JOHN NORTON

AGNES LAHENS




MILDRED LAWSON.

I.



The tall double stocks were breathing heavily in the dark garden; the
delicate sweetness of the syringa moved as if on tip-toe towards the
windows; but it was the aching smell of lilies that kept Mildred
awake.

As she tossed to and fro the recollections of the day turned and
turned in her brain, ticking loudly, and she could see each event as
distinctly as the figures on the dial of a great clock.

'What a strange woman that Mrs. Fargus--her spectacles, her short
hair, and that dreadful cap which she wore at the tennis party! It was
impossible not to feel sorry for her, she did look so ridiculous. I
wonder her husband allows her to make such a guy of herself. What a
curious little man, his great cough and that foolish shouting manner;
a good-natured, empty-headed little fellow. They are a funny couple!
Harold knew her husband at Oxford; they were at the same college. She
took honours at Oxford; that's why she seemed out of place in a little