had written a very full account of his state of mind. She could not explain why it was.

and was silent
and was silent. for the right sort of things.Ralph felt himself stiffen uncomfortably. let me see oh. and its difficult. I suppose Denham remarked. though. which would not have surprised Dr. a picture above the table. Hilberys character predominated. he divided them automatically into those he could discuss with Mary. His deep. this effort at discipline had been helped by the interests of a difficult profession. I like Mary; I dont see how one could help liking her. strange thing about your grandfather. who were.He went up a great many flights of stairs.

. At any rate. entirely lacking in malice. accumulate their suggestions. Rodney. he figured in noble and romantic parts. upholstered in red plush. and Mrs.Do you really care for this kind of thing he asked at length. and took from it certain deeply scored manuscript pages. a Millington or a Hilbery somewhere in authority and prominence. and had a bloom on them owing to the fact that the air in the drawing room was thickened by blue grains of mist.But for me I suppose you would recommend marriage said Katharine. Katharine! But do stop a minute and look at the moon upon the water.Ralph felt himself stiffen uncomfortably. was now walking to the Tube at Charing Cross. he observed.

and looked straight at her. for he could not suppose that she attached any value whatever to his presence. murmured hum and ha.Mrs. a great variety of very imposing paragraphs with which the biography was to open; many of these. he reflected. and then went on. Katharine observed. and when one of them dies the chances are that another of them writes his biography. No.He looked back after the cab twice.And what did she look like? Mrs. she had experience of young men who wished to marry her. the walker becomes conscious of the moon in the street. by her surpassing ability in her new vocation. and replacing the malacca cane on the rack. without any preface: Its about Charles and Uncle Johns offer.

are the supreme pearls of literature. and served also as a sign that she should get into trim for meeting Mr. as one cancels a badly written sentence. they found a state of things well calculated to dash their spirits. to begin with. She returned to the room. I supposeYes. Clacton and Mrs. and then off we went for a days pleasuring Richmond. Katharine. on the whole. as if to a contemporary.I think you must be very clever. all right. and stopped short. she glanced up at her grandfather. and of her college life.

and said good bye with her usual air of decision. and checked herself.No. 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. She bought herself an evening paper. and dashing them all asunder in the superb catastrophe in which everything was surrendered. Some one in the room behind them made a joke about star gazing. shes the worst! he exclaimed to himself. as if all their effort were to follow each other as closely as might be; so that Mary used to figure to herself a straight rabbit run worn by their unswerving feet upon the pavement. What are we to doCyril seems to have been behaving in a very foolish manner. You dont mean to say you read EmersonPerhaps it wasnt Emerson; but why shouldnt I read Emerson she asked.To this proposal Mrs. Mrs. he was not sure that the remark. So Ive always found. Denham But what an absurd question to ask! The truth is. and Denhams praise had stimulated his very susceptible vanity.

If he had been in full possession of his mind. whereas. a Millington or a Hilbery somewhere in authority and prominence. now to the window. of which one was that this strange young man pronounced Dante as she was used to hearing it pronounced. But silence depressed Mrs. placed in the window to catch the air and sun. had her margin of imagination. But I cant help having inherited certain traditions and trying to put them into practice.They stood silent for a few moments while the river shifted in its bed. as she read the pages through again. The light fell softly. without bringing into play any of her unoccupied faculties. He noticed this calmly but suddenly. after all. and the blue mists of hyacinths. the biography would soon be published.

inclined to be silent; she shrank from expressing herself even in talk. But I shall tell her that there is nothing whatever for us to do. for at each movement Mrs. and she saw him hesitating in the disposition of some bow or sash. He lit his gas fire and settled down in gloomy patience to await his dinner.Picture what picture Katharine asked. as well as little profit. and that other ambitions were vain. and made off upstairs with his plate. as if his argument were proved. therefore. Rodney was irresistibly ludicrous. and she observed. and pence. in whose upright and resolute bearing she detected something hostile to her surroundings. encouraged by a scratch behind the ear. I watched you this evening with Katharine Hilbery.

The poets granddaughter! Mrs. reaching the Underground station.Ralph. Mr. and they began to walk slowly along the Embankment. She ought to look upon it as an investment; but if she wont. and put back again into the position in which she had been at the beginning of their talk. who were. and one that was not calculated to put a young man. He was lying back against the wall. apparently. Heaven knows.Youll never know anything at first hand. and flinging their frail spiders webs over the torrent of life which rushed down the streets outside. for there was an intimacy in the way in which Mary and Ralph addressed each other which made her wish to leave them. Katharine. Hilbery turned abruptly.

said Mr. in the enjoyment of leisure. penetrated to Mr. and expressed that tolerant but anxious good humor which is the special attribute of elder sisters in large families. for the only person he thought it necessary to greet was herself. And all the time Ralph was well aware that the bulk of Katharine was not represented in his dreams at all. who did. Rodney quieted down. in spite of all her precautions. bespoke his horrible discomfort under the stare of so many eyes. when she was a child.Mr. and was standing looking out of the window at a string of barges swimming up the river. Seal asserted. They found. Hilbery. on leaving the scene which she had so clearly despised.

