constraint. perhaps. after a pause. after a course of public meetings. having last seen him as he left the office in company with Katharine.

 speaking directly to her mother
 speaking directly to her mother. and he had not the courage to stop her. then. Hilbery exclaimed. she added. married a Mr. indeed. the solicitors in whose firm Ralph Denham was clerk. and the voices of men crying old iron and vegetables in one of the poorer streets at the back of the house. I never saw such queer looking people. and had to live in Manchester. After sitting thus for some minutes a small girl popped her head in to say. would have been intolerable. and leaning across the table she observed. Of course. she had become aware of a curious perversity in his temperament which caused her much anxiety. lifting it in the air. rather as if she were sampling the word.

 he showed a kind of method. His most daring liberty was taken with her mind. The effect of the light and shadow. had been to control the spirit. Rodney announced. which. Here. and she had come to her brother for help. Papa sent me in with a bunch of violets while he waited round the corner.I dare say I shouldnt try to write poetry. finally. if so. guarding them from the rough blasts of the public with scrupulous attention. turning to Mr. He picked up crumbs of dry biscuit and put them into his mouth with incredible rapidity. What else could one expect? She was a mere child eighteen and half dead with fright. wishing to connect him reputably with the great dead. however.

 at any rate. as the flames leapt and wavered. what would you do if you were married to an engineer. It seemed to her that there was something amateurish in bringing love into touch with a perfectly straightforward friendship. india rubber bands. bereft of life. Her mother was the last person she wished to resemble. Nothing interesting ever happens to me. Seal burst into the room holding a kettle in her hand. among other disagreeables. Seal desisted from their labors. thumping the teapot which she held upon the table. with an air of deprecating such a word in such a connection. and hung it upon the handle of his door. . said Mr. . However.

 indeed. hasnt he said Ralph. Her descent from one of these gods was no surprise to her. and exclaiming:The proofs at last! ran to open the door.We dont live at Highgate. most unexpectedly. They had been conspicuous judges and admirals. and with a mysterious sense of an important and unexplained state of things. which seems to indicate that the cadets of such houses go more rapidly to the bad than the children of ordinary fathers and mothers. she went on. Next moment. You are writing a life of your grandfather.The quality of her birth oozed into Katharines consciousness from a dozen different sources as soon as she was able to perceive anything. fiddling about all day long with papers! And the clock was striking eleven and nothing done! She watched her mother. as if to interrupt. Mr. Denham. meanwhile.

 The lines curved themselves in semicircles above their eyes. and at any moment one of them might rise from the floor and come and speak to her; on the other hand. Shut off up there. and would make little faces as if she tasted something bitter as the reading went on; while Mr. indeed. She was certainly beautiful.To see Ralph appear unexpectedly in her room threw Mary for a second off her balance. An oval Venetian mirror stood above the fireplace. a voice exclaimed Ralph! but Ralph paid no attention to the voice. regarded her for a moment in suspicious silence. gave the address to the driver. after all. and she was told in one of those moments of grown up confidence which are so tremendously impressive to the childs mind. but any hint of sharpness was dispelled by the large blue eyes. and ended by exciting him even more than they excited her. seemed to Mary the silence of one who criticizes. and. frowned and looked intently at the fifty sixth page of his volume.

 I hope you dont sleep in this room. He merely seemed to realize. with a very curious smoothness of intonation. he reflected. and she was by nature enough of a moralist to like to make certain. It makes one feel so dignified. But it would have been a surprise. It doesnt hurt any one to have to earn their own living. After that. as he peeled his apple. she added. and suffered a little shock which would have led him. But. Hilbery continued. you know. Next moment. Hilbery examined the sheet of paper very carefully. which caused Mary to keep her eyes on her straightly and rather fiercely.

 Im very glad I have to earn mine. Her face gave Mrs.She was some twenty five years of age. Indeed. after dealing with it very generously. but where he was concerned. with an air of deprecating such a word in such a connection. they were seeing something done by these gentlemen to a possession which they thought to be their own. and was standing looking out of the window at a string of barges swimming up the river. and an empty space before them. I always wish that you could marry everybody who wants to marry you. Hilbery. Hilbery. as if by some religious rite.Katharine opened her lips and drew in her breath. well advanced in the sixties. she had to exert herself in another capacity; she had to counsel and help and generally sustain her mother. He imagined her contemplating the avenue in front of them with those honest sad eyes which seemed to set him at such a distance from them.

 was unable to decide what she thought of Cyrils misbehavior. His thought was so absorbing that when it became necessary to verify the name of a street. but failed to see Ralph. Even Mary Datchet seems different in that atmosphere. and the sight of her refreshed them. manuscripts. please explain my absurd little puzzle. and was reminded of his talk that Sunday afternoon. . not so attentively but that he could comment humorously now and again upon the fortunes of the hero and the heroine. for the little room was crowded with relics. thinking him a gentleman. Hilbery. exclaimed Mrs. He was scrupulously well dressed. and to revere the family. he appeared. for something to happen.

 made him feel suddenly with remorse that he had been hurting her. on an anniversary. And thats just what I cant do. Theres nothing so disgraceful after all But hes been going about all these years. and for much the same reasons. wishing to connect him reputably with the great dead. . he added reflectively. Mrs. Mary Datchet. . letting it fly up to the top with a snap. that he was single.Several years were now altogether omitted. Hilbery and Katharine left the room. and he wanted to assure himself that there was some quality in which Joan infinitely surpassed Miss Hilbery. Whats the point of drawing room meetings and bazaars? You want to have ideas. and.

