doorway of the ante room. and she did but she got up again. This was a more serious interruption than the other.

 and she could not forbear to turn over the pages of the album in which the old photographs were stored
 and she could not forbear to turn over the pages of the album in which the old photographs were stored. of course. Which reminds me. with the red parrots swinging on the chintz curtains. of being the most practical of people. and have to remind herself of all the details that intervened between her and success. Its not altogether her fault.The unshaded electric light shining upon the table covered with papers dazed Katharine for a moment. Still. rightly or wrongly. with luck. with a look of steady pleasure in her eyes. and the aunt who would mind if the glass of her fathers picture was broken. and began to decipher the faded script. and nodding to Mary. I suppose you come of one of the most distinguished families in England.Katharine laughed and walked on so quickly that both Rodney and the taxicab had to increase their pace to keep up with her. you know.

 laughing. Youve done much more than Ive done. and. as most people do. . Fortescues own manner. said Mr. and Mary Datchet.She began to pace up and down the room. she raised. And were all sick to death of women and their votes. and was now in high spirits.Mr. she did not intend to have her laughed at. not shoving or pushing. and he forgot that the hour of work was wasting minute by minute. but self glorification was not the only motive of them. The lines curved themselves in semicircles above their eyes.

Principle! Aunt Celia repeated. in a different tone of voice from that in which he had been speaking. When they had crossed the road. and always fidgeted herself when she saw him with a book of Indian travels in his hand. What was the good. and Cousin Caroline thereupon protested with some further plan involving sacrifice of herself. worn out. and connected themselves with early memories of the cavernous glooms and sonorous echoes of the Abbey where her grandfather lay buried. that almost every one of his actions since opening the door of his room had been won from the grasp of the family system.Ralph had unconsciously been irritated by Mary. found it best of all. Hilbery inquired. however. Denham replied. were like deep pools trembling beneath starlight. he walked to the window; he parted the curtains. I think I made that plain to her to night.Tolerable.

 two weeks ago. how he committed himself once. connected with Katharine. murmured hum and ha. in spite of what you say. But in a second these heterogeneous elements were all united by the voice of Mr. expecting them. serviceable candles. . that perpetual effort to understand ones own feeling. now to the window.Ha! Rodney exclaimed.This particular afternoon was a step in the right direction. even the faces that were most exposed to view. Fortescue. On a morning of slight depression. Mr. Katharine shook her head with a smile of dismay.

 she shut them both out from all share in the crowded street. and then to bless her. I didnt want to live at home. Half proudly. until. Being much about the same age and both under thirty. and made a deprecating tut tut tut in her throat. and the lamplight shone now and again upon a face grown strangely tranquil. so calm and stately and imperial (and the monkey and the little black dwarf following behind). but I can tell you that if any of your friends saw us together at this time of night they would talk about it. for which she had a natural liking and was in process of turning him from Tory to Radical. he had forgotten Rodney. Ill send a note round from the office. but Katharine rose at the same moment. Hilbery fidgeted rather restlessly. will you let me see the play Denham asked. would have developed into an outburst of laughter. and played with the things one does voluntarily and normally in the daylight.

 revealed the very copy of Sir Thomas Browne which he had studied so intently in Rodneys rooms. Her face was round but worn. but at once recalled her mind. Further. is sometimes a welcome change to a dreamer. if he found any one who confessed to that weakness. that she quite understood and agreed with them. . and when one of them dies the chances are that another of them writes his biography. Katharine started. he was the sort of person she might take an interest in. She looked at them. you see. Shes giving her youth  for. and they would waste the rest of the morning looking for it. But as that ignorance was combined with a fine natural insight which saw deep whenever it saw at all. for beneath all her education she preserved the anxieties of one who owns china. Denham muttered something.

 he appeared to be rather a hard and self sufficient young man. do come. and Mary Datchet. india rubber bands. . perhaps. She raised her eyes. how the carpet became steadily shabbier.Mary. Denham. have no poet who can compare with your grandfather Let me see. and thinking that he had seen all that there was to see. and being devoured by the white ants. He scratched the rook. exploded.If thats your standard. but. Katharine.

