a and fauna of our happy shire!"

"Hush, brother," said I. "You know not what you say. I shall not seek
the fields. Rather--"

"That's something. We don't want you hauled up for sheep-worrying just
now."

"--shall I repair to some sequestered grove. There, when I shall
commune with myself, Nature will go astray. Springtime will come
again. Trees will break forth into blossom, meadows will blow anew,
and the voice of the turtle--"

"If you don't ring off," said Berry. "I'll set George at you."

George is our gorgonzola, which brings me back to Pomfret. Pomfret is
a little two-seater. I got him because I thought he'd be so useful
just to run to and fro when the car was out. And he is. We made
friends at Olympia, and I took to him at once. A fortnight later, Jill
was driving him delightedly round and round in front of the house.
After watching her for a while, Berry got in and sat down by her side.

"Not that I want a drive," he explained carefully; "but I want to see
if my dressing-case will be able to stand it as far as the station."

"If you think" I began, but the next moment Jill had turned down the
drive, and I watched the three go curling out of sight.

When they returned, half an hour later, Berry unreservedly withdrew his
remark about the dressing-case, and the next day, when Daphne suggested
that Pomfret should bear a small basket of grapes to the vicarage, he
told her she ought to be ashamed of herself.

From that day Pomfret was one of us.

And now, with three days left to learn my words, and a copy of the play
in my pocket, I drove forth into the countryside. When I had idly
covered about twenty miles, I turned down a little lane and pulled up
by the side of a still wood. I stopped the engine and listened. Not a
sound. I left the road and strolled in among the trees till I came to
where one lay felled, making a little space. It was a sunshiny morning
in October, and summer was dying hard. For the most part, the soft
colourings of autumn were absent, and, as if loyal to their old
mistress, the woods yet wore the dear green livery, faded a little,
perhaps, but the more grateful because it should so soon be laid aside.
The pleasant place suited my purpose well, and for twenty minutes I
wrestled with the powerful little scene Jonah had written between the
Queen and Buckingham. By the end of that time I knew it fairly well,
so I left it for a while and stealthily entered the old oak