46 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



fellow I ever saw taken out of the river. But I see the 

 wagonette coming down to the mill. Where's the 

 doctor ? 



SUFFIELD : Oh ! we shall find him presently. He 

 has been away at the mill-heads and carriers ; what 

 the General would call outpost duty. 



[SCENE : Road in front of mill. Music of droning 

 and dripping wheel. Bats wheeling overhead. Mother 

 in cottage singing child to sleep. Dogs barking in 

 distance. Sack-laden wagon rumbling over bridge. 

 Doctor seated on a cask smoking, and pulling the ears 

 of a setter. Gleam of fading light on quiet, mirror- 

 like water. Corncrake heard near. Nightingales in 

 concert in adjacent park. Scent of May-bloom heavy 

 in the air.] 



R. O. (on box of wagonette with tired fishermen 

 behind) : Well, Doctor, what have you done ? 



DOCTOR (youthful and of goodly countenance) : Six 

 brace. 



PARSON : You mean fish not brace. 



DOCTOR (shrugging his shoulders) : What time did 

 the Mayfly come up ? Three or thereabouts, did it ? 

 That is just about the time I came in to have a nap, 

 and I have not fished since. I told you not to idle 

 about waiting for Mayfly. Here are my trout, and I 

 got every one of them with the small fly Welshman's 

 button before one o'clock. 



The GENERAL : They run small. 



DOCTOR : H'm, perhaps they do. Two of them seem 

 to have rather bad teeth, too. Still, I don't grumble. 

 Ah, well ; good-night. (Wagonette rumbles off down 

 the dusty road.) 



R. O. : Good chap, that. He always sleeps at the 

 mill ; says the wheel grinds him to sleep. (Later, at 

 the porch of the Black Bull.) We shall have the great 



