ty way if Mr. Haystoun cared for the game.

"I do rather. I'm not very good, but we raised an eleven this year in
the glen which beat Gledsmuir."

The notion pleased the gentleman. If a second match could be arranged
he might play and show his prowess. In all likelihood this solemn and
bookish laird, presumably brought up at home, would be a poor enough
player.

"I played a lot at school," he said. "In fact I was in the Eleven for
two years and I played in the Authentics match, and once against the
Eton Ramblers. A strong lot they were."

"Let me see. Was that about seven years ago? I seem to remember."

"Seven years ago," said Mr. Thompson. "But why? Did you see the
match?"

"No, I wasn't in the match; I had twisted my ankle, jumping. But I
captained the Ramblers that season, so I remember it."

Respect grew large in Mr. Thompson's eyes. Here were modesty and
distinction equally mated. The picture of the shy student had gone from
his memory.

"If you like to come up to Etterick we might get up a match from the
village," said Lewis courteously. "Ourselves with the foresters and
keepers against the villagers wouldn't be a bad arrangement."

To Alice the whole conversation struck a jarring note. His eye kindled
and he talked freely on sport. Was it not but a new token of his
incurable levity? Mr. Wishart, who had understood little of the talk,
found in this young man strange stuff to shape to a politician's ends.
Contrasted with the gravity of Mr. Stocks, it was a schoolboy beside a
master.

"I have been reading," he said slowly, "reading a speech of the new
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. I cannot understand the temper of
mind which it illustrates. He talks of the Bosnian war, and a brave
people struggling for freedom, as if it were merely a move in some
hideous diplomatists' game. A man of that sort cannot understand a
moral purpose."

"Tommy--I mean to say Mr. Wratislaw--doesn't believe in Bosnian
freedom, but you know he is a most ardent moralist."

"I do not understand," said Mr. Wishart drily.

"I mean that personally he is a Puritan, a man who tries every action of
his life by a moral standard. But he believes that moral standards vary
with circumstances."

"Pernicious stuff, sir. There is one moral law. There is one Table of
Commandments."

"But surely you must translate the Commandments into the language of the
occasion. You do not believe that 'Thou shalt not kill' is absolute in
every