IV

THE POOL





Very early in the morning Howard woke to hear the faint twittering
of the birds begin in bush and ivy. It was at first just a fitful,
drowsy chirp, a call "are you there? are you there?" until, when
all the sparrows were in full cry, a thrush struck boldly in, like
a solo marching out above a humming accompaniment of strings. That
was a delicious hour, when the mind, still unsated of sleep, played
softly with happy, homelike thoughts. He slept again, but the sweet
mood lasted; his breakfast was served to him in solitude in a
little panelled parlour off the Hall; and in the fresh April
morning, with the sunlight lying on the lawn and lighting up the
old worn detail of the carved cornices, he recovered for a time the
boyish sense of ecstasy of the first morning at home after the
return from school. While he was breakfasting, a scribbled note
from Jack was brought in.


"Just heard you arrived last night; it's an awful bore, but I have
to go away to-day--an old engagement made, I need hardly say, FOR
me and not BY me; I shall turn up to-morrow about this time. No
WORK, I think. A day of calm resolution and looking forward
manfully to the future! My father and sister are going to dine at