"As if life was long enough to spend it in one county, and one house and park! I have shaken all my duties from me like old rags. No more school-treats, no more bean-feasts, no more hospital committees, for two whole years! Think of it! Hugh, poor wretch, is still Chairman of the County Council. That's why we took this place--it is within fifty miles. He has to motor over occasionally. But I shall make him resign that, next year. Then we are going for six months to Berlin--that's for music--_my_ show! Then we take a friend's house in British East Africa, where you can see a lion kill from the front windows, and zebras stub up your kitchen garden. That's Hugh's show. Then of course there'll be Japan--and by that time there'll be airships to the North Pole, and we can take it on our way home!" "Souvent femme varie!" Mr. Manvers raised a pair of surprisingly shrewd eyes from the carpet. "I remember the years when I used to try and dig you and Hugh out of Bagley, and drive you abroad--without the smallest success." "Those were the years when one was moral and well-behaved! But everybody who is worth anything goes a little mad at forty. I was forty last week"--Rose Flaxman gave an involuntary sigh--"I can't get over it." "Ah, well, it's quite time you were a little nipped by the years," said Manvers dryly. "Why should you be so much younger than anybody else in the world? When you grow old there'll be no more youth!" Mrs. Flaxman's eyes, of a bright greenish-gray, shone gayly into his; then their owner made a displeased mouth. "You may pay me compliments as much as you like. They will not prevent me from telling you that you are one of the most slow-minded people I have ever met!" "H'm?" said Mr. Manvers, with mild interrogation. Rose Flaxman repeated her remark, emphasizing with a little tattoo of her teaspoon on the Chippendale tea-tray before her. Manvers studied her, smiling. "I am entirely ignorant of the grounds of this attack." "Oh, what hypocrisy!" cried his companion hotly. "I throw out the most tempting of all possible flies, and you absolutely refuse to rise to it." Manvers considered. "You expected me to rise to the word 'heretic?'" "Of course I did! On the same principle as 'sweets to the sweet.' Who--I should like to know--should be interested in heretics if not you?" "It entirely depends on the species," said her companion cautiously. "There couldn't be a more exciting species," declared Mrs. Flaxman. "Here you have a Rector of a parish simply setting up another Church of England--services, doctrines and all--off his own bat, so to speak--without a 'with your leave or by your leave'; his parishioners backing him up; his Bishop in a frightful taking and not the least knowing what to do; the fagots all gathering to make a bonfire of him, and a great black six-foot-two Inquisitor ready to apply the match--and yet--I can't get you to take the smallest interest in it! I assure you, Hugh is _thrilled_."