ory that there was nothing to be done
as yet. Soon enough to cry when milk was spilled! He did not agree, but,
unable to suggest a better course, followed her advice. On Saturday,
however, receiving Stanley's wire, he had much difficulty in not saying
to her, "I told you so!" The question that agitated him now was whether
or not to take Nedda with him. Flora said: "Yes. The child will be the
best restraining influence, if there is really trouble brewing!" Some
feeling fought against this in Felix, but, suspecting it to be mere
jealousy, he decided to take her. And, to the girl's rather puzzled
delight, they arrived at Becket that day in time for dinner. It was not
too reassuring to find John there, too. Stanley had also wired to him.
The matter must indeed be serious!

The usual week-end was in progress. Clara had made one of her greatest
efforts. A Bulgarian had providentially written a book in which he
showed, beyond doubt, that persons fed on brown bread, potatoes, and
margarine, gave the most satisfactory results of all. It was a discovery
of the first value as a topic for her dinner-table--seeming to solve the
whole vexed problem of the laborers almost at one stroke. If they could
only be got to feed themselves on this perfect programme, what a saving
of the situation! On those three edibles, the Bulgarian said--and he
had been well translated--a family of five could be maintained at full
efficiency for a shilling per day. Why! that would leave nearly eight
shillings a week, in many cases more, for rent, firing, insurance, the
man's tobacco, and the children's boots. There would be no more of
that terrible pinching by the mothers, to feed the husband and children
properly, of which one heard so much; no more lamentable deterioration
in our stock! Brown bread, potatoes, margarine--quite a great deal could
be provided for seven shillings! And what was more delicious than a
well-baked potato with margarine of good quality? The carbohydrates--or
was it hybocardrates--ah, yes! the kybohardrates--would be present in
really sufficient quantity! Little else was talked of all through dinner
at her end of the table. Above the flowers which Frances Freeland always
insisted on arranging--and very charmingly--when she was there--over
bare shoulders and white shirt-fronts, those words bombed and rebombed.
Brown bread, potatoes, margarine, carbohydrates, calorific! They mingled
with the creaming sizzle of champagne, with the soft