ssure you it turned my hair grey. It's a disgrace that the animals
should be allowed to go at large."

"And what did the cow think of _him_?" Venning mumbled to Susan, who
immediately decided in her own mind that Mr. Hirst was a dreadful young
man, and that although he had such an air of being clever he probably
wasn't as clever as Arthur, in the ways that really matter.

"Wasn't it Wilde who discovered the fact that nature makes no allowance
for hip-bones?" enquired Hughling Elliot. He knew by this time exactly
what scholarships and distinction Hirst enjoyed, and had formed a very
high opinion of his capacities.

But Hirst merely drew his lips together very tightly and made no reply.

Ridley conjectured that it was now permissible for him to take his
leave. Politeness required him to thank Mrs. Elliot for his tea, and to
add, with a wave of his hand, "You must come up and see us."

The wave included both Hirst and Hewet, and Hewet answered, "I should
like it immensely."

The party broke up, and Susan, who had never felt so happy in her life,
was just about to start for her walk in the town with Arthur, when Mrs.
Paley beckoned her back. She could not understand from the book how
Double Demon patience is played; and suggested that if they sat down and
worked it out together it would fill up the time nicely before dinner.

Chapter X

Among the promises which Mrs. Ambrose had made her niece should she stay
was a room cut off from the rest of the house, large, private--a room in
which she could play, read, think, defy the world, a fortress as well as
a sanctuary. Rooms, she knew, became more like worlds than rooms at the
age of twenty-four. Her judgment was correct, and when she shut the door
Rachel entered an enchanted place, where the poets sang and things fell
into their right proportions. Some days after the vision of the hotel
by night she was sitting alone, sunk in an arm-chair, reading a
brightly-covered red volume lettered on the back _Works_ _of_ _Henrik_
_Ibsen_. Music was open on the piano, and books of music rose in two
jagged pillars on the floor; but for the moment music was deserted.

Far from looking bored or absent-minded, her eyes were concentrated
almost sternly upon the page, and from her breathing, which was slow but
repressed, it could be seen that her whole body was constrained by the
working of her mind. At last she shut the book sharply, lay back, and
drew a deep breath, expressi