I can never forget it, even if I wished to. And when I had
devoured all that was edible of it, there still remained the
stone, which a heedless, thoughtless child would doubtless have
thrown away; I put it down the neck of a young friend who was
wearing a very D?COLLET? sailor suit. I told him it was a
scorpion, and from the way he wriggled and screamed he evidently
believed it, though where the silly kid imagined I could procure a
live scorpion at a garden-party I don't know. Altogether, that
peach is for me an unfading and happy memory--"
The defeated Tarrington had by this time retreated out of ear-
shot, comforting himself as best he might with the reflection that
a picnic which included the presence of Clovis might prove a
doubtfully agreeable experience.
"I shall certainly go in for a Parliamentary career," said Clovis
to himself as he turned complacently to rejoin his aunt. "As a
talker-out of inconvenient bills I should be invaluable."
THE HOUNDS OF FATE
In the fading light of a close dull autumn afternoon Martin Stoner
plodded his way along muddy lanes and rut-seamed cart tracks that
led he knew not exactly whither.
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