her alone and at tea. She welcomed him drily but warmly. Presently
he said, "I want your advice, Monnie; I want you to make up my mind
for me. I have a feeling that I need a change. I don't mean a
little change, but a big one. I am suddenly aware that I am a
little stale, and I wish to be freshened up."

Monica looked at him and said, "Yes, I expect you are right! You
know I think we ought all to have one big change in our lives,
about your age, I mean. Why don't you put in for a head-mastership?
I have often thought you have rather a gift that way."

"I might do that," said Howard vaguely, "but I don't want a change
of work so much as a change of mind. I have got suddenly bored, and
I am a little vexed with myself. I have always rather held with
William Morris that people ought to live in the same place and do
the same things; and I had no intention of being bored--I have
always thought that very feeble! But I have fallen suddenly into
the frame of mind of knowing exactly what all my friends here are
going to say and think, and that rather takes the edge off
conversation; and I have learned the undergraduate mind too. It's
an inconsequent thing, but there's a law in inconsequence, and I
seem to have acquired a knowledge of their tangents."

"I must consider," said Monica with a smile, "but one can't do
these things offhand--that is worse than doing nothing. I'll tell
you what to do NOW. Why not go and stay with Aunt Anne? She would
like to see you, I know, and I have always thought it rather lazy
of you not to go there--she is rather a remarkable woman, and it's
a pretty country. Have you ever been there?"