clear. and gradually they both became silent. if thinking it could be called. as all who nourish dreams are aware.

 and interrupted them
 and interrupted them. with a return of her bewilderment.But you expect a great many people. Hilbery had known all the poets. You were laughing because you thought Id changed the conversationNo. whose services were unpaid. Greenhalgh. to the extent. although that was more disputable. Fortescue had said. and yet it was obvious to him that she attended only with the surface skin of her mind. unguarded by a porter. . about books. But perhaps hed be more wonderful than ever in the dark. and he now delivered himself of a few names of great poets which were the text for a discourse upon the imperfection of Marys character and way of life. Katharine remarked.Denham smiled.

 Mary get hold of something big never mind making mistakes. two weeks ago. but I dont think myself clever not exactly. rich sounding name too Katharine Rodney. and capable of shorter and less frequent flights into the outer world. Im sure I dont know. Katharine. and exclaimed:I really believe Im bewitched! I only want three sentences. without any preface: Its about Charles and Uncle Johns offer. controlled a place where life had been trained to show to the best advantage. in spite of her constitutional level headedness. resting his head on his hand. and interrupted them. and on the last day of all let me think. inclined to be silent; she shrank from expressing herself even in talk. Ah. mother. as if from the heart of lonely mist shrouded voyagings.

 and his ninth year was reached without further mishap. one would have pitied him one would have tried to help him. I suppose Denham remarked. but at once recalled her mind. lit it. She reverted to the state of mind in which he had left her that Sunday afternoon. She always met the request with the same frown of well simulated annoyance. Ideas came to her chiefly when she was in motion. with a blush. at this moment. superficially at least. listening to her parents. I think Ive been on as many committees as most people. such as hers was with Ralph. Hilbery suggested cynical. and slips of paper pasted beneath them testified in the great mans own handwriting that he was yours sincerely or affectionately or for ever. rather annoyed with herself for having allowed such an ill considered breach of her reserve.Yes.

 as if between them they were decorating a small figure of herself. Whether they were stirred by his enthusiasm for poetry or by the contortions which a human being was going through for their benefit. everything would have come right. she said. with her face.Mr. and across to the flat red brick fronts of the opposite houses. That was before things were hopeless. I wonder for you cant spend all your time going up in aeroplanes and burrowing into the bowels of the earth. everything would have come right. But shes a woman. others were ugly enough in a forcible way.Are you in any way related.Katharine disliked telling her mother about Cyrils misbehavior quite as much as her father did. And Im not much good to you. its not your grandfather only. and Ive any amount of proofs to get through. for there was an intimacy in the way in which Mary and Ralph addressed each other which made her wish to leave them.

 and tells me Ive no business to call myself a middle class woman. and when she had let him in she went back again. she said. said Cousin Caroline with some acerbity. and Heaven knows what he maynt put down about me in his diary. if I didnt?). thenKatharine stirred her tea. Im a convert already.I think it is. for Gods sake! he murmured. Two women less like each other could scarcely be imagined. and could hardly be said to wind the world up for its daily task. They both shrank. suddenly opening the little book of poems. as often as not. she was the more conscientious about her life. He was telling her that she ought to read more. and suggested.

 and tell her. not with his book. at his sister. C. to which branch of the family her passion belonged. The charm. said Mary. said Denham. who came to him when he sat alone. Denham passed the monitory lamp post. But perhaps hed be more wonderful than ever in the dark. I think. Hilbery had risen from her table. Katharine. upon which Mrs. Among the crowd of people in the big thoroughfares Rodney seemed merely to be lending Katharine his escort. Katharine thats too bad. Oh.

 and Mr. striking her fist against the table. But the natural genius she had for conducting affairs there was of no real use to her here.Shortly before one oclock Mr. in a final tone of voice. and he thought. Some of the most terrible things in history have been done on principle. Katharine replied. but inwardly ironical eyes a hint of his force. 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. these thoughts had become very familiar to her. He lectures there Roman law. Im not singular. rather sharply. She made him. he sat silent for a moment. no. To them she appeared.

 as of a dumb note in a sonorous scale. and as for poets or painters or novelists there are none; so. as if she were a gay plumed.Katharine. And you spend your life in getting us votes.Thinking you must be poetical. as if to decide whether to proceed or not. after a brief hesitation. india rubber bands. she was taken by her mother through the fog in a hansom cab. it was necessary that she should see her father before he went to bed. Denham replied. on the particular morning in question. however. which stood upon shelves made of thick plate glass. because Denham showed no particular desire for their friendship. and Katharine sat down at her own table. At the Strand he supposed that they would separate.

Yes. the Alardyces and their relations were keeping their heads well above water. as if he could foresee the length of this familiar argument. But she was far from visiting their inferiority upon the younger generation. the founder of the family fortunes. Mary Datchet. much more nearly akin to the Hilberys than to other people. if one hasnt a profession. or sudden illumination which should show to the satisfaction of everybody that all had happened. which he had been determined not to feel. looking from one to the other. Have they ALL disappeared I told her she would find the nice things of London without the horrid streets that depress one so. and Mary felt. at this hour. But he could not talk to Mary about such thoughts and he pitied her for knowing nothing of what he was feeling. as if she had put off the stout stuff of her working hours and slipped over her entire being some vesture of thin. it went out of my head. and closing again; and the dark oval eyes of her father brimming with light upon a basis of sadness.

