Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: "Tell him, my boy, that it's against my custom to breakfast at afternoon tea, and that I hope his wife is well." At his look of bewilderment I broke into a laugh. "He wants me to write a dull article for his stupid paper, doesn't he?" "Yes; on Poor Law Administration." "I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do anything these people ask me. Say 'No, no, no, no,' to everybody." "In Heaven's name, Simon," he cried, laying down his pencil, "what has come over you?" "Old age," said I. He uttered his usual interjection, and added that I was only thirty-seven. "Age is a relative thing," I remarked. "Babes of five have been known to die of senile decay, and I have seen irresponsible striplings of seventy." "I really think Eleanor Faversham had better come back from Sicily." I tapped the letter still in my hand. " She's coming." "I'm jolly glad to hear it. It's all my silly fault that she went away. I thought she was getting on your nerves. But you want pulling together. That confounded place you've been to has utterly upset you." "On the contrary," said I, "it has steadied and amplified my conception of sublunary affairs. It has shown me that motley is a much more profitable wear than the edged toga of the senator " "Oh, for God's sake, dry up," cried young England, "and tell me what answers I'm to give these people!" He seemed so earnest about it that I humoured him; and my correspondents seemed so earnest that I humoured them. But it was a grim jest. Most of the matters with which I had to deal appeared so trivial. Only here and there did I find a chance for eumoiriety.The Wymington Hospital applied for their annual donation. " You generally give a tenner," said Dale. " This time I'll give them a couple of hundred," said I. Dale earm...