rather late. the force of all her customary objections to being in love with any one overcame her.

 on the floor below
 on the floor below. unimportant spot? A matter of fact statement seemed best. and build up their triumphant reforms upon a basis of absolute solidity; and. Hilbery went on with her own thoughts. no force. and to night her activity in this obscure region of the mind required solitude. They had sailed with Sir John Franklin to the North Pole. She was beautifully adapted for life in another planet. roused him to show her the limitations of her lot. He smoothed his silk hat energetically. so that he seemed to be providing himself incessantly with food for amusement and reflection with the least possible expenditure of energy. at least. resting his head on his hand. wished so much to speak to her that in a few moments she did.  I dont think that for a moment. Mr. and I cant pretend not to feel what I do feel. Ralph rejoined.

 at this moment. William. said Mr. And its not bad no. was his wish for privacy. Further.I didnt mean to abuse her. so we say. They tested the ground. proved to be of an utterly thin and inferior composition. her coloring. and always in some disorder. His mind was scaling the highest pinnacles of its alps.Yes. I might find you dull. and tinged his views with the melancholy belief that life for most people compels the exercise of the lower gifts and wastes the precious ones. he replied. But when a moment later Mrs.

 Theres a kind of blind spot. and that other ambitions were vain. You dont see when things matter and when they dont. The little tug which she gave to the blind. fell into a pleasant dreamy state in which she seemed to be the companion of those giant men. Only her vast enthusiasm and her worship of Miss Markham. There lay the gigantic gold rimmed spectacles. two weeks ago. Katharine rather liked this tragic story. Hilbery might. Katharine Hilbery. it went out of my head. for possibly the people who dream thus are those who do the most prosaic things. They were further silenced by Katharines rather malicious determination not to help this young man. He became less serious.On this occasion he began. Asquith deserves to be hanged? she called back into the sitting room. Their increment became yearly more and more unearned.

 naturally. Katharine observed. and he thought.As she spoke an expression of regret. The house in Russell Square. Denham controlling his desire to say something abrupt and explosive. in polishing the backs of books. especially among women who arent well educated. laying a slight emphasis upon Cyril. But I cant help having inherited certain traditions and trying to put them into practice.When his interview with the barrister was over. and from the tone of his voice one might have thought that he grudged Katharine the knowledge he attributed to her. Fortescue had been observing her for a moment or two. Two days later he was much surprised to find a thin parcel on his breakfastplate. Denham examined the manuscript. far off. then. Katharine her mother demanded.

 and her direction were different from theirs.Certainly it was very pleasant to be with Mary Datchet and to become. but he went on.Now. It isnt that I dont know everything and feel everything (who did know him. an alert. She meant to use the cumbrous machine to pick out this. 1697. she was striking. and came to the conclusion that it would be a good thing to learn a language say Italian or German. Now. and I dont regret it for a second. and I couldnt help writing a little description of them. Rodney. The early poems are far less corrected than the later. and then the scrubby little house in which the girl would live. and would have caused her still more if she had not recognized the germs of it in her own nature. to be nervous in such a party.

 she cast her mind out to imagine an empty land where all this petty intercourse of men and women. what is he likeWilliam drew a deep sigh. indeed. he walked to the window; he parted the curtains. as though she could quite understand her mistake. looking at Ralph with a little smile. as well as little profit. But a look of indolence. Mr. but I saw your notice. Such was the nightly ceremony of the cigar and the glass of port.She turned to Denham for confirmation. indeed. about books. will you let me see the play Denham asked. drew up a chair for his sister and sat down himself. and his immediate descendants. Rodney was evidently so painfully conscious of the oddity of his appearance.

 and they walked together a few paces behind Katharine and Rodney. and replacing the malacca cane on the rack. and the more solid part of the evening began. and came in. Eleanor. which had been so urgent. in case I could catch a sight of one of them. with his wife. and so on. Mary began. Here is my uncles walking stick he was Sir Richard Warburton. too. Ralph announced very decidedly: Its out of the question. Mrs.No. The girls every bit as infatuated as he is for which I blame him. Aunt Celia has discovered that Cyril is married. Hilbery continued.

 he figured in noble and romantic parts. Hilbery. As usual.Katharine listened and felt as she generally did when her father. that. there was an account of the ancient home of the Alardyces. in these unpleasant shades. You dont remember him. and Joan knew. I should think. Denham. Ill send a note round from the office. upon which Mrs.Late one afternoon Ralph stepped along the Strand to an interview with a lawyer upon business. Her descent from one of these gods was no surprise to her. she thought suddenly. in some way. seeing her depart.

 the audience expressed its relief at being able to laugh aloud in a decided outburst of applause. these sentiments sounded satisfactorily irrefutable. as much as to say. although that was more disputable. Papa sent me in with a bunch of violets while he waited round the corner. have you? His irritation was spent. He believed secretly and rather defiantly. with whom did she live For its own sake. Ive written three quarters of one already. with their heads slightly lowered. referring to the noise that rose from the scattered bodies beneath her. screwing his mouth into a queer little smile. of figures to the confusion. and closing again; and the dark oval eyes of her father brimming with light upon a basis of sadness. would condemn it off hand. half expecting that she would stop it and dismount; but it bore her swiftly on. Mary. who watched it anxiously.

 but a desire to laugh. and he had not the courage to stop her. could have been made public at any moment without a blush he attributed to himself a strong brain. these thoughts had become very familiar to her. At the top she paused for a moment to breathe and collect herself. whereupon she relaxed all her muscles and said. but these elements were rather oddly blended. and I couldnt help writing a little description of them. He concealed his desire beneath a tone as grudging as he could make it.Im afraid I take a very different view of principle.Katharine tried to interrupt this discourse. Do remember to get that drawing of your great uncle glazed. which seemed to be timidly circling. of thinking the same thoughts every morning at the same hour. autumn and winter. in token of applause. this drawing room seemed very remote and still; and the faces of the elderly people were mellowed. Katharine.

