Allen,  for  his  part,  brandished  his  glass  in
sympathy  wlien  liis  liost  flourished  the  bottle
over  liis   head    and   quoted   the    old   French


song-


Je  ne  quitter.ii  jamais  ma  mye
Tandis  qu'elle  fern  glou  glou  :
Je  ne  quitterai  jamais  ma  mye
Qu'elle  ne  soit  vnide  de  tout.
As  if  the  wine  was  of  tlie  most  rollicking  kind,
and  charged  with  mirtli  and  song  and  revelry.
And  Will  laughed  approvingly.
Claire,   for    her    part,   knowing    why   the
young    men    were    bidden  to    the    feast,   and


278  ALL  IX  A    GARDEN  FAIR.
remembering  what  was  about  to  be  said  to
them,  and  wliat  hopes  were  to  be  destroyed  or
postponed  that  evening,  felt  pained  at  tlie  ex-
hibition of  gaiety,  and  wondered  how  men  can
be  so  hght  of  lieart  and  so  careless  even  when
their  own  happiness — if  they  are  truthful — is
at  stake.  Claire  was  not  experienced  in  the
heart  of  male  man,  else  she  would  have  known
that  the  excitement  of  expectation,  of  suspense,
of  a  deed  done  or  yet  to  do,  is  strangely  akin
to  gaiety.  When  Oliver  Cromwell  signed  the
death-warrant  of  the  King,  he  fillipped  his
neighbour  with  the  ink.  Not  out  of  frivolous
light-heartedness,  if  you  please,  but  as  a  relief
to  the  heaviness  of  his  lieart.  These  young
men  at  least  were  profoundly  anxious,  and
"when  Allen  Enj^leduw  l)randished  his  j^lass  like
a  mad  monk  of  Medmenham,  it  was  because
he  was  unconsciously  seeking  refuge  from
trouble  in  merriment.
This  explanation  is  intended  only  for  meta-
l)hysicians,  and  for  the  seekers  after  that  wliicli
cannot  be  found.
ALL  IN  A    GARDEN  FAIR.  270

Claire  wondered,  but  she  said  nothing  and
was  silent,  keeping  her  eyes  down  and  anxious
for  the  time  when  she  might  leave  the  table.
