Part 15 (1/2)

”I've co of Kafiristanand you've been setting here ever since--O Lord!”

RUDYARD KIPLING: ”THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING”

1

As the crow flies, Lashmar Mill-House is but five miles from Winchester

By road, however, there are six ravel on the Winchester and Melton turnpike, followed by three Irish miles of unaided forest track Half of it lies under water for six months of the year; but in the summer a rutted ride projects from stony sand-pockets fra up fro to net the sun-shi+ne

At the end of the three miles Swanley Forest see aand three quarters of a ers walk hts of here, too, tethered goats and errant geese e At one end of the down-soft clearing, a Methodist chapel, two shops and five cottages constitute the village of Lash half-hidden by beech trees to the unchanging murmur of the Bort The relevant deeds and charters prove beyond a doubt that the lord of Lashrind its corn in histhree days' labour a year to grind his The ambitions of Sir Francis Lane and of his eldest son, however, were not feudal

The autu the road-side as Eric and his sister left the twinkling lights behind and turned, after a crackling six h-way, on to the prih the forest He was tired and uncoh his journey froe and tucked warhed and dropped asleep Not until he stirred himself to collect his hat and coat did she open her eyes and look round with a tired sloved hand fluttered into sight for a moment

It was Eric's first visit to Lashmar since the production of the ”Divorce” had land; and he could not conceal froreeably dra their few neighbours tohim on the platform with ill-suppressed excite should dine at the Mill-House on his first night at home

”Geoff came hoood! I haven't seen hi time,” said Eric

But for Basil, as in Salonica, the party would be co allowed hiht up by the work and distractions of London When the car stopped at the door of the Mill-House, he looked with affection at its squat, sleepy extent, punctuated with lifeless, dark s and wrapped in age-long sluainst the golden light of the hall

”At last, Eric!” she cried

”It's good to be ho out of the car and e her

While his sister drove round to the stables, Eric walked arm-in-arm with his mother into the loaruarded, counselled and provided for an eccentric husband and a turbulent fa and educating on an incoly away until she assumed control She had learned Greek and Latin to help the boys with their home-work and had trained their characters in an austere school of aggressive Puritanism If she were a little intolerant, at least she reared her children to a lofty sense of honour, a cold chastity of life and speech and a fierce refusal to compromise where truth or personal reputation was concerned Thanks to her, three boys and one girl were now able to fend for themselves; Sybil, factotum and amanuensis to her father ever since she had learned to read, could support herself anywhere; Geoff was firmly on his feet in the Navy, Basil had passed into the Civil Service a feeeks before the outbreak of war Lady Lane was justly content with her children; of Eric, whom she had kept alive when the doctors despaired of hi-rooot a fire there”

”Nothing's changed,” said Eric wonderingly

Lashmar Mill-House, for all its size, contained hardly round-floor; a vast, book-lined study for Sir Francis, an equally vast living-room for the rest of the fale where they hurried through their ed for years to have the back wall re-rooed in a familiar compass and did not care to be told by him too explicitly how the house should be run and improved In the moment of arrival Eric was too much pleased with his welco his face to the light ”Tell reat celebrity, Eric”

”There's nothinga lot of peopleIt's been rather fun”

As soon as she had put away the car, Sybil joined them and stood with her back to the fire and her hands in the pockets of a short tweed skirt, staring idly at her own sues and rousing herself with an abrupt jerk of the head when she wanted to intervene with a question

”You were _barely_ civil, when I rang you up the other night,” she interjected, in a pause, with the disconcerting directness of nineteen

”I was late already, and you were ht----? Oh, yes”

He detailed Lady Poynter's dinner to his mother and observed an expression ofupon his sister's face