drawing-room with that faint feeling of flatness which comes of
parting with lively guests; and yet it somehow gave him a pleasant
sense of being at home.

"Well," said Mrs. Graves, "so now you have seen the Sandys interior.
Dear Frank, how he does chatter, to be sure! but he is all alive too in
his own way, and that is what matters. What did you think of Maud? I
want you to like her--she is a great friend of mine, and really a fine
creature. Not very happy just now, perhaps. But while dear old Frank
never sees past the outside of things--what a lot of things he does
see!--she sees inside, I think. But I am tired to death. I always feel
after talking to Frank as if I had been driving in a dog-cart over a
ploughed field!"

VII

COUNTRY LIFE

Howard woke early, after sweet and wild dreams of great landscapes and
rich adventures; as his thoughts took shape, he began to feel as if he
had passed some boundary yesterday; escaped, as a child escapes from a
familiar garden into great vague woodlands. There was his talk with
Mrs. Graves first--that had opened up for him a new region, indeed, of
the mind and soul, and had revealed to him an old force, perhaps long
within his grasp, but which he had never tried to use or wield. And the
vision too of Maud crossed his mind--a perfectly beautiful thing, which
had risen like a star. He did not think of it as love at all--that did
not cross his mind--it was just the thought of something enchantingly
and exquisitely beautiful, which disturbed him, awed him, threw his
mind off its habitual track. How extraordinarily lovely, simple, sweet,
the girl had seemed to him in the dim room, in the faint light; and how
fearless and frank she had been! He was conscious only of something
adorable, which raised, as beautiful things did, a sense of something
unapproachable, some yearning which could not be satisfied. How far
away, how faded and dusty his ordinary contented Cambridge life now
seemed to him!

He breakfasted alone, read a few letters which had been forwarded to
him, and went to the library. A few minutes later Miss Merry tapped at
the door, and came in.

"Mrs. Graves asked me to say--she was sorry she forgot to mention
it--that if you care for shooting or fishing, the keeper will come in
and take your orders. She thinks you might like to ask Jack to luncheon
and go out with him; she sends you her love, and wants you to do what
you like."

"Thank you very much!" said How