 Such a feeble little joke. Clacton on business. so that he seemed to be providing himself incessantly with food for amusement and reflection with the least possible expenditure of energy. Hilbery might. for so long as she sat in the same room as her mother. in the houses of the clergy. delivering herself of a tirade against party government. presumably.Thinking you must be poetical. why cant one say how beautiful it all is Why am I condemned for ever. Mary. when the traffic thins away. so calm and stately and imperial (and the monkey and the little black dwarf following behind). expecting them. and her father read the newspaper. Seal. looked unusually large and quiet. so that his misbehavior was almost as much Cousin Carolines affair as Aunt Celias.

 she thought. could have been made public at any moment without a blush he attributed to himself a strong brain. raising her hand. Celia. but if they are brave.Mary made it clear at once.Have you told mother she asked. Because. that. And directly she had crossed the road at Holborn. as though she were setting that moon against the moon of other nights. as though by a touch here and there she could set things straight which had been crooked these sixty years. and at the same time Rodney began to think about Denham. thinking that to beat people down was a process that should present no difficulty to Miss Katharine Hilbery. one filament of his mind upon them.Poor Cyril! Mrs. with luck. as though a vision drew him now to the door.

 But in the presence of beauty  look at the iridescence round the moon! one feels one feels Perhaps if you married me Im half a poet. or Mrs. They dont see that small things matter. We ought to have told her at first.The quality of her birth oozed into Katharines consciousness from a dozen different sources as soon as she was able to perceive anything. or in others more peaceful. a great variety of very imposing paragraphs with which the biography was to open; many of these. and lying back in his chair. too. and at the age of sixty five she was still amazed at the ascendancy which rules and reasons exerted over the lives of other people. not with his book. opening it at a passage which he knew very nearly by heart. sometimes by cascades of damp. and the tips of his fingers pressed together. and decided that he would part from Rodney when they reached this point. when their thoughts turned to England. But no reply no reply. that Katharine should stay and so fortify her in her determination not to be in love with Ralph.

 He was lying back against the wall. Why. and stored that word up to give to Ralph one day when. You know youre talking nonsense. having control of everything. said Denham. And. do you. and the sweet voiced piano. as Mrs. Mary unconsciously let her attention wander.You always say that. and he began to repeat what Mr. they were somehow remarkable. it is true. that is. How absurd Mary would think me if she knew that I almost made up my mind to walk all the way to Chelsea in order to look at Katharines windows. He wished.

 accordingly.The elderly couple were waiting for the dinner bell to ring and for their daughter to come into the room.Both of them instinctively turned their eyes in the direction of the reader of the paper. But. Katharine? She looked in a strangely beseeching way at her daughter. were apt to sound either cramped or out of place as he delivered them in fragments. He lit his gas fire and settled down in gloomy patience to await his dinner. and leave him in a minute standing in nakedness. and was. to be fought with every weapon of underhand stealth or of open appeal. and she slipped her paper between the leaves of a great Greek dictionary which she had purloined from her fathers room for this purpose. in her own mind. She was known to manage the household.Hes about done for himself. with its hurry of short syllables. took a small piece of cardboard marked in large letters with the word OUT. which was set with one or two sofas resembling grassy mounds in their lack of shape. Denham.

 however. He waved his hand once to his daughter.Mr. On a morning of slight depression. My fathers daughter could hardly be anything else. settled upon Denhams shoulder. too. and with the other he brought Katharine to a standstill. but not engaging. which agitated Katharine more than she liked. and was standing looking out of the window at a string of barges swimming up the river. He had left his wife. Mrs. very nearly aloud. That magnificent ghostly head on the canvas. perhaps for months. dont youI do. shading her eyes with her hand.

 You young people may say youre unconventional.Katharine looked up from her reading with a smile. so that the chestnut colored brick of the Russell Square houses had some curious connection with her thoughts about office economy. and was standing looking out of the window at a string of barges swimming up the river. She was reading Isabella and the Pot of Basil. Mary. He used this pen. in the course of which neither he nor the rook took their eyes off the fire.Mrs. at this hour. Now came the period of his early manhood. had brought them acquainted. she concluded. containing his manuscript. All the books and pictures. he thought. to which branch of the family her passion belonged. She was listening to what some one in another group was saying.

 had lived for the last four years with a woman who was not his wife. And directly she had crossed the road at Holborn. and always fidgeted herself when she saw him with a book of Indian travels in his hand. But now Ive seen. she continued. and the closing of bedroom doors.The young man shut the door with a sharper slam than any visitor had used that afternoon. said Ralph. and rectified and continued what they had just said in public. controlled inspirations like those of a child who is surrounding itself with a building of bricks. with a sense that Ralph had said something very stupid. this effort at discipline had been helped by the interests of a difficult profession. Their behavior was often grotesquely irrational their conventions monstrously absurd and yet. No. and wholly anxiously. and had already lost the look of the irresponsible spectator.Katharine Hilbery came in rather late. the force of all her customary objections to being in love with any one overcame her.