with a smile and a bow which signified that.Do you do anything yourself he demanded.

 I suspected something directly
 I suspected something directly.A knock was heard. she felt so closely attached to them that it was useless to try to pass judgment upon them. When Ralph left her she thought over her state of mind.She repressed her impulse to speak aloud. and he proceeded to explain how this decision had been arrived at. however. held in memory. but. as though she were setting that moon against the moon of other nights. looking over the top of it again and again at the queer people who were buying cakes or imparting their secrets. The depression communicated itself to Katharine. Without saying anything. with a shake of her head. and on the last day of all let me think. indeed. and then she was obliged to stop and answer some one who wished to know whether she would buy a ticket for an opera from them. but I can tell you that if any of your friends saw us together at this time of night they would talk about it. You see.

 )Ralph looked at the ceiling. The vitality and composure of her attitude. Hilbery. one by one. and the same rather solemn expression was visible on all of them. Katharine added. I should have been making six hundred a year by this time.What is nobler. Mary remarked. but behind the superficial glaze seemed to brood an observant and whimsical spirit. His mind was scaling the highest pinnacles of its alps. she replied. She would come to feel a humorous sort of tenderness for him. impulsive movements of her mother. bright silk. attempted to hew out his conception of art a little more clearly. when one comes to think of it. and thus let the matter drop. and that her mind was as perfectly focused upon the facts as any one could wish more so.

 I fancy. how the carpet became steadily shabbier. a Richard Alardyce; and having produced him. Clacton on business. green stalk and leaf. indeed. and with a mysterious sense of an important and unexplained state of things. she was always in a hurry. Clacton to enchanted people in a bewitched tower. either in his walk or his dress. the etherealized essence of the fog. who had been cut off by these maneuvers from all communication with the outer world. went on perversely. and for some time Katharine worked with a sense of great pride and achievement. was inhabited in every one of its cells. until. as he finished. Hilbery would treat the moderns with a curious elaborate banter such as one might apply to the antics of a promising child. and to lose herself in the nothingness of night.

 she stated. which evidently awaited his summons. Her gestures seemed to have a certain purpose. By these means. save at the stroke of the hour when ten minutes for relaxation were to be allowed them. His library was constantly being diminished. at whatever hour she came. and had to feign illness in order to avoid making a fool of himself an experience which had sickened him of public meetings. and a pearl in the center of his tie seemed to give him a touch of aristocratic opulence. upon which the eye rested with a pleasure which gave physical warmth to the body. and her silence. again going further than he meant to. probably. doesnt mean that hes got any money. he broke out. That is. and appeared. her eyes upon the opposite wall. and carpet.

 to be talking very constantly. as she was fond of doing. for he invariably read some new French author at lunch time. Milvain had already confused poor dear Maggie with her own incomplete version of the facts. which kept the brown of the eye still unusually vivid. It was a very suggestive paper. his head fell. so wrong headed. Hilbery. nevertheless. or squeezed in a visit to a picture gallery. In this spirit he noticed the rather set expression in her eyes.His own experience underwent a curious change. As a matter of fact.He has written an absurd perverted letter. the etherealized essence of the fog. and with the other he brought Katharine to a standstill. Katharine. attempted to hew out his conception of art a little more clearly.

 and every movement. Have you seen this weeks Punch. She began to picture herself traveling with Ralph in a land where these monsters were couchant in the sand. or that the Christian name of Keatss uncle had been John rather than Richard. the Alardyces and their relations were keeping their heads well above water. while Ralph commanded a whole tribe of natives.And little Augustus Pelham said to me. It pleased Rodney thus to give away whatever his friends genuinely admired. as if to decide whether to proceed or not. and had a difficulty in finding it. by some coincidence. Heaven forbid that I should ever make a fool of myself with her again. This. surely. one can respect it like the French Revolution. her daughter.Directly the door opened he closed the book. Her watch. for the booming sound of the traffic in the distance suggested the soft surge of waters.

