lansmen when he's got social feuds
blazing under his own roof."

"But why should they blaze? Why should there be feuds at all within the
compass of a house party?"

"Exactly; why should they blaze or why should they exist?" echoed Lady
Prowche; "the point is that they always do. We have been unlucky;
persistently unlucky, now that I come to look back on things. We have
always got people of violently opposed views under one roof, and the
result has been not merely unpleasantness but explosion."

"Do you mean people who disagree on matters of political opinion and
religious views?" asked Lena.

"No, not that. The broader lines of political or religious difference
don't matter. You can have Church of England and Unitarian and Buddhist
under the same roof without courting disaster; the only Buddhist I ever
had down here quarrelled with everybody, but that was on account of his
naturally squabblesome temperament; it had nothing to do with his
religion. And I've always found that people can differ profoundly about
politics and meet on perfectly good terms at breakfast. Now, Miss Larbor
Jones, who was staying here last year, worships Lloyd George as a sort of
wingless angel, while Mrs. Walters, who was down here at the same time,
privately considers him to be--an antelope, let us say."

"An antelope?"

"Well, not an antelope exactly, but something with horns and hoofs and
tail."

"Oh, I see."

"Still, that didn't prevent them from being the chummiest of mortals on
the tennis court and in the billiard-room. They did quarrel finally,
about a lead in a doubled hand of no-trumps, but that of course is a
thing that no account of judicious guest-grouping could prevent. Mrs.
Walters had got king, knave, ten, and seven of clubs--"

"You were saying that there were other lines of demarcation that caused
the bother," interrupted Lena.

"Exactly. It is the minor differences and side-issues that give so much
trouble," said Lady Prowche; "not to my dying day shall I forget last
year's upheaval over the Suffragette question. Laura Henniseed left the
house in a state of speechless indignation, but before she had reached
that state she had used language that would not have been tolerated in
the Austrian Reichsrath. Intensive bear-gardening was Sir Richard's
description of the whole affair, and I don't think he exaggerated."

"Of course the Suffragette question is a burning one, and lets loose the
most dreadful ill-fe