He was shown all the Aylesbury ducklings and the row of wooden hives
where there would have been bees if there had not been bee disease. He
was also taken to the end of a long lane and shown a distant mound
whereon local tradition reported that the Danes had once pitched a camp.
And when his hostess had to desert him temporarily for other duties he
would find Evelyn walking solemnly by his side. Evelyn was fourteen and
talked chiefly about good and evil, and of how much one might accomplish
in the way of regenerating the world if one was thoroughly determined to
do one's utmost. It was generally rather a relief when she was displaced
by Jack, who was nine years old, and talked exclusively about the Balkan
War without throwing any fresh light on its political or military
history. The German governess told Lanner more about Schiller than he
had ever heard in his life about any one person; it was perhaps his own
fault for having told her that he was not interested in Goethe. When the
governess went off picket duty the hostess was again on hand with a not-
to-be-gainsaid invitation to visit the cottage of an old woman who
remembered Charles James Fox; the woman had been dead for two or three
years, but the cottage was still there. Lanner was called back to town
earlier than he had originally intended.
Hugo did not bring off his affair with Betty Coulterneb. Whether she
refused him or whether, as was more generally supposed, he did not get a
chance of saying three consecutive words, has never been exactly
ascertained.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157