to him at once. Bob shook him off and joined
Marion. Marion, who had her duties to do and could not allow Bob to
take possession of her, introduced him to a humble maiden who sat with
her mother in the third row. Bob, it appears, selected the damsel
himself after looking all round the tennis-court. To the great scandal
of every one present he led her away from the tennis-court, and found
his way to the garden. There--I judged by the condition of her gloves
when they returned--they picked strawberries. I have every reason to
believe that Miss Pringle--the girl was the daughter of Godfrey's
banker--enjoyed this garden-party as she had never enjoyed one before.
She was actually laughing, and was looking very pretty when Bob
brought her back to the refreshment tent for tea.

I felt so pleased with Bob for his audacity that I asked him to dine
with us. He refused, saying that he would be busy on the yacht, but he
promised to call on us next morning.

The garden-party wore itself to an end as even the dreariest
festivities always do. Marion and I dined together in a condition of
irritable exhaustion. After dinner we played Patience for an hour in
the library. Then Marion took a novel, and I settled down to read _The
Times_. The night was very close and we sat with both windows wide
open.

_The Times_ had articles and letters on two subjects, the Home Rule
Bill, which was a menace to the Empire and a danger to Irish
Loyalists; and the German Navy, which was also a menace to the Empire
and a danger to every one in the United Kingdom whether loyal or not.
After reading the leading articles I passed on to the letters
addressed to the editor. These are always, in my opinion, the most
interesting part of any newspaper. The editor and leader writers are
no doubt abler men than most of their correspondents; but then they
write because they must, and they write in a hurry. The correspondents
on the other hand write because they have something in them--something
foolish as a rule, but none the less interesting--which is struggling
for expression in print. They also--being for the most part retired
military officers--have abundant leisure and are able to take days,
perhaps weeks, in the preparation of their compositions.

In that particular number of _The Times_, two retired colonels had
written letters. One of them was disquieted by the growth of the
German Navy. He was uninteresting. The other--a Colonel Malcolmson,
whom I meet o