“The recent success of the agrarian protest,� began Hood cheerfully as his wife rose swiftly to receive two more visitors. These were Professor Green and Commander Bellew Blair; for a queer friendship had long linked together the most practical and the most unpractical of the brothers of the Long Bow. The friendship, as Pierce remarked, was firmly rooted in the square root of minus infinity.
“How beautiful your garden is looking,� said Blair to his hostess. “One so seldom sees flower-beds like that now; but I shall always think the old gardeners were right.�
“Most things are old-fashioned here, I’m afraid,� replied Elizabeth, “but I always like them like that. And how are the children?�
“The recent success of the agrarian protest,� remarked her husband in a clear voice, “is doubtless——�
“Really,� she said, laughing, “you are too ridiculous for anything. Why in the world should you want to read out the history of the war to the people who were in it, and know quite well already what really happened?�
“I beg your pardon,� said Colonel Crane. “Very improper to contradict a lady, but indeed you are mistaken. The very last thing the soldier generally knows is what has really happened. Has to look at a newspaper next morning for the realistic description of what never happened.�
“Why, then you’d better go on reading, Hood,� said Hilary Pierce. “The Colonel wants to know whether he was killed in battle; or whether there was any truth in that story that he was hanged as a spy on the very tree he had climbed when running away as a deserter.�
“Should rather like to know what they make of it all,� said the Colonel. “After all, we were all too deep in it to see it. I mean see it as a whole.�
“If Owen once begins he won’t stop for hours,� said the lady.
“Perhaps,� began Blair, “we had better——