Emily, her sister, who was a teacher also,
wrote: "We ought to be prepared, though I have no doubt Hubert will be
more reasonable this time." And then went on in her sensible way to say
that she was enjoying a very jolly time in the Lakes. "They are looking
exceedingly pretty just now. I have seldom seen the trees so forward at
this time of year. We have taken our lunch out several days. Old Alice
is as young as ever, and asks after every one affectionately. The days
pass very quickly, and term will soon be here. Political prospects _not_
good, I think privately, but do not like to damp Ellen's enthusiasm.
Lloyd George has taken the Bill up, but so have many before now, and we
are where we are; but trust to find myself mistaken. Anyhow, we have our
work cut out for us. . . . Surely Meredith lacks the _human_ note one
likes in W. W.?" she concluded, and went on to discuss some questions of
English literature which Miss Allan had raised in her last letter.
At a little distance from Miss Allan, on a seat shaded and made
semi-private by a thick clump of palm trees, Arthur and Susan
were reading each other's letters. The big slashing manuscripts of
hockey-playing young women in Wiltshire lay on Arthur's knee, while
Susan deciphered tight little legal hands which rarely filled more than
a page, and always conveyed the same impression of jocular and breezy
goodwill.
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