"Always like this," said Brydone. "Absolutely no notion of time. Shouldn't be surprized if we had to wait another quarter of an hour. Known them for years, and they've always been like this. Eh, Charlie?" The solicitor's son shook his head gravely. He seemed to feel that as a man of business he should display a slight disapproval of such a casual family. "Ever since I was a kid I can remember it," he said. Guy tried to tell himself that all this talk of intimacy was merely due to the accidental associations of country life over many years. But it was with something very like apprehension that he waited for the Greys to come down. It would be dreadful to find that Brydone and Willsher had a status in the Rectory. When, however, their hosts appeared, Guy realized with a tremendous relief that Brydone and Willsher obviously existed outside his picture of the Rectory. To be sure, they were Charlie and Percy to Monica, Margaret and Pauline; but galling as this was, Guy told himself that after a lifelong acquaintance nothing else could be expected. It pleased Guy really that the dinner was not a great success, for he was able to fancy that the Greys were encumbered by the presence of Brydone and Willsher. Monica was silent; Margaret was deliberately talking about things that could not possibly interest either of the young men; and Pauline was trying to save the situation by wild enthusiasms which were continually being repressed by her sisters. Mrs. Grey alternated between helping to check Pauline and behaving in exactly the same way herself. As for the Rector, he sat silent with a twinkle in his eye. Guy wished regretfully, when the time came to depart, that he could have stayed another few minutes to mark his superiority to the other guests; but alas, he was still far from that position, and no doubt he would never attain to it. "Oh, have you brought a lantern?" asked Pauline excitedly in the hall. "Oh, I wish I could walk back with you. I love lantern-light." "Pauline! Pauline! Do think what you're saying," Mrs. Grey protested. "I like lantern-light too," Margaret proclaimed. "When you come to see us again," said Pauline, "will you bring your dog?" "Oh, I say, shall I?" asked Guy flushing with pleasure. "Such a lamb, Margaret," said Pauline, kissing her sister impulsively and being straightly reproved for doing so. The good-nights were all said, and Guy walked up the drive with Brydone and Willsher. "Queer family, aren't they?" commented the doctor's son. "Extraordinarily charming," said Guy. "I've known them all my life," said Willsher a little querulously. "And yet I never seem to know them any better." Guy was so much elated by this admission that he repeated more warmly his invitation to come and see him and his books, and parted from the two friends very pleasantly.