is it not?" enquired Miss Smeardon
with her usual brilliancy. "What is its area?"

"Bigger than England, but not as big as the British Empire!" suggested
Carnaby, feeling the conversation was drifting into his ken.

"It's just the size of the moon, I've heard!" said Robinette
teasingly. "Does that throw any light on the question?"

"Moonlight!" laughed Carnaby, much pleased with his own wit. "Ha! ha!
That's the first joke I've made this holidays. _Moonlight!_ Jolly
good!"

"If you'd take a joke a little more in your stride, my son," said
Lavendar, "we should be more impressed by your mental sparkles."

"Straighten the sofa-cushions, Carnaby," said his grandmother, "and
don't lounge. I missed the point of your so-called joke entirely. As
to the size of a country or anything else, I have never understood
that it affected its quality. In fruit or vegetables, for instance, it
generally means coarseness and indifferent flavour." Miss Smeardon
beamed at this palpable hit, but Mrs. Loring deprived the situation of
its point by backing up Mrs. de Tracy heartily. She had no opinion of
mere size, either, she declared.

"You don't stand up for your country half enough," objected Carnaby to
his cousin. ("Why don't you give the old cat beans?" was his
supplement, _sotto voce_.)

"Just attack some of my pet theories and convictions, Middy dear, if
you wish to see me in a rage," said Robinette lightly, "but my motto
will never be 'My country right or wrong.'"

"Nor mine," agreed Lavendar. "I'm heartily with you there."

"It's a great venture we're trying in America. I wish every one would
try to look at it in that light," said Robinette with a slight flush
of earnestness.

"What do you mean by a venture?" asked Mrs. de Tracy.

"The experiment we're making in democracy," answered Robinette. "It's
fallen to us to try it, for of course it simply had to be tried. It
is thrillingly interesting, whatever it may turn out, and I wish I
might live to see the end of it. We are creating a race, Aunt de
Tracy; think of that!"

"It's as difficult for nations as for individuals to hit the happy
medium," said Lavendar, stirring the fire. "Enterprise carried too far
becomes vulgar hustling, while stability and conservatism often pass
the coveted point of repose and degenerate into torpor."

"This part of England seems to me singularly free from faults,"
interposed Mrs. de Tracy in didactic tones. "We have a wonderful
climate; more s