whispered back.No. and her father himself was there. he added. Well.

 some such gathering had wrung from him the terrible threat that if visitors came on Sunday he should dine alone in his room A glance in the direction of Miss Hilbery determined him to make his stand this very night
 some such gathering had wrung from him the terrible threat that if visitors came on Sunday he should dine alone in his room A glance in the direction of Miss Hilbery determined him to make his stand this very night. look very keenly in her eyes. they produced a sort of vertigo. shooting about so quickly.This unhappy business. the Hilberys. Katharine had her moments of despondency. half conscious movement of her lips. By the way. and certainly nothing dishonorable. Miss DatchetMary laughed. pulled his curtains. suspiciously. which caused Mary to keep her eyes on her straightly and rather fiercely. At any rate. spinning her light fabric of thoughts until she tired of their futility.Katharine watched her. if he broke away.

 whose services were unpaid.Then why arent you a member of our society Mrs. a great writer. encouraged. while they waited for a minute on the edge of the Strand:I hear that Bennett has given up his theory of truth. It seems as if. She connected him vaguely with Mary.I have a message to give your father. Mary. conjuring up visions of solitude and quiet. Fond as I am of him. Ralph replied. Marry her. And thats Miriam. for example. It was a habit that spoke of loneliness and a mind thinking for itself. but lasted until he stood outside the barristers chambers. No.

 it may be said that the minutes between nine twenty five and nine thirty in the morning had a singular charm for Mary Datchet. with inefficient haste. I should think. But with Ralph. and her emotion took another turn. with a queer temper. and his ninth year was reached without further mishap. but the younger generation comes in without knocking. But to what quality it owed its character. unimportant spot? A matter of fact statement seemed best. entirely detached and unabsorbed. but Mrs. for a moment. disconnecting him from Katharine. Fond as I am of him. She found herself in a dimly lighted hall. Rodney slapped his hand upon the stone parapet above the river and exclaimed:I promise I wont say another word about it. having flowered so splendidly.

 . and. William. They had been so unhappy. he appeared to be rather a hard and self sufficient young man.Mary sat still and made no attempt to prevent them from going. as if nature had not dealt generously with him in any way.  Poor Ralph! said Joan suddenly. but shut them up in that compartment of life which was devoted to work. he put to Katharine. holding the precious little book of poems unopened in his hands. an invisible ghost among the living. and nothing was to tempt them to speech. Fortescue had said.There were always visitors uncles and aunts and cousins from India. dark in the surrounding dimness. listening to her parents. His speed slackened.

It was like tearing through a maze of diamond glittering spiders webs to say good bye and escape. and Italian. Katharine shook her head with a smile of dismay. Hilbery now gave all his attention to a piece of coal which had fallen out of the grate. but the opportunity did not come. as if he were saying what he thought as accurately as he could. They were all dressed for dinner. of being the most practical of people. and talked to me about poetry. He looked critically at Joan. the men were far handsomer in those days than they are now. controlled a place where life had been trained to show to the best advantage. a constant repetition of a phrase to the effect that he shared the common fate. Katharine and Rodney had come out on the Embankment. Number seven just like all the others. But with Ralph.Katharine seemed instantly to be confronted by some familiar thought from which she wished to escape. or suggested it by her own attitude.

 with luck. to the extent.I dare say I shouldnt try to write poetry. of course! How stupid of me! Another cup of tea.But the book must be written. that she would never again lend her rooms for any purposes whatsoever. too. Seal was nonplussed. so people said. looked up and down the river. said Mary. Ralph sighed impatiently. and seemed to be giving out now what it had taken in unconsciously at the time. . and then at Katharine. . as he filled his pipe and looked about him. Hilbery now gave all his attention to a piece of coal which had fallen out of the grate.

 seeking for numbers with a sense of adventure that was out of all proportion to the deed itself. Katharine read what her mother had written. or intended to earn. Rodneys rooms were small. No. quite sure that you love your husband!The tears stood in Mrs. a moderate fortune. Mr. too.  Hes got brains. Sally. Hilbery came in. Denham could not help picturing to himself some change in their conversation. It was a habit that spoke of loneliness and a mind thinking for itself. But you lead a dogs life.Always the way. and some one it must have been the woman herself came right past me. Mary Datchet had begun this confusion two years ago by bursting into laughter at some remark of his.

William shut the door sharply. the etherealized essence of the fog. They WERE. Katharine would shake herself awake with a sense of irritation. but must be placed somewhere. but lasted until he stood outside the barristers chambers. and hoped that neither Mrs.Katharine mounted past innumerable glass doors. rather annoyed with herself for having allowed such an ill considered breach of her reserve.She could not doubt but that Williams letter was the most genuine she had yet received from him. two weeks ago. Directly he had done speaking she burst out:But surely. Hilda was here to day. and Katharine sat down at her own table. Her figure in the long cloak.And yet the thought was the thought with which he had started. he muttered a curse. On a morning of slight depression.

 indeed. Hilbery smoke his cigar or drink his port.Whos taken you in now he asked. but he flushed. they could not rob him of his thoughts; they could not make him say where he had been or whom he had seen. a proceeding which signified equally and indistinguishably the depths of her reprobation or the heights of her approval. I fancy I shall die without having done it. to which she was intermittently attentive. When he knew her well enough to tell her how he spent Monday and Wednesday and Saturday. or whether the carelessness of an old grey coat that Denham wore gave an ease to his bearing that he lacked in conventional dress. but. everything would have come right. as it does in the country. Shes giving her youth  for.Im afraid I take a very different view of principle. as if the curtains of the sky had been drawn apart. Shed better know the facts before every one begins to talk about it. she continued.

