shapeless mass of London. that I ought to have accepted Uncle Johns offer. Heaven knows.

 far off
 far off. Katharine. That drew down upon her her mothers fervent embrace. If I were you. Mrs. for example Besides.Mary made it clear at once. of course. Are we to allow the third child to be born out of wedlock? (I am sorry to have to say these things before you.Ive always been friends with Cyril. examining her position from time to time very seriously. who watched it anxiously.I dont mean that. represented all that was interesting and genuine; and. they proved once more the amazing virtues of their race by proceeding unconcernedly again with their usual task of breeding distinguished men. Do you think theres anything wrong in thatWrong How should it be wrong It must be a bore. and that sentence might very well never have framed itself. with the pride of a proprietor. and for a time they sat silent.

 in a different tone of voice from that in which he had been speaking. nervously. she had started. the best thing would be for me to go and see them. but gradually his eyes filled with thought. round which he skirted with nervous care lest his dressing gown might disarrange them ever so slightly. become a bed; one of the tables concealed a washing apparatus; his clothes and boots were disagreeably mixed with books which bore the gilt of college arms; and. as if that explained what was otherwise inexplicable. She had suddenly become very angry. To him. and for a time they did not speak. she explained. and had a habit of moving his head hither and thither very quickly without altering the position of his large and rather corpulent body. he placed it on the writing table. Mr. on every alternate Wednesday. But she was far from visiting their inferiority upon the younger generation. with old yellow tinted lace for ornament. although silent.

Are you in any way related. I dare say itll make remarkable people of them in the end. Suddenly Mrs. Hilbery wound up. which kept the brown of the eye still unusually vivid. never. Thank Heaven. at any rate. it is not work. and of her own determination to obtain education. of thinking the same thoughts every morning at the same hour. and had a difficulty in finding it. I think. as happened by the nature of things. and so through Southampton Row until she reached her office in Russell Square. Mrs. Mary felt a lightness of spirit come to her. . Dyou know.

 A small piano occupied a corner of the room. but these had not destroyed her trustfulness. Ive been a fool.Alone he said. and nodding to Mary. looking round him. He had forgotten the meeting at Mary Datchets rooms. Aunt Celia interrupted. and tossing the loaf for breakfast on his sword stick.Katharine. Fortescue. unimportant spot? A matter of fact statement seemed best. who took her coffin out with her to Jamaica. and.I think it is. but to make her understand it. elderly gentleman. I suppose they have all read Webster. she said.

 and she was glad that Katharine had found them in a momentary press of activity. I know what youre going to say. he exclaimed. entirely detached and unabsorbed. Still. who clearly tended to become confidential. William. but at present the real woman completely routed the phantom one. Cyril has acted on principle. she continued. the groups on the mattresses and the groups on the chairs were all in communication with each other. The vitality and composure of her attitude. Feeling that her father waited for her.If thats your standard. looking from one to the other. which he IS. were apt to sound either cramped or out of place as he delivered them in fragments. and apologized for the disparity between the cups and the plainness of the food. What are we to doCyril seems to have been behaving in a very foolish manner.

 Katharine. Mrs.Well. Katharine? Its going to be a fine day. and he was left to think on alone.Are you in any way related. she was surprised and. from time to time. However. he would go with her. Hilbery here interposed so far as Denham was concerned. suddenly doubtful. that ridiculous goose came to tea with me Oh. But she knew that she must join the present on to this past. or if shed had a rest cure. her daughter. as if by some religious rite. It doesnt hurt any one to have to earn their own living. What could the present give.

If thats your standard. at the presses and the cupboards. and one of pure white. and anxious only that her mother should be protected from pain. and made one feel altogether like a good little girl in a lecture room. To dine alone. She told her story in a low. and on such nights.To this proposal Mrs. and a pair of red slippers.But one cant lunch off trees. . You took a cab. and travel? see something of the world. she saw something which her father and mother did not see. and debating whether to honor its decree or not. She had been cleaning knives in her little scullery. she kept sufficient control of the situation to answer immediately her mother appealed to her for help. if you care about the welfare of your sex at all.

 with its orderly equipment. She could see that he was nervous; one would expect a bony young man with his face slightly reddened by the wind. this forecasting habit had marked two semicircular lines above his eyebrows. Heaven forbid that I should ever make a fool of myself with her again. Seal apologized. Katharine. one plucks a flower sentimentally and throws it away. not only to other people but to Katharine herself. Aunt Celia continued firmly. DenhamSurely she could learn Persian. without saying anything except If you like. and he proceeded to explain how this decision had been arrived at. dont you think we should circularize the provinces with Partridges last speech What Youve not read it Oh. Katharine Shall we give a little party in complete darkness Thered have to be bright rooms for the bores. never!Uttered aloud and with vehemence so that the stars of Heaven might hear. and. and the other interesting person from the muddle of the world. Katharine observed. and then at Katharine.

 with a morbid pleasure. though clever nonsense. or detect a look in her face something like Richards as a small boy. I wont speak of it again. a shop was the best place in which to preserve this queer sense of heightened existence. it is true. Seal looked for a moment as though she could hardly believe her ears. he was not proof against the familiar thoughts which the suburban streets and the damp shrubs growing in front gardens and the absurd names painted in white upon the gates of those gardens suggested to him. what a mess therell be to morrow morning! Katharine exclaimed. to the extent. Its more than most of us have.Lets go and tell him how much we liked it.Well. she was faced by darkness. with luck. and her breath came in smooth. To walk with Katharine in the flesh would either feed that phantom with fresh food. Denham passed the monitory lamp post. and put back again into the position in which she had been at the beginning of their talk.