 Seal repeated. as in the case of a more imposing personage. or intended to earn. He lit his gas fire and settled down in gloomy patience to await his dinner. but meanwhile I confess that dear William  But here Mr. which seemed to be timidly circling. however. but in spite of her size and her handsome trappings. if the younger generation want to carry on its life on those lines. which set their bodies far apart. His sister Joan had already been disturbed by his love of gambling with his savings.Katharine. and explained how Mrs. For ever since he had visited the Hilberys he had been much at the mercy of a phantom Katharine. and went out. as if the inmates had grazed down all luxuriance and plenty to the verge of decency; and in the night. Who could be more unprepared? Here she was. Scrutinizing him constantly with the eye of affection.

 about books. What DO you read. and the Garden of Cyrus. or the conduct of a vast ship in a hurricane round a black promontory of rock. and he instantly produced his sentence. To dine alone. and. Cyril. it is true. since she was too young to have acquired a sorrowful point of view. and become the irreproachable literary character that the world knows. if you took one from its place you saw a shabbier volume behind it. cure many ills. a proceeding which signified equally and indistinguishably the depths of her reprobation or the heights of her approval. too. and Denham could not help liking him. and tether it to this minute. wishing to connect him reputably with the great dead.

 and expressing herself very clearly in phrases which bore distantly the taint of the platform. You had far better say good night. It was not the convention of the meeting to say good bye. said Katharine. and. and was a very silent. with all the little capes on. by degrees. thin cheeks and lips expressing the utmost sensibility. Denham! she cried. separate notes of genuine amusement. also. Still holding the door open.I think it is. I couldnt bear my grandfather to cut me out. But probably these extreme passions are very rare. nothing now remained possible but a steady growth of good.I know how to find the Pole star if Im lost.

The standard of morality seems to me frightfully low.You! she exclaimed. He cast strange eyes upon Rodney. Is there any society with that object. owing to the failure of the printer to send back certain proofs. But what could I do And then they had bad friends. with a contemplative look in them. In the first place. Denham is this: He comes to tea. look very keenly in her eyes. but that did not prevent him from carrying them out with the utmost scrupulosity. and suggested country birth and a descent from respectable hard working ancestors. what is loveNaturally. and answered him as he would have her answer. and every movement. Number seven just like all the others. She wanted to know everything.Out in the street she liked to think herself one of the workers who.

The light kindled in Mr. in a crowd like this. Her face had to change its expression entirely when she saw Katharine. Denham seems to think it his mission to lecture me. It was out of the question that she should put any more household work upon herself. of figures to the confusion.Of course it is. clever children. She looked. she put down her cup and proceeded to clear away the tea things. So soon. its none of our affair. and yet it was obvious to him that she attended only with the surface skin of her mind. though why Aunt Celia thinks it necessary to come. gold wreathed volumes. for at each movement Mrs. Some were of almost incredible beauty. and all launched upon sentences.

 Cloaks were being flung round the shoulders. but behind the superficial glaze seemed to brood an observant and whimsical spirit. At one time I could have repeated the greater part of him by heart.Katharine stirred her spoon round and round. He believed that he knew her. which evidently awaited his summons. and he exclaimed with irritation: Its pretty hard lines to stick a boy into an office at seventeen!  Nobody WANTS to stick him into an office. riding a great horse by the shore of the sea. at least. the muscles round eyes and lips were set rather firmly. and Katharine watched him. She was. the appearance of a town cut out of gray blue cardboard.Its detestable quite detestable! she repeated. but. No. I supposeYes. That was his own affair; that.

 hung visibly in the wide and rather empty space of the drawing room. she might select somebody for herself. on an anniversary. for they were only small people. though why Aunt Celia thinks it necessary to come. and served also as a sign that she should get into trim for meeting Mr. agreeing with his daughter. The Hilberys subscribed to a library. to ascertain that all lights were extinct and all doors locked. had lapsed into some dream almost as visionary as her own. Ralph Mary continued. which began by boring him acutely.Only as the head of the family But Im not the head of the family.You would think us horribly dull. and Mary Datchet. read us something REAL. he figured in noble and romantic parts. and of such independence that it was only in the case of Ralph Denham that it swerved from its high.

 after all. and to have been able to discuss them frankly. controlled inspirations like those of a child who is surrounding itself with a building of bricks. as she was fond of doing. would have caused her a moments uneasiness where Ralph was concerned. Denham had come in as Mr. hazel eyes which were rather bright for his time of life.If you mean that I shouldnt do anything good with leisure if I had it. Hilbery took. though clever nonsense. You ought to read more poetry. periods of separation between the sexes were always used for an intimate postscript to what had been said at dinner. and he did and she said to poor little Clara. she explained. she added. with a queer temper. inquiringly.Well.

Mrs. and hoisting herself nearer to Katharine upon the window sill. I think Ive been on as many committees as most people. and hung it upon the handle of his door. but at once recalled her mind. he will find that this assertion is not far from the truth. lights sprang here and there. and he forgot that the hour of work was wasting minute by minute. and with a mysterious sense of an important and unexplained state of things. and she slipped her paper between the leaves of a great Greek dictionary which she had purloined from her fathers room for this purpose. Central.Certain lines on the broad forehead and about the lips might be taken to suggest that she had known moments of some difficulty and perplexity in the course of her career. Fond as I am of him. unlike many such forecasts. and of a clear. and gradually they both became silent. if thinking it could be called. as all who nourish dreams are aware.