A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. IQ3 



and Alice paying visits at Lewes ; so I persuaded 

 him to dine with me, and to stay a most unaccustomed 

 couple of hours afterwards. We sat on the lawn in 

 the gathering dusk, scents of honeysuckle on the 

 house and night-blowing stock in the borders coming 

 and going about us on the almost motionless air ; 

 beyond the shadowy space of the garden and the 

 meadow elms, twinkled two or three lights down in 

 the village. Zero discovered us in our deck-chairs, 

 and came to lay his nose on my knee. " One should 

 always have a dog," says the Rector ; " it illustrates 

 our status so well, from the other end. But why 

 don't the fanciers breed dogs that will live to sixty or 

 so, and last a lifetime ? I have given up dogs myself 

 since Agrippa and Bito died. I suppose, with dis- 

 temper and accidents, one might lose seven or eight 

 terriers from first to last. One has to fancy all the 

 little pack hunting rabbits together through the 

 asphodel. Don't we, Zero ? " 



As the light fades, the fir-clump above us deepens 

 in a sort of bloomy green darkness against the colour- 

 less air which veils all but one or two large stars. 

 The Rector notices the solemnity of it, saying that 

 he constantly sees in our landscape an intention or 

 expression, a soul, the visible Pan, looking out of 

 the whole. I ask if he has ever found traces among 



O 