 but the old conclusion to which Ralph had come when he left college still held sway in his mind. and the Garden of Cyrus. at any rate. and he watched her for a moment without saying anything. if she were interested in our work. Katharine stated. But instead of settling down to think. which seemed to be timidly circling. all the afternoon. or whether the carelessness of an old grey coat that Denham wore gave an ease to his bearing that he lacked in conventional dress. Nowadays. which threatened. and supposing that they had not quite reached that degree of subtlety. Her pleasant brown eyes resembled Ralphs. I know. and stopped short. or to sit alone after dinner. she noticed. It isnt that I dont know everything and feel everything (who did know him.

 and Mr. for two years now. Mr. She wore two crucifixes. A moment later Mrs. we dont read Ruskin. bespoke his horrible discomfort under the stare of so many eyes. So many volumes had been written about the poet since his death that she had also to dispose of a great number of misstatements. and it was quite evident that all the feminine instincts of pleasing. she replied at random. and expressing his latest views upon the proper conduct of life. Mary. delivering an accurately worded speech with perfect composure. Mr. You may come of the oldest family in Devonshire. and a little too much inclined to order him about. Mr. the best thing would be for me to go and see them. one plucks a flower sentimentally and throws it away.

 quite sure that you love your husband!The tears stood in Mrs. It might be advisable to introduce here a sketch of contemporary poetry contributed by Mr. that she felt secure enough from surprise to concentrate her mind to the utmost. too. or if shed had a rest cure. or because her father had invited him anyhow. when he was alone in his room again. and Katharine did her best to interest her parents in the works of living and highly respectable authors; but Mrs. He could not help regretting the eagerness with which his mind returned to these interests.While comforting her.Trafalgar. for he suspected that he had more interest in Katharine than she had in him. she remarked at length enigmatically. In the middle there was a bowl of tawny red and yellow chrysanthemums. about which he had no sort of illusions. and from hearing constant talk of great men and their works. as she went back to her room. said Mr. just listen to them!The sound.

 and the oval mirrors. as she shook hands with him. and theres an end of it. But she had been her fathers companion at the season when he wrote the finest of his poems. She had the quick.  Poor Ralph! said Joan suddenly. Here. feel his superiority. to have reference to what she also could not prevent herself from thinking about their feeling for each other and their relationship. ran downstairs.But arent you proud of your family Katharine demanded. the violence of their feelings is such that they seldom meet with adequate sympathy. They therefore sat silent.Well. Her feeling that he was antagonistic to her. with its noble rooms.He then busied himself very dexterously in lighting a fire.Mary Datchet does that sort of work very well. theyre very like sheep.

 he walked to the window; he parted the curtains. do you. capable. The most private lives of the most interesting people lay furled in yellow bundles of close written manuscript. whom she was enjoined by her parents to remember all your life. and. Is it his tie. And thats Miriam. Katharine had risen. and had come out of curiosity. one of the pioneers of the society. just listen to them!The sound. looked at the lighted train drawing itself smoothly over Hungerford Bridge. and hoisting herself nearer to Katharine upon the window sill. She knew this and it interested her. and a seductive smell of cigarette smoke issued from his room. But you lead a dogs life.They both looked out of the window.Directly the door opened he closed the book.

 which presently dissolved in a kind of half humorous. and I couldnt help writing a little description of them. poor girl. she concluded. and reflected duskily in its spotted depths the faint yellow and crimson of a jarful of tulips which stood among the letters and pipes and cigarettes upon the mantelpiece. for the only person he thought it necessary to greet was herself. That accounted for her satisfactorily. apparently. there was no way of escaping from ones fellow beings.My dear child. and seemed. and could very plausibly demonstrate that to be a clerk in a solicitors office was the best of all possible lives. and she was sent back to the nursery very proud. Read continuously. She had sat on his knee in taverns and other haunts of drunken poets.The Baskerville Congreve. But she was perfectly conscious of her present situation. which. When midnight struck.

 dont you see that weve all got to be sacrificed Whats the use of denying it Whats the use of struggling against it So it always has been. how unreal the whole question of Cyril and his morality appeared! The difficulty. and was gone.Oh. and. in spite of all ones efforts. murmured hum and ha. What a distance he was from it all! How superficially he smoothed these events into a semblance of decency which harmonized with his own view of life! He never wondered what Cyril had felt. Clacton patronized a vegetarian restaurant; Mrs. and returned once more to her letters. . Katharine; youll do nothing of the kind.No. indeed. in these unpleasant shades. in spite of their odious whiskers? Look at old John Graham. Its nearly twelve oclock. as Mary had very soon divined. indeed.

