se beneficial; I have had too
much pudding lately."

He looked politely surprised, and she went on to explain.

"It is very wholesome," she said, "but a bit stodgy; I think it is too
really good to be taken in such large quantities by any one like me.
It is unbelievably good, it makes one perfectly ashamed of oneself;
and unbelievably narrow, it makes one long for bed-time."

She broke off to smile at his more genuine surprise, and her smile,
like that of some other people of little real beauty, was one of
singular charm.

"Did you think I meant actual pudding?" she asked. "I didn't; I meant
just the whole life here; if you knew the people well, the real middle
class ones, you would understand."

"I think I can understand without knowing them well," he said; "I
fancy there is a good deal of pudding about; in fact, I myself am
feeling its rather oppressive influence."

"The town is paved with it," Julia declared. "I thought so this
afternoon. I also thought, though it is Tuesday, it was just like a
spring Sunday; every day is like that."

Rawson-Clew suggested that many people appreciated spring Sundays.

"So do I," Julia agreed, "but in moderation; you can't do your washing
on Sunday, nor your harvesting in spring. An endless succession of
spring Sundays is very awkward when you have got--well, week-day work
to do, don't you think so?"

He wondered a little what week-day work she had in her mind, but he
did not ask.

"Are you living with a Dutch family?" he inquired.

She nodded. "As companion," she said; "sort of superior general
servant."

"Indeed? Then it must have been you I saw yesterday; I thought so at
the time; you were driving with some Dutch ladies."

Julia was surprised that he had seen and recognised her. "We went for
an excursion yesterday," she said; "they called it a picnic."

She told him about it, not omitting any of the points which had amused
her. Could Joost have heard her, he would have felt that his suspicion
that she sometimes laughed at them more than justified; but she did
not give a thought to Joost, and probably would not have paused if she
had. She wanted to pass the present time, and she was rather reckless
how, so long as Rawson-Clew either talked himself, or seemed
interested in what she said; also, it must be admitted, though it was
to this man, it was something of a treat to talk freely again. So she
gave him the best account she could, not only of the excursion, but of