The Relentless City. Benson Edward Frederic

sat down again.

      'I am not sure that to do anything is not a sign of weakness,' he said. 'It isn't so easy to loaf as you imagine. Lots of people try to loaf, and take to sheer hard work as a rest from it. I don't suppose anybody in America loafs, and that I expect you will find is the vital and essential difference between them and us. It implies a lot.'

      'Go on, Ginger,' said Sybil, as he paused.

      'Yes, I think I will. Now, take Mrs. Palmer. She works at pleasure in a way few people in this island work at business. It is her life's work to be gay. She doesn't like gaiety really; it isn't natural to her. But she, by the laws of her nature, which prevent her loafing, works at gaiety just as her husband works at amassing millions. They can neither of them stop. They don't enjoy it any more than a person with St. Vitus's dance enjoys twitching; simply they have lost control of their power to sit still. Now, in England we have lost a good deal; we are falling behind, I am told, in most things, but we still have that power – the power of tranquillity. I am inclined to think it is worth something. But you will go to America, and come back and tell me.'

      Ginger lay back on the grass and tilted his straw hat over his eyes after this address.

      'Ginger, I've never heard you say so much on end,' remarked Sybil; 'have you been getting it up?'

      'I never get things up, but I scent danger,' replied Ginger. 'I am afraid you and Bertie will come back quite different. You will always be wanting to do something; that is a weakness.'

      'I don't agree with you,' said Sybil.

      'That's all right. If people say they agree with me, I always think I must have said something stupid. What don't you agree with me about?'

      'About our power of sitting still. Look at the season in London. All the time we are doing exactly what you say Americans, as opposed to us, do. We make a business of pleasure; we rush about after gaiety, when we are not naturally gay; we – '

      'Sybil, you are talking about three or four thousand people among whom you live. I hope you don't think that a few hundred people like that mean England.'

      'They include almost all well-known English people.'

      'Well known to whom? To themselves. No, that sleepy little misty town down there is just as important a part of England as the parish of St. James's. The parish of St. James's is the office of the company. The people there do the talking, and see after the affairs of the shareholders, and play a very foolish game called politics. They are mere clerks and officials.'

      'Well, but as regards the pursuit of gaiety,' said Sybil, 'nobody can be more senseless than you or I, Ginger.'

      'Oh, I know we are absurd; you are more absurd than I, though, because you are going to America.'

      'You seem to resent it.'

      'Not in the least. It is ridiculous to resent what anybody else chooses to do, so long as it is not a personal attack on one's self. That is the first maxim in my philosophy of life.'

      'Published? I shall get it.'

      'No; it will be some day. It begins with a short history of the world from the days of Adam, and then the bulk of the book draws lessons from the survey. But that is the first lesson. Let everybody go to the devil in his own way. Your way is by the White Star Line.'

      'I don't think you know what you are talking about, Ginger,' said his brother.

      'I'm sure I don't,' said Ginger cheerfully.

      'Why desecrate the Sabbath stillness, then?'

      Ginger was silent a moment.

      'That is a personal assault,' he said at length, 'and I resent it. It is unjust, too, because meaningless conversation is utterly in harmony with Sabbath stillness. It completes the sense of repose. It is no tax on the brain. Besides, I do really know what I was talking about; I said I didn't because I don't like arguing.'

      'You have been doing nothing else.'

      'No. I have been reeling out strings of assertions, which Sybil has languidly contradicted from time to time. You can't call that argument. Look! there's Charlie. Why didn't you marry him, Sybil, and stop in England? Who is that with him? Oh, Judy, isn't it? Are they coming here? What a bore!'

      Charlie and Judy strolled across the lawn towards them with extreme slowness. To walk across a lawn for tea and walk back again afterwards was the utmost exercise that Judy ever took.

      'I am taking my walk,' she observed as she got near them. 'I am now exactly half way, so I shall rest. Sybil, you look as if you were resting too.'

      'We are all resting, and we are making the most of it, because Ginger tells us we shall never rest again.'

      'Do you want a chair, Judy?' asked Ginger.

      Bertie got up.

      'Sit there,' he said.

      'I am rather tired,' said Judy; 'but pray don't let me turn you out.' And she sat down.

      'I'm so glad your father's party broke down,' she went on to Bertie. 'It is so very much nicer to have nobody here, except just ourselves, who needn't make any efforts.'

      Ginger gently applauded, his face still hidden by his straw hat.

      'The voice of my country,' he remarked.

      'Ah, somebody agrees with you,' said Sybil; 'so you are wrong. I am glad; I was beginning to be afraid you were right.'

      'Has Ginger been sparkling?' asked Judy.

      'Yes, sparkling Ginger-beer. Very tasty,' remarked Ginger fatuously. 'They swallowed it all. If you only talk enough, some of it is sure to be swallowed – not to stick. But it's finished now.'

      Charlie had sat down on the bank beside Sybil's couch.

      'This is the last Sunday, then,' he said; 'you go to Scotland next week, don't you?'

      'Yes,' said she – ' just for a fortnight. Then Aix with Judy, and I sail on September 1st.'

      'That is earlier than you planned originally.'

      'I know; but we get a big boat instead of a small one. I thought it worth while.'

      'Do you feel inclined to stroll a bit till tea?'

      'By all means.'

      'They are going to desecrate the Sabbath stillness by strolling,' remarked Ginger. 'It ought not to be allowed, like public-houses.'

      'Ah, we are genuine travellers,' said Sybil. 'Come, too, Ginger.'

      'Do I look like it?'

      'No; but one never knows with you. Judy dear, would not a good brisk walk do you good?'

      'I shouldn't wonder,' said Judy; 'but I shall never know.'

      Sybil put up her parasol.

      'Come, Charlie,' she said.

      They walked off together in the shadow of the big elm avenue that led down to the village. The huge boskage of the trees allowed no inter-penetrating ray of sun to reach them, and in the silence and sleep of the hot summer afternoon they seemed to Charlie to be very specially alone. This feeling was emphasized, no doubt, to his mind by the refusal of the others to accompany them.

      'Really, Gallio always succeeds in making himself comfortable,' said she. 'What more can anyone want than a charming house like this? It is so absurd to desire more than you can use. It is a mistake the whole world makes, except, perhaps, Judy.'

      'I don't think Ginger does,' said Charlie.

      'Oh yes; he desires, at least, to say more than he means. Consequently people attach no importance to what he says.'

      Charlie laughed.

      'Which, being interpreted, means that Ginger has been saying something which you are afraid is correct.'

      Sybil Massington stopped.

      'Charlie, for a man you have a good deal of intuition. That is partly what makes me never think of you as a man. You are so like a woman in many ways.'

      'I am wanting to have a last word.'

      'Last