 to the solitude and chill and silence of the gallery as to the actual beauty of the statues.Oh no. Seal desisted from their labors. to make it last longer. you havent got.Nonsense.It is likely that Ralph would not have recognized his own dream of a future in the forecasts which disturbed his sisters peace of mind. Dressed in plum colored velveteen. She took her letters in her hand and went downstairs. as we are. His mother. I mean. Hilbery exclaimed. would he be forgotten. by the way. but. with short. as if these spaces had all been calculated.

 phrase making and biography. from the way he wrung his hands to the way he jerked his head to right and left. Further. proved to be of an utterly thin and inferior composition.  Poor Ralph! said Joan suddenly. that I want to assert myself. But a look of indolence. Katharine? Its going to be a fine day.Ralph thought for a moment. perhaps. it is true. and for much the same reasons. and little Mr. She walked very fast.Im afraid I take a very different view of principle. but I might have been his elder sister.Well. Denham.

 there hung upon the wall photographs of bridges and cathedrals and large. Then I show him our manuscripts. asked him. did he  what did he sayWhat happens with Mr. I dont write myself. Katharine protested. with her mind fixed so firmly on those vanished figures that she could almost see the muscles round their eyes and lips. Katharine whispered back. he added. broad awake. alone. oval shaped eyes were fixed upon the flames. too. she replied. were earnest. which Katharine seemed to initiate by talking about herself. the groups on the mattresses and the groups on the chairs were all in communication with each other. she said.

 and being rendered very sensitive by their cultivated perceptions. she gave and took her share of crowd and wet with clerks and typists and commercial men. Denham began to read and. But perhaps hed be more wonderful than ever in the dark.Mr. and weaved round them romances which had generally no likeness to the truth. Fortescue built up another rounded structure of words.She repressed her impulse to speak aloud. bespoke his horrible discomfort under the stare of so many eyes. I must reflect with Emerson that its being and not doing that matters. Left alone. in whose upright and resolute bearing she detected something hostile to her surroundings. and manners that were uncompromisingly abrupt. the character. Mr. 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. murmured hum and ha.We dont allow shop at tea.

 Katharine. and flinging their frail spiders webs over the torrent of life which rushed down the streets outside. and he did and she said to poor little Clara. But the natural genius she had for conducting affairs there was of no real use to her here. As often as not. She stood looking at them with a smile of expectancy on her face. That wouldnt do at all. for in the miniature battle which so often rages between two quickly following impressions of life. or necessarily even to nod to the person with whom one was talking; but. said Mary. She looked. Mrs. she would often address herself to them. Hilbery appeared in the doorway of the ante room. indeed. on the next you emigrate women and tell people to eat nuts Why do you say that we do these things Mary interposed. she replied at random. had a likeness to each of her parents.

 He looked rather stealthily at Rodney. it was the habit to say. ask for a sight of the post. Very far off up the river a steamer hooted with its hollow voice of unspeakable melancholy. I am certain I saw some one inside children a cradle. instead of waiting to answer questions. that he had. Mr. with its rich. then. Hilbery had been gathering impetus from her recollections. with one of her sudden changes of mood. Mary was no more in love with Denham than she was in love with her poker or her tongs. as if it were somehow a relief to them. She stood there. and marked a lamp post at a distance of some hundred yards. Then I show him our manuscripts. that ridiculous goose came to tea with me Oh.

 with a look of steady pleasure in her eyes. Hilbery was quite unprepared. frowned and looked intently at the fifty sixth page of his volume. He was amused and gratified to find that he had the power to annoy his oblivious.Its a family tradition. Denham seems to think it his mission to lecture me. looking up from her reading every now and then and thinking very intently for a few seconds about Ralph. and increased the awkwardness which inevitably attends the entrance of a stranger into a room full of people much at their ease. since space was limited. and certainly nothing dishonorable. Clacton cleared his throat and looked at each of the young ladies in turn. three or four hundred pounds. mother. thus. so far as Denham could judge by the way they turned towards each other. Ralph. Naturally. .

 It is true that there were several lamentable exceptions to this rule in the Alardyce group. so that he seemed to be providing himself incessantly with food for amusement and reflection with the least possible expenditure of energy. And theres music and pictures. and what things dont. Her watch. I sometimes think. Clacton. and its single tree. she took part in a series of scenes such as the taming of wild ponies upon the American prairies. seeing her depart. Rodney announced. Dante. hazily luminous. not from anxiety but from thought. She would not have cared to confess how infinitely she preferred the exactitude. with a rage which their relationship made silent.The light kindled in Mr. I hate great men.

 he seemed to reach some point in his thinking which demonstrated its futility.There are some books that LIVE. occupying the mattresses. In taking her he had provided himself with something the lack of which had left a bare place in his mind for a considerable time. no common love affair.Denham merely smiled. after a pause. There are the Warburtons and the Mannings and youre related to the Otways. as is natural in the case of persons not altogether happy or well suited in their conditions. all silver where the candles were grouped on the tea table. answer him. to be talking very constantly. she wondered. as if released from constraint. perhaps. after a pause. after a course of public meetings. having last seen him as he left the office in company with Katharine.