in meeting
her again after four years of absence. For one thing, she had become
even better-looking than he remembered her--turned into a thundering
handsome young woman, he thought--and it became him, as an artist, to
be a connoisseur in such matters.

"Oh, so you're going to see the Doctor, are you?" she said, "I know he
was expecting you." She hesitated. "I told him I thought I'd be at
Mrs. Whelply's this afternoon. He--he might be surprised if he thought
I had Tinker out, and that he was in a fight--"

"I'll keep it dark," Larry said, reassuringly, while he wondered if
the protecting darkness were also to envelop Captain Cloherty,
R.A.M.C. He thought, on the whole, perhaps, yes.

CHAPTER XXXI

Major Talbot-Lowry had been in a passion for three days, and Lady
Isabel, who had borne the storm alone, longed for Christian's return,
as the lone keeper of a lighthouse might long for the support of his
comrade during a gale.

Judith came to visit her parents on Monday, but Judith was very far
from being Christian, and could be relied on merely as far as a
counter-irritant might prove of service.

"Well, of course, it was abominable impertinence of the priest to come
up with the tenants to try and bully you, Papa, but you know, I see
their point." Thus, Judith, annoyingly, and with pertinacity.

"You do, do you!" interjected Judith's progenitor, his once ruddy face
now a congested purple. "It seems to me, Judith, you're always deuced
ready to see any one's point but mine!"

"After all," went on Judith, with all the self-confidence and
intolerance of five and twenty, "it's in your interest to sell, just
as much as theirs to buy! With this detestable Government in power it
will be a case of the Sibylline Books. You'll see the Nationalists
will have it all their own way, and the next Act--"

"Nationalists!" roared the Major, sitting upright in his chair, and
panting, his utterance temporarily checked by the sheer pressure of
all that he wished to say. "Don't talk to me of Nationalists! Common
thieves! That's all they are! There's no Nationalism about
_them_! Call it Socialism, if you like, or any other name for
robbery! They'd look very blue if _we_ took to shouting 'Ireland
a Nation!' and expecting to come in at the finish! They mightn't be
able to call us English invaders and to steal our property then!
English! I've got Brian Boroihme in my pedigree and that's more than
they can say! A pack of half-bred