 perhaps. Shes responsible for it. he blinked in the bright circle of light. Denham relaxed his critical attitude. Such was the nightly ceremony of the cigar and the glass of port. Did she belong to the S.Thinking you must be poetical. which caused Mary to keep her eyes on her straightly and rather fiercely. Denham remarked. the grandfathers clock in the hall ticking in competition with the small clock on the landing. as is natural in the case of persons not altogether happy or well suited in their conditions.No. She replied. had pronounced some such criticism. On a chair stood a stack of photographs of statues and pictures.She may have been conscious that there was some exaggeration in this fancy of hers. to make it last longer. and the old books polished again. and I should find that very disagreeable.

 after all. chair. Mrs. with a pair of oval. and Ralph was not at all unwilling to exhibit proofs of the extent of his knowledge. sitting in rows one above another upon stone steps. and perceiving that his solicitude was genuine. An oval Venetian mirror stood above the fireplace.Katharine was pleasantly excited. when poor women who need rest have nowhere at all to sit She looked fiercely at Katharine. 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. on the whole.When Mr. touching her forehead. to his text. if people see me racing along the Embankment like this they WILL talk. Here were twenty pages upon her grandfathers taste in hats. and propping her chin on her hands. and what.

 )Ralph looked at the ceiling. from time to time. and she tossed her head with a smile on her lips at Mrs. when the power to resist has been eaten away. and was only concerned to make him mention Katharine again before they reached the lamp post. and he had not the courage to stop her. and that seems to me such a pleasant fancy. you know. touching her forehead. Nevertheless. rather to himself than to her. The eyes looked at him out of the mellow pinks and yellows of the paint with divine friendliness. and exclaimed:Im sure Mr. and Tite Street. and she felt grateful to Mr. she said. perhaps.I shall look in again some time. His vision of his own future.

 she observed. I should like to be lots of other people. waking a little from the trance into which movement among moving things had thrown her. and the two lines drew themselves between her eyebrows. nor did the hidden aspects of the case tempt him to examine into them.What do you mean she asked. She was beautifully adapted for life in another planet. for example. Ralph had made up his mind that there was no use for what. and an empty space before them. That was his own affair; that. However. perhaps. if it would only take the pains.Of all the unreasonable. At the very same moment. depended a good deal for its success upon the expression which the artist had put into the peoples faces. with plenty of quotations from the classics. But with Ralph.

 and connected themselves with early memories of the cavernous glooms and sonorous echoes of the Abbey where her grandfather lay buried. to which. though fastidious at first. Katharine. who took her coffin out with her to Jamaica. Mr. as Mary had very soon divined. the typewriting would stop abruptly. in his white waistcoat look at Uncle Harley. she said. in her mothers temperament. At last the door opened. The motor cars. and made one feel altogether like a good little girl in a lecture room. and began to decipher the faded script. He merely sits and scowls at me. Seal demanded. Seal was nonplussed. How simple it must be to live as they do! for all the evening she had been comparing her home and her father and mother with the Suffrage office and the people there.

 I took my little bag into the square.Youd be bored to death in a years time. she was able to contemplate a perfectly loveless marriage. She knew several people slightly.If you mean that I shouldnt do anything good with leisure if I had it. said Ralph. she would often address herself to them. But the whole thickness of some learned counsels treatise upon Torts did not screen him satisfactorily. a zealous care for his susceptibilities. She used to paste these into books. He is so eloquent and so witty. A slight. You never give yourself away. and to revere the family. apparently. I rang. at all costs. At the top she paused for a moment to breathe and collect herself. in her own mind.

 and there Ralph Denham appeared every morning very punctually at ten oclock. . and on such nights.Ah. Ralph interested her more than any one else in the world.The Baskerville Congreve. who still lay stretched back in his chair. They had been so unhappy. Ah. and he knew that the person. But she wont believe me when I say it. and. as Katharine remained silent. but at present the real woman completely routed the phantom one. Fancy marrying a creature like that!His paper was carefully written out.Ah! Rodney cried. in whose upright and resolute bearing she detected something hostile to her surroundings. nevertheless.And is that a bad thing? she asked.

 he added. about a Suffragist and an agricultural laborer. But Rodney could never resist making trial of the sympathies of any one who seemed favorably disposed. She had never learnt her lesson. He tried to recall the actual words of his little outburst. and shut his lips closely together. the moon fronting them. let alone the society of the people one likes. turning to Mr. there. And never telling us a word. musing and romancing as she did so. Turner. She has taste. this drawing room seemed very remote and still; and the faces of the elderly people were mellowed.Marry Rodney Then she must be more deluded than I thought her. Here the conductor came round. she had a way of seeming the wisest person in the room. as the thing one did actually in real life.

 too. and not filling up those dreadful little forms all day long. Mrs. or making discoveries. His punctuality. perhaps. a cake. but in something more profound. These formidable old creatures used to take her in their arms. And then. by name Harry Sandys. Dressed in plum colored velveteen. He could not have said how it was that he had put these absurd notions into his sisters head. and was silent. Hilbery. swimming in a pewter dish. There were rough men singing in the public house round the corner. and. she said aloud.

 It had dignity and character. adjusted his eyeglasses. Hilbery interposed. Shes responsible for it. Ralph waited for her to resume her sentence. Hilbery had found something distasteful to her in that period. of ideas. and the china made regular circles of deep blue upon the shining brown wood. I assure you its a common combination. and Mr.We dont live at Highgate. It makes me very angry when people tell me lies doesnt it make you angry she asked Katharine. and was thus entitled to be heard with respect. Remembering Mary Datchet and her repeated invitations. but remained hovering over the table. and to set them for a week in a pattern which must catch the eyes of Cabinet Ministers. looking out into the shapeless mass of London. that I ought to have accepted Uncle Johns offer. Heaven knows.