"Exactly. Just fancy if we were among our friends in Newport. I should
have some pleasure in dressing and looking lovely. Why should I dress
here? There is no one to see me."

"Basil."

"Of course, but Basil spends all the time in visiting cathedrals and
clergymen. If we go out, it is to see something about the poor, or about
schools and such like. We were not in London two hours until he was off
to Westminster Abbey, and I didn't care a cent about the old place. He
says I must not ask him to go to theaters, but historical old houses
don't interest me at all. What does it matter if Cromwell slept in a
certain ancient shabby room? And as for all the palaces I have seen, my
father's house is a great deal handsomer, and more convenient, and more
comfortable, and I wish I were there. I hate Europe, and England I hate
worst of all."

"You have not seen England. We are all enraptured with its beauty and
its old houses and pleasant life."

"You are among friends--at home, as it were. I have heard all about
Rawdon Court. Fred Mostyn told me. He is going to buy it."

"When?"

"Some time this fall. Then next year he will entertain us, and that will
be a little different to this desolate hotel, I think."

"How long will you be in London?"

"I cannot say. We are invited to Stanhope Castle, but I don't want to go
there. We stayed with the Stanhopes a week when we first came over. They
were then in their London house, and I got enough of them."

"Did you dislike the family?"

"No, I cared nothing about them. They just bored me. They are extremely
religious. We had prayers night and morning, and a prayer before and
after every meal. They read only very good books, and the Honorable
Misses Stanhope sew for the poor old women and teach the poor young
ones. They work harder than anyone I ever knew, and they call it
'improving the time.' They thought me a very silly, reckless young
woman, and I think they all prayed