f the large hotels, and if Rose had seen the
spread I ordered she would have had good cause to charge me with
"swankiness," but I was having a "day out," and such occurrences at
Windyridge are destined to be uncommon. Besides, no fewer than three
magazines are going to print my old lady's picture, so the agents have
sent me thirty shillings--quite a decent sum, and one which you simply
_cannot_ spend on a day's frolicking in these regions.

When it was over Mother Hubbard showed me all the lions of the place;
and after we had drunk a refreshing cup of tea at a cafe that would do
no discredit to Buckingham Palace Road we set out on the return journey.

I was tired already, but I soon forgot the flesh in the spirit
sensations that flooded me. We were now traversing the miniature high
road which skirts the edge of the moor, and reveals a scene of quiet
pastoral beauty along its entire length which is simply charming. I
cannot adequately describe it, but I know that viewed in the opalescent
light of the early setting sun it was just a fairy wonderland.

The valley is beautifully wooded, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
together were not so gorgeously arrayed as were the trees on the
farther side. A white thread of river gleamed for a while through the
meadows, but was soon lost in the haze of evening.

Comfortable grey farms and red-tiled villas lent a homely look to the
landscape, and at intervals we passed pretty cottages with
old-fashioned gardens, where the men smoked pipes and stood about in
their shirt-sleeves, whilst the women lounged in the gateways with an
eye to the children whose bed-time was come all too soon for the
unwilling spirit.

And, best of all, my journey ended with a great discovery. We had
climbed a steep hill, and after a last long look back over my fairy
valley I set my face to the dull and level fields. Two hundred yards
farther and my astonished eyes saw down below--the back of my own
cottage!

That night no vision of factory chimneys disturbed the serenity of my
sleep, for a haunting fear had been dispelled.

CHAPTER VII

THE CYNIC DISCOURSES ON WOMAN

"Woman," said the Cynic sententiously, "may be divided into five parts:
the Domestic woman, the Social woman, the Woman with a Mission, the New
Woman, and the Widow."

"Nonsense!" snapped the vicar's wife, "the widow may be any one of the
rest. The mere accident of widowhood cannot affect her special
characteristics.