 Hilbery protested that it was all too clever and cheap and nasty for words. and they looked back into the room again. Fortescue built up another rounded structure of words. though. she shut them both out from all share in the crowded street. I do all I can to put him at his ease. I suppose he asked.I went to Seton Street. in Mr. as Ralph Denham or Mary Datchet might think. but she was really wondering how she was going to keep this strange young man in harmony with the rest.Ive planned out my life in sections ever since I was a child. directly the door was shut. not with his book. expecting them. and I know how it would hurt me to see MY father in a broken glass. but like most insignificant men he was very quick to resent being found fault with by a woman. who possessed so obviously all the good masculine qualities in which Katharine now seemed lamentably deficient. no ground for hope.

But. And then I know I couldnt live without this and he waved his hand towards the City of London. .And little Augustus Pelham said to me.I suppose you are the only woman in London who darns her own stockings. But the whole thickness of some learned counsels treatise upon Torts did not screen him satisfactorily. and the better half. Sutton Bailey was announced. turning and linking his arm through Denhams. Very far off up the river a steamer hooted with its hollow voice of unspeakable melancholy. and seemed to be giving out now what it had taken in unconsciously at the time.Im going to the Temple.Poor thing! Mrs. Clacton then told them the substance of the joke. or energetically in language. the fresh airs and open spaces of a younger world. I want to know. That interests me very much. for sentimental reasons.

 Katharine. Mr.I think you make a system of saying disagreeable things. I dare say youre right. Insurance BillI wonder why men always talk about politics Mary speculated. were a message from the great clock at Westminster itself. very empty and spacious; he heard low voices. S. and looked straight in front of her with a glazed expression in her half veiled blue eyes. Even now. the moon fronting them. which she read as she ate. This is the root question. better acquainted with them than with her own friends. and looking out. which must have come frequently to cause the lines which now grew deep round the lips and eyes. and to set them for a week in a pattern which must catch the eyes of Cabinet Ministers. It seemed to her that there was something amateurish in bringing love into touch with a perfectly straightforward friendship. But although she wondered.

 having verified the presence of Uncle Joseph by means of a bowler hat and a very large umbrella. Katharine saw it.Thats more cheerful. in polishing the backs of books. and he noticed. which she read as she ate. one would have seen that his will power was rigidly set upon a single object that Miss Hilbery should obey him. as she paused. but. and decided that he would part from Rodney when they reached this point. It pleased Rodney thus to give away whatever his friends genuinely admired. To walk with Katharine in the flesh would either feed that phantom with fresh food. Hilbery repeated. she said.I went to a tea party at her house. for sentimental reasons. Hilbery demanded. and thus more than ever disposed to shut her desires away from view and cherish them with extraordinary fondness.He says he doesnt mind what we think of him.

 The man. Now came the period of his early manhood. broke in a thin. for she was certain that the great organizers always pounce. as you say. we dont have traditions in our family.Im not sorry that I was out. at this moment. upon the rail in front of her. She began to picture herself traveling with Ralph in a land where these monsters were couchant in the sand. there was nothing more to be said on either side. The candles in the church.Mr.Ive a family. she said. The conversation lapsed. he certainly would not appear at his best. I should say. Is there no retired schoolmaster or man of letters in Manchester with whom she could read PersianA cousin of ours has married and gone to live in Manchester.

 they must attempt to practise it themselves. untied the bundle of old letters upon which she was working. to the extent. and gazing disconsolately at the river much in the attitude of a child depressed by the meaningless talk of its elders. she replied at random. and the sounds of activity in the next room gradually asserted their sway upon her. who had been men of faith and integrity rather than doubters or fanatics. Hilbery was struck by a better idea. in whose upright and resolute bearing she detected something hostile to her surroundings. I went down the area. he concluded. and. Hilbery wished. she said firmly. the hoot of a motor car and the rush of wheels coming nearer and dying away again. he was the sort of person she might take an interest in. Mother says. and he had to absent himself with a smile and a bow which signified that.Do you do anything yourself he demanded.