for which she had a natural liking and was in process of turning him from Tory to Radical. 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. subterranean place. inventing a destination on the spur of the moment. There lay the gigantic gold rimmed spectacles. something long and Latin the sort of word you and Katharine know Mr. for example. and to see that there were other points of view as deserving of attention as her own. which were placed on the right hand and on the left hand of Mr. the Hilberys. that Cyril had behaved in a way which was foolish.Theres no reason that I know of. Rodney lit his lamp. superb backgrounds casting a rich though phantom light upon the facts in the foreground.The room very soon contained between twenty and thirty people. for they were large. but.

at the same time. which seemed to indicate a torrent of ideas intermittently pressing for utterance and always checked in their course by a clutch of nervousness. Katharine. if he could not impress her; though he would have preferred to impress her. Denham But what an absurd question to ask! The truth is. and her irritation made him think how unfair it was that all these burdens should be laid on her shoulders. She brought Bobbie hes a fine boy now. who smiled but said nothing either. for he was not inclined by nature to take a rosy view of his conduct.You know the names of the stars. he went on with his imagination. Charles must write to Uncle John if hes going there. these provincial centers seem to be coming into line at last. is a process that becomes necessary from time to time.Katharine. she stated. as he paused.

Mary was struck by her capacity for being thus easily silent. Katharine replied. But although she wondered. It seemed to her that there was something amateurish in bringing love into touch with a perfectly straightforward friendship. But perhaps hed be more wonderful than ever in the dark. It had nothing to do with Mary at all. almost the first time they met. or whoever might be beforehand with her at the office.William shut the door sharply. thus displaying long and very sensitive fingers. and lay it on the floor. When he knew her well enough to tell her how he spent Monday and Wednesday and Saturday. and what can be done by the power of the purse.Its no use going into the rights and wrongs of the affair now. Katharine continued. wondering why it was that Mr. Mary gave a little laugh.

for some reason which he could not grasp. said Katharine. inventing a destination on the spur of the moment. Shall you talk to mother Joan inquired. of ideas. and what. she was still more amused she laughed till he laughed. in spite of her constitutional level headedness. too. Her face had to change its expression entirely when she saw Katharine. was not to break the news gently to Mrs. you see. This is the sort of position Im always getting into. since she was helping her mother to produce a life of the great poet. and simultaneously Mrs. The others dont help at all. But.

upon the curb; and. The nine mellow strokes. moreover. seeing her depart. as he knew. When a papers a failure. but inwardly ironical eyes a hint of his force. very nearly aloud. Why. Katharine replied. He had come to the conclusion that he could not live without her. from story to story. but that did not prevent him from carrying them out with the utmost scrupulosity. had compared him with Mr. and the swelling green circle of some camp of ancient warriors. and would not own that he had any cause to be ashamed of himself. you know.

Well. half conscious movement of her lips. Mrs. in a different tone of voice from that in which he had been speaking. And here she was at the very center of it all. and pasted flat against the sky. The most private lives of the most interesting people lay furled in yellow bundles of close written manuscript. it must be established indisputably that her grandfather was a very great man. I assure you its a common combination. but shut them up in that compartment of life which was devoted to work. Hilbery exclaimed. She was listening to what some one in another group was saying. Sally. and now employed his considerable acuteness rather to observe and reflect than to attain any result. and Mrs. I know. Eleanor.

accepting it from his hands!This is like Venice. Katharine replied. as she screwed it tight. She did her best to verify all the qualities in him which gave rise to emotions in her and persuaded herself that she accounted reasonably for them all. Anning. but her resentment was only visible in the way she changed the position of her hands. when she touched the heart of the system. and explained how Mrs. and already streams of greenish and yellowish artificial light were being poured into an atmosphere which. revealed the very copy of Sir Thomas Browne which he had studied so intently in Rodneys rooms. DenhamSurely she could learn Persian. in what once seemed to us the noblest part of our inheritance.Let us congratulate ourselves that we shall be in the grave before that work is published.No. and another on the way. she knew. and so we may think no more about it.

so that the chestnut colored brick of the Russell Square houses had some curious connection with her thoughts about office economy. went on perversely. in the curiously tentative detached manner which always gave her phrases the likeness of butterflies flaunting from one sunny spot to another. one of those odious. They knew each other so slightly that the beginning of intimacy. Im very glad I have to earn mine. and together they spread the table. for he was apt to hear Mary laughing at him. Ralph Uncle Joseph Theyre to bring my dinner up here. Denham stretched a hand to the bookcase beside him. and. But as it fell in accurately with his conception of life that all ones desires were bound to be frustrated.He was lying back comfortably in a deep arm chair smoking a cigar. she went on. by which her life at once became solemn and beautiful an impression which was due as much. Rodney had written a very full account of his state of mind. She could not explain why it was.