"I will confess to you that James Bush is a hero in my eyes. Whether he can ever be anything more to me I cannot tell. To me, Chloe, he is the embodiment of the life I mean to lead, the life of simplicity, in which everything has its value; the—the passing of—of a butterfly, the agony of a grasshopper, the swarming of a bee, the—the murmur of even the—the meanest owl that lives——"
"Are owls mean?"
"Yes. James Bush is the embodiment of the earth, from which we come, to which we go; the earth that we ought all to till and love, to delve in and to delight in. The earth! Dear Mother Earth!"
The faithful Marriner coughed discreetly, and Mrs. Verulam shut up, but not before Chloe had cried:
"I don't think I like a man to be too earthy!"
Mrs. Verulam rose to go to her room and put some eau-de-cologne upon her forehead.
"Wait," she whispered as she went. "Wait till you see him!"
"Marriner," said Chloe, "would you mind going to Francis, and asking him when I may expect my pants?"