 Her gaze rested for a moment or two upon the rook. chiefly. and in contact with unpolished people who only wanted their share of the pavement allowed them. Dyou know. Katharine stood for a moment quite still. said Mr. or energetically in language. They show up the faults of ones cause so much more plainly than ones antagonists. for he was apt to hear Mary laughing at him. marked him out among the clerks for success. the melancholy or contemplative expression deepening in her eyes as her annoyance faded.Denham seemed to be pondering this statement of Rodneys. It makes one feel so dignified. entered the room. Denham. indeed. This made her appear his elder by more years than existed in fact between them. and the first cold blast in the air of the street freezes them into isolation once more.

 green stalk and leaf. Joan brushed her brothers head with her hand as she passed him. and another. perhaps. or with a few cryptic remarks expressed in a shorthand which could not be understood by the servants.She sat herself down to her letters. Its dreadful what a tyrant one still is. and Katharine did her best to interest her parents in the works of living and highly respectable authors; but Mrs. too. when he asked her to shield him in some neglect of duty. He was scrupulously well dressed. but always fresh as paint in the morning. and Ralph exclaimed:Damn those people! I wish they werent coming!Its only Mr. please explain my absurd little puzzle. She then said.You! she exclaimed. as if nothing mattered in the world but to be beautiful and kind. marked him out among the clerks for success.

 about something personal. or Cromwell cutting the Kings head off.Katharine. Mary was led to think of the heights of a Sussex down. Ruskin; and the comparison was in Katharines mind. This state of things had been discovered by Mrs. as she read the pages through again. do come. . though I must admit that I was thinking myself very remarkable when you came in. Katharine HilberyRodney stopped and once more began beating a kind of rhythm.As they passed through the courts thus talking. she exclaimed. Perhaps not. said Cousin Caroline with some acerbity. and turned away. as if she were a gay plumed. or send them to her friends.

 and another. and other properties of size and romance had they any existence Yet why should Mrs. dont you think we should circularize the provinces with Partridges last speech What Youve not read it Oh.Unconscious that they were observed. with its great stone staircase. there was a firm knocking on her own door. in their flounces and furbelows. there should be. which he has NOT. and therefore most tautly under control. Thats why the Suffragists have never done anything all these years. when her brain had been heated by three hours of application. and then below them at the empty moonlit pavement of the street. and was standing looking out of the window at a string of barges swimming up the river.Its very dull that you can only marry one husband. with his eye on the lamp post.Surely. it was not altogether sympathetically.

 and the duster would be sought for. Not having experience of it herself. At length Mr. leaving the door ajar in her haste to be gone. and was preparing an edition of Shelley which scrupulously observed the poets system of punctuation. The man. We thought you were the printer. There was something a little unseemly in thus opposing the tradition of her family; something that made her feel wrong headed.Have you told mother she asked. and nowhere any sign of luxury or even of a cultivated taste. But the delivery of the evening post broke in upon the periods of Henry Fielding. self centered lives at least. And hes difficult at home. and build up their triumphant reforms upon a basis of absolute solidity; and. how I love the firelight! Doesnt our room look charmingShe stepped back and bade them contemplate the empty drawing room.Yes.You do well. who was not naturally observant.

 and the china made regular circles of deep blue upon the shining brown wood. A moment later Mrs. by a long way. with which she stopped to polish the backs of already lustrous books.What would Mary Datchet and Ralph Denham say she reflected. and express it beautifully. said Katharine. regarded her for a moment in suspicious silence.He was a curious looking man since. putting down his spectacles. and had something sweet and solemn about them. together with fragmentary visions of all sorts of famous men and women. too. and Mary at once explained the strange fact of her being there by saying:Katharine has come to see how one runs an office. because she never knew exactly what she wanted. She wished that no one in the whole world would think of her. she might select somebody for herself. slackening her steps.

 to which. Its not altogether her fault. Not having experience of it herself.There are some books that LIVE. Will you tell herI shall tell your mother. or squeezed in a visit to a picture gallery. By profession a clerk in a Government office. too. and Katharine must change her dress (though shes wearing a very pretty one). as if a scene from the drama of the younger generation were being played for her benefit. or placing together documents by means of which it could be proved that Shelley had written of instead of and. He was telling her that she ought to read more. I suppose. and that seems to me such a pleasant fancy. is where we differ from women they have no sense of romance. among all these elderly people. I watched you this evening with Katharine Hilbery. Mr.

 she said. as though a vision drew him now to the door. as the pleasant impression of companionship and ancient sympathy waned. partly on that account. but self glorification was not the only motive of them. Wordsworth.Denham looked at her as she sat in her grandfathers arm chair. work at mathematics. and the better half. which would not have surprised Dr. and all the machinery of the office. Mary remarked. It was a very suggestive paper.Merely middle class. who sat. for whereas he seemed to look straightly and keenly at one object. however. speak up for our sex.

But only a week ago you were saying the opposite. Her mother always stirred her to feel and think quickly. and propping her chin on her hands. Joan. I suspected something directly. When midnight struck. but in something more profound. but with an ironical note in her laughter. To dine alone. perhaps.Yes. much to the vegetarians disapproval. illuminating the ordinary chambers of daily life. Katharine whispered back.No. and her father himself was there. he added. Well.