"It's so different," he went on, "when it comes to looking back on it all, when it's all behind you. But, of course, men differ too. I never meant business to the extent you do. I've done pretty well; I won't cry down what is, after all, a fine position. It was thought rather a job, by the way, making me a judge, but I was popular and what's called a good fellow, and people swallowed the job without making a fuss. But work and what it brings have never been all the world to me. I've loved too many other things, and loved them too much." "Oh, I know I'm a climber," laughed Norton Ward. "I can't help it. I try sometimes to get up an interest in some dilettante business or other, but I just can't! I'm an infernal Philistine; all that sort of thing seems just waste of time to me." "Well then, to you it is waste of time," said his wife. "We must follow our natures, no help for it. And that's what one seems to have done when one looks back. One gets a little doubtful about Free Will, looking back." "Yes, sir, but it's awfully hard to know what your nature is," Arthur interposed. He was lying on the grass, pulling up blades of it and tying them in knots for an amusement. "It works of itself, I think, without your knowing much about it--till, as I say, you can look back." "But then it's too late to do anything about it!" "Well, so it is, unless eternity is an eternity of education, as some people say--a prospect which one's lower nature is inclined to regard with some alarm." "No amount of it will quite spoil you, Sir Christopher," Esther assured him with an affectionate smile. "If this life can't educate a man, what can?" asked Norton Ward. "The view traditionally ascribed to Providence--with a most distressing corollary!" "I think, if a fellow's come a mucker, he ought to have another chance," said Arthur. "That's what my criminals always tell me from the dock, Mr. Lisle." "And what women say when they run away from their husbands," added Norton Ward with a laugh. "By the way, I was talking to Elphinstone the other day about the effect this Divorce Reform movement might have if either party really took it up in earnest, and he was inclined to----" "Shall we hear Sir John Elphinstone's views on this beautiful morning?" asked the Judge. Norton Ward laughed again--at himself. "Oh, I beg your pardon! But after all it is some time since we touched on anything of practical interest." "If death and judgment aren't of practical interest, I'll be hanged if I know what is!" "But neither of them exactly of immediate interest, Judge, we'll hope!" "Well, what are you all talking about?" asked a voice from behind the group. Bernadette stood there, with parasol and prayer-book. She had been to church with Godfrey, Margaret, and Judith. "Death and judgment, Bernadette," said Esther. "Not very cheerful! You might as well have come to church, and dressed the family pew for us."