A reversion to type

By E. M. DELAFIELD
Tension
Humbug
The Optimist
The Heel of Achilles
A REVERSION TO TYPE BY E. M. DELAFIELD New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1923 All rights reserved
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Copyright, 1923, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and printed. Published September, 1923. Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company New York, U. S. A.
A REVERSION TO TYPE
If the interior of Squires was revealing, it was quite unconsciously so. Lady Aviolet, one felt sure, was serenely unaware of the need of self-expression that in 1905 was called “modern,” and had she been aware of it, the necessity would not have translated itself through the medium of artistic surroundings.
The original Squires had been burnt to the ground during the Chartist riots, rebuilt, and added to until the square grey mass of flint showed odd, irregular excrescences on every side.
Lower than the house, and surrounded by red brick walls that were older, lay the square stable-yard, surmounted by a clock tower. There had always been hunters in the Aviolet stables, and hounds had been domiciled there two generations earlier.