n was, and did what she
intended to do. He found her alone and at tea. She welcomed him drily
but warmly. Presently he said, "I want your advice, Monnie; I want you
to make up my mind for me. I have a feeling that I need a change. I
don't mean a little change, but a big one. I am suddenly aware that I
am a little stale, and I wish to be freshened up."

Monica looked at him and said, "Yes, I expect you are right! You know I
think we ought all to have one big change in our lives, about your age,
I mean. Why don't you put in for a head-mastership? I have often
thought you have rather a gift that way."

"I might do that," said Howard vaguely, "but I don't want a change of
work so much as a change of mind. I have got suddenly bored, and I am a
little vexed with myself. I have always rather held with William Morris
that people ought to live in the same place and do the same things; and
I had no intention of being bored--I have always thought that very
feeble! But I have fallen suddenly into the frame of mind of knowing
exactly what all my friends here are going to say and think, and that
rather takes the edge off conversation; and I have learned the
undergraduate mind too. It's an inconsequent thing, but there's a law
in inconsequence, and I seem to have acquired a knowledge of their
tangents."

"I must consider," said Monica with a smile, "but one can't do these
things offhand--that is worse than doing nothing. I'll tell you what to
do NOW. Why not go and stay with Aunt Anne? She would like to see you,
I know, and I have always thought it rather lazy of you not to go
there--she is rather a remarkable woman, and it's a pretty country.
Have you ever been there?"

"No," said Howard, "not to Windlow; I stayed with them once when I was
a boy, when Uncle John was alive--but that was at Bristol. What sort of
a place is Windlow? I suppose Aunt Anne is pretty well off?"

"I'm not very good at seeing the points of a place," said Monica; "but
it's a beautiful old house, though it is rather too low down for my
taste; and she lives very comfortably, so I think she must be rich; I
don't know about that; but she is an interesting woman--one of the few
really religious people I know. I am not very religious myself, but she
makes it seem rather interesting to me--she has experiences--I don't
quite know what they are; but she is a sort of artist in religion, I
think. That's a bad description, because it sounds self-conscious; and
she is