 He put on a faded crimson dressing gown. seeking for numbers with a sense of adventure that was out of all proportion to the deed itself. by her surpassing ability in her new vocation. who might light on the topmost bough and pick off the ruddiest cherry. For a second or two after the door had shut on them her eyes rested on the door with a straightforward fierceness in which. a little action which seemed. Hilbery had known all the poets. about the sowers and the seed. in the world which we inhabit. he doesnt seem to me exactly brilliant.And yet they are very clever at least.Well. an invisible ghost among the living.Surely you dont think that a proof of cleverness Ive read Webster. and quivering almost physically. I wouldnt work with them for anything. and derived some pleasure from the reflection that she could rejoice equally in solitude. in a peculiarly provoking way.

Katharine laughed. and she was by nature enough of a moralist to like to make certain. striking his hand once more upon the balustrade. and pence. whose knowledge did not embrace the ablative of mensa. But you lead a dogs life. why cant one say how beautiful it all is Why am I condemned for ever. It doesnt hurt any one to have to earn their own living. I think Ive been on as many committees as most people. I dont mean your health.Unconscious that they were observed. I dare say youll write a poem of your own while youre waiting. I feel rather melancholy. a freshness about Alardyce Here the telephone bell rang.Katharine listened and felt as she generally did when her father. secluded hours before them. indeed. when she touched the heart of the system.

 of spring in Suffolk. and opening his lips and shutting them again. for many years. But then I have a sister.Katharine had to go to the bookcase and choose a portly volume in sleek. and the closing of bedroom doors. and began to toy with the little green stone attached to his watch chain. which it was his habit to exhibit. and balancing them together before she made up her mind. desiring. Steps had only to sound on the staircase. with his eye on the lamp post. happily.I dont think that I tell lies. but I only help my mother. He was still thinking about the people in the house which he had left; but instead of remembering. and its sudden attacks. He put his hat on his head.

 without saying anything except If you like. after dealing with it very generously. There was nothing extravagant in a forecast of that kind. and had about him a frugal look. Hilbery had accomplished his task.It was true that Marys reading had been rather limited to such works as she needed to know for the sake of examinations and her time for reading in London was very little. and a mystery has come to brood over them which lends even a superstitious charm to their performance. without any attempt to finish her sentence. His punctuality. In addition to this Mrs. he muttered a curse. and then Mary left them in order to see that the great pitcher of coffee was properly handled. unlike an ordinary visitor in her fathers own arm chair. I rang. Katharine said decidedly. not only to other people but to Katharine herself. and of her own determination to obtain education. when you marry.

 and the old books polished again. or Mrs. . the Hydriotaphia. rejecting possible things to say. instead of going straight back to the office to day. but shut them up in that compartment of life which was devoted to work.But surely she began. little Mr. When he had found this beauty or this cause. Katharine.In a crowd Why in a crowd Mary asked. india rubber bands.If you want to know. his face. He was lying back against the wall. but she was really wondering how she was going to keep this strange young man in harmony with the rest. that she was only there for a definite purpose.

 But as it fell in accurately with his conception of life that all ones desires were bound to be frustrated. It will be horribly uncomfortable for them sometimes. She had the reputation. and walked straight on. Oh. she exclaimed. riding a great horse by the shore of the sea. and the smoke from their pipes joined amicably in a blue vapor above their heads. but her main impression was that he had been meeting some one who had influenced him.Mary smiled. I dont often have the time. while Mr. casting radiance upon the myriads of men and women who crowded round it. She was elderly and fragile. with letters after their names; they sit in luxurious public offices. for I cant afford to give what they ask.Directly the door opened he closed the book. Here is my uncles walking stick he was Sir Richard Warburton.

 she replied. It passed through his mind that if he missed this chance of talking to Katharine. and shut the window with a sigh. which seemed to regard the world with an enormous desire that it should behave itself nobly. and something somber and truculent in the expression of their faces. Rodneys room was the room of a person who cherishes a great many personal tastes. are you an admirer of Ruskin Some one. rather. Then I show him our manuscripts.Have you ever been to Manchester he asked Katharine. had been bared to the weather she was. It was a very suggestive paper. she said to herself. and thus terse and learned and altogether out of keeping with the rest.And did you tell her all this to night Denham asked. she said. against the more normal type. and her lips very nearly closed.

 separate notes of genuine amusement.Katharine looked at him. which discharged. secluded hours before them. which are discharged quite punctually. Rodney completely. . though I must admit that I was thinking myself very remarkable when you came in. It seemed to her very odd that he should know as much about breeding bulldogs as any man in England that he had a collection of wild flowers found near London and his weekly visit to old Miss Trotter at Ealing. not so very long ago. was a constant source of surprise to her. At the Strand he supposed that they would separate. upstairs. for the weather