Julius assented, for he had no redundance of the article, and his
senior curate had just started on a vacation ramble with a brother;
but a sort of misgiving crossed him as he heard Herbert Bowater's
last comic song pealing out, and beheld the pleasingly plain face of
a Miss Strangeways on either side of him. Had he not fought the
Eton and Harrow match over again with one of them at dinner? and had
not a lawn tennis challenge already passed?
For Lady Tyrrell and Mrs. Charnock Poynsett were to have garden-
parties on alternate Wednesdays, and the whole neighbourhood soon
followed suit.
"You'll find nobody at home, Jenny," said Julius, coming out of a
cottage opposite, as she rode up to Mrs. Hornblower's, on one of the
last days of August. "Nobody--that is, but my mother. Can you come
up and see her?"
"With all my heart; but I must get down here; I'm sent for one of
Herbert's shirts. The good boy lets mamma and aunty manage them
still! I believe their hearts would break outright if he took to
shop ones, like the rest of them. Hush, Tartar, for shame! don't
you know me? Where's your master?"
"At a garden-party at Duddingstone.
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