Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/256



‘ visitors, bother! I must stop in for them,’ said Lesbia to herself, for just as she was leading her bicycle down the vicarage garden, a day or two after the visit to Ruddymere, she saw a wagonette pull up at the garden gate, and a footman dismount from it. In a minute she recognised the visitors.

‘Why, it’s the Lockstables from their honeymoon, bringing Fri with them! How are you all? this is quite unexpected, come in—yes, yes, I can ride afterwards; you're just in time for a cup of tea with mamma and auntie, but Uncle Spines is out in the village; he was sent for. But how soon you’ve come back from Italy, Rose! you can’t have done it properly in so short a time?’

‘We didn’t care to be gallivanting abroad any longer, with this great smash at home,’ said Lockstable. ‘What insanity made that unfortunate fellaw Redhill throw away his life, and the lives of all those fine fellaws, after the battle was lost?’

‘They diddied [sic] nobly for their country, Athelstan,’ said his wife.

‘Country be shot!’ was the reply. ‘Catch me dying for my country! Not if I know it. My creed is, that a fellaw’s