Maulevrier is on his way home.' 'Indeed!' said Lord Denyer, with the most benignant smile he could command at such short notice.

He felt that the muscles round his eyes and the corners of his mouth were betraying too much of his real sentiments.

'You must be very glad.' 'I am gladder than I can say,' answered Lady Maulevrier, gaily.

'That horried climate--a sky like molten copper--an atmosphere that tastes of red-hot sand--that flat barren coast never suited him.

His term of office would expire in little more than a year, but I hardly think he could have lived out the year.