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24 that I was glad to get away from London But the country is nice too," she added.

Catherine waited a moment to see if she would say more. But apparently that subject seemed done with.

"Lucia," she said, "I wonder if you'll mind. Hope not. But lawn-tennis does make the lawn so bare, doesn't it? Supposing you gave it up till after our parties. Give the grass a chance to grow."

Lucia turned now with an air of slight surprise.

"Oh, certainly if you like," she said with complete amiability.

"You don't mind, do you?"

"Not in the least. It's hardly possible to play tennis here anyhow. There's scarcely room."

Now six feet of grass had been added last autumn to the end of the lawn, at the sacrifice of a row of lobelias, a row of yellow calceolarias, and a row of scarlet geraniums, in order to make lawn-tennis more possible. Lucia had not asked for this; it had been Aunt Catherine's original thought, and she had gruffly explained at the time why it was being done. The lawn, however, even as Lucia had said, hardly admitted of the game being played at all, and she had scarcely played half a dozen times since it had been done. Out of these times, once or twice she had only played with Aunt Catherine, who had herself proposed a game, and had proved almost incapable of sending the ball over the net at all. She had done it in the hope of amusing Lucia, and Lucia had accepted the proposal in the hope of amusing Aunt Catherine, wondering slightly all the time how anybody could find it amusing to throw up the ball for service, and fail to hit it at all. But she had played with perfect good-nature, and had allowed Aunt Catherine to serve faults almost indefinitely without counting them.

But before the pause after Lucia's speech had become prolonged, the girl remembered the incident of the lengthening of the lawn, which she had forgotten.

"Though it was delightful of you to add that extra piece, Aunt Cathie," she said.

Somewhere deep down Catherine felt she wanted to explain, but she could not explain. She felt no inclination, even, to say that the proposal of abandoning lawn-tennis originated from her sister, but she wanted somehow to say she was sorry that, in spite of her efforts, the lawn was not big enough. But that again was like an appeal to Lucia, which Lucia would not understand; it would have been a little symbol of so much.