The huge new coalfield on the Wyfold estate is theirs. Molesworth is to be a coalfield. Then there is your admirer, Sybil. Half the theatres in London belong to Mr. Bilton. And the worst of it is that, from all practical points of view, America is our benefactor. Theatres are better ventilated and better lighted. Coal will be cheaper; one will get about the country more expeditiously. Only very soon it will not be our country. That is the only drawback, and it is a purely sentimental one.'
Sybil shivered slightly.
' Charlie,' she said, ' I look upon you as my life-preserver. A tentacle touched—just touched me. The juice of wealth, as Judy says, had prevented my seeing what was coming. But one night you were ill, do you remember?'
She smiled at him, the complete smile of happiness.
' Life-preserver?' said he. ' And what were you?'
Judy turned to Ginger.
' These slight connubialities are rather embarrassing,' she said. ' Will you walk with me while I finish my exercise for the day?'
Sybil laughed.
' Don't go just yet, Judy,' she said. ' Charlie and I will send you away when we want to be alone.'
Judy rose with some dignity.
' My self-respect cannot quite stand that,' she said. ' Come, Ginger. You shall walk back with me to the house, and I will hold the pen when you write to Bertie.'
' I shall put that in the postscript,' he said. ' The vials of wrath shall descend on both of us.'
The two strolled away out of the shadow of the trees into the yellow flood of sunshine that hung over the lawn. The air was very windless, and the flower-beds below the house basked in full summer luxuriance of colour. Far away in a misty hollow the town of Winchester sunned itself under a blue haze of heat, and languid, dim-sounding
