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In this frae returned after lunch to consider its finances It was a sunny afternoon; and the smooth flow of the Bursar&039;s exposition had a sort of hypnotic power Fellows of colleges do not always find athered that the situation was bad; very bad indeed It is very seldoe corporation, indefinitely co, can be described as being, in a quite unauous sense, satisfactory Some minor retrenche adjourned for tea in a chastenedup Jane and told her he would not be home for dinner

It was not till six o&039;clock that all the converging lines of thought and feeling aroused by the earlier business cadon Wood It was not called the sale "of Bragdon Wood", but "of the area coloured pink on the plan which, with the Warden&039;s permission, I will now pass round the table" Curry admitted that this involved the loss of part of the Wood In fact, the proposed NICE site still left to the College a strip about sixteen feet broad along the far half of the south side In answer to questions he admitted that unfortunately -or perhaps fortunately-the Well itself was in the area which the NICE wanted The rights of the College to access would, of course, be guaranteed: and the Well and its pavement would be preserved by the Institute He refrained froure which the NICE was offering After that, the es of the sale discovered the into the hand It solved the proble ancient monu the problem of the junior Fellows&039; stipends

The few real "Die-hards" present, to whodon Wood was al the When at last old Jewel, blind and shaky, rose to his feet, his voice was hardly audible At this ht at the old man said in a very loud, clear voice:

"If Canon Jeishes us not to hear his views, I suggest that his end could be better attained by silence"

Jewel had been already old in the days before the first hen old men were treated with kindness, and he had never succeeded in getting used to the modern world He stared with puzzled eyes Thethe flat that ht a hat, when Mrs Di out of Sparrow&039;s and said: "Hullo, dear! Been buying a hat ? Come home to lunch and let&039;s see it Cecil has the car just round the corner"

Cecil Dimble, a Fellow of Northumberland, had been Jane&039;s tutor for her last years as a student, and Mrs Dimble (one tended to call her "Mother Diirls of her year A liking for the female pupils of one&039;s husband is not, perhaps, so co dons&039; wives: but Mrs Dimble appeared to like all Dr Die to the north of Bracton and then south along the bank of the Wynd to the Dimbles&039; front door

"How lovely it&039;s looking!" said Jane as she got out of the car The Diarden was faood look at it then," said Dr Dimble

"What do you mean?" asked Jane

"Haven&039;t you told her?" said Dr Dimble to his wife

"I haven&039;t screwed myself up to it yet," said Mrs Di so tireso us out They won&039;t renew the lease"

"Oh, Mrs Dimble!" exclaimed Jane "And I didn&039;t even know this was Bracton property Mark never talks about College business"

"Good husbands never do," said Dr Dimble "At least only about the business of other people&039;s colleges Is no one couessed that Bracton was going to sell the Wood and everything else it owned on that side of the river, and felt too strongly on the subject to wish to talk about it before the wife of one of the Bracton men

"You&039;ll have to wait for your lunch till I&039;ve seen Jane&039;s new hat," said Mother Dimble, and forthwith hurried Jane upstairs Then followed some minutes of conversation which was strictly fe a certain sense of superiority, found it indefinably coain Mrs Di, is there?"

"Wrong," said Jane "Why? What should there be?"

"You&039;re not looking yourself"

"Oh, I&039;ht," said Jane, aloud Mentally she added: "She&039;s dying to knohether I&039; to have a baby That sort of wo kissed?" said Mrs Di kissed?" thought Jane to herself "That indeed is the question Hope not for mind in women---" She had intended to reply "Of course not," but inexplicably, and to her great annoyance, found herself crying instead And then, for a rown-ups had been when one was a very s petted and paas contrary to her whole theory of life: yet before they went downstairs she had told Mrs Di to have a baby but was a bit depressed froht lunch Dr Diend "It&039;s really wonderful," he said, "how the whole thing hangs together, even in a late version like Malory&039;s You&039;ve noticed how there are two sets of characters? There&039;s Guinevere and Lancelot and all those, all very courtly and nothing particularly British about theround there are all those dark people like Morgan and Morgaho are very British indeed and-usually ic Merlin too, of course, is British Doesn&039;t it look very like a picture of Britain as it must have been on the eve of the invasion?"

"How do you mean, Dr Dimble?" said Jane "Well, wouldn&039;t there have been one section of society that was al a Celticised Latin-so that would sound to us rather like Spanish: and fully Christian But farther up country, in the out-of-the-way places, there would have been little courts ruled by real old British under-kings, talking so a certain aion"

"And which would Arthur hiine a man of the old British line, but a Christian and a fully-trained general with Roether There&039;d be jealousy fro back to Druidism"

"And where would Merlin be?"

"YesHe&039;s the really interesting figure Did the whole thing fail because he died so soon? Has it ever struck you what an odd creation Merlin is ? He&039;s not evil: yet he&039;s a ician He is obviously a druid: yet he knows all about the Grail"

"It is rather puzzling I hadn&039;t thought of it before"

"I often wonder," said Dr Dimble, " whether Merlin doesn&039;t represent the last trace of so that became impossible when the only people in touch with the supernatural were either white or black, either priests or sorcerers"

"What a horrid idea," said Mrs Dio if he happened at all, and he&039;s safely dead and buried under Bragdon Wood as we all know"

"Buried but not dead, according to the story," corrected Dr Dih!" said Jane involuntarily

"I wonder what they will find if they start digging up that place for the foundations of their NICE," said Dr Dimble

"First mud and then water," said Mrs Dimble "That&039;s why they can&039;t really build it there"

"So you&039;d think," said her husband "And if so, why should they want to come here at all? They&039;re not likely to be influenced by any poetic fancy about Merlin&039;sfallen on them!"

"Merlin&039;s mantle indeed!" said Mrs Dimble

"Yes," said the Doctor "It&039;s a rum idea I dare say soh I don&039;t think they&039;d like it if the oldwith it"

"That child&039;s going to faint," said Mrs Dimble suddenly

"Hullo! What&039;s thewith amazement at Jane&039;s face "Is the room too hot for you?"

"Oh, it&039;s too ridiculous," said Jane "Let&039;s co-room," said Dr Di-roo the story of her dreaiven myself away dreadfully," she said "You can both start psycho-analysing ht have indeed conjectured that her drea" he kept"Two heads And one of them Alcasan&039;s Now is that a false scent?"

"Don&039;t, Cecil," said Mrs Diht to be analysed?" said Jane

"Analysed?" said Dr Dimble, as if he had not quite understood "Oh, I see Youto Brizeacre or someone?"

Jane realised that her question had recalled hi of her dreah what this was she could not even iine

Dr Dimble looked out of the"There is o to the study" He stood for a moment with his hand on Jane&039;s shoulder "Look here," he said, "I&039;o to anyone about that drea to soive you"

"You don&039;t believe in Mr Brizeacre?" said Jane "I can&039;t explain," said Dr Dimble "Not now Try not to bother about it But if you do, just let us know first Good-bye"

Almost immediately after his departure some other visitors arrived, so that there was no opportunity of further private conversation between Jane and her hostess She left the Dimbles about half an hour later and walked home