litics. Or rather, he had a great many politics.
He was a sort of Socialist in time of peace and a red-hot Imperialist in
time of war, and a Tory for purposes of Tariff Reform, and a Liberal when
it came to Home Rule.

And when the Canon objected that you couldn't run a Government on those
lines, little Jevons told him that that was precisely how Governments
were run. It was a fallacy to suppose that Oppositions didn't rule.

And again he scored. He did it all with a twinkling, dimpling urbanity
and deprecation, as if the Canon had been a beautiful lady he was paying
court to, as if he thought it was rather a pity that beauty should lower
itself to talk politics; but since he insisted on politics, he should
have them; as if, in short, he loved the Canon, but didn't take him very
seriously.

Yes; he certainly scored. He gave Viola no cause to flinch.

That evening comes back to me by bits. It must have been that evening
that the Canon walked round the garden with me. I see him walking round
and round, with Norah hanging on to his arm, teasing him and chattering.
I hear her crying out suddenly with no relevance, "Hasn't he got stunning
eyes, Daddy?" and the Canon saying that Jevons's eyes would look better
in a pair of earrings than in Jevons's head, and her answering, "Wouldn't
I like to wear them!" I see his little mock shiver (as if he felt that it
was those great chunks of unsuitable sapphire that had charmed Viola
across the Channel), and Norah's funny face as she said, "Oh, come, he
isn't half bad."

That night he called me into the library when they had all gone to bed.
Clearly he wanted to know how it had gone off--how he, in particular, had
behaved. I assured him that his behaviour had been perfect. And I asked
him what he thought of Jevons?

He said, "Well--he might be worse. He might be much, much worse. He's a
clever chap. Where does he get it all from?"

But I noticed that the next day he shut himself up in his library
all morning, was silent at lunch, and never emerged properly till
dinner-time. Mrs. Thesiger also fought shy of her son-in-law.

Norah and Victoria took him by turns that day. I noticed that he got on
very well with Norah. She knocked balls over the net for him all morning.
(He couldn't play, but professed a great eagerness to learn.) In the
afternoon Victoria took him to look at the Cathedral and the old quarters
of the town. In the evening, after dinner, we all sat out in the garden.