The reserves which so largely direct our lives are lifted, their necessity is past, and in the face of the last act of Nature, Nature asserts herself.

Who cares to continue to play a part when the audience has dispersed, the curtain is falling, and the pay-box has put up its shutters?
Now, very unexpectedly these two were on the stage again, and each assumed the allotted role.
Stella admired the room; whereon Morris set to work to explain its characteristics, to find, to his astonishment, that Miss Fregelius had more knowledge of architecture than he could boast.

He pointed out certain details, alleging them to be Elizabethan work, to which age they had been credited for generations, whereon she suggested and, indeed, proved, that some of them dated from the earlier years of Henry VIII., and that some were late Jacobean.

While Morris was wondering how he could combat this revolutionary opinion, the servant brought in a telegram.

It was from Mary, at Beaulieu, and ran: "Had not heard that you were drowned, but am deeply thankful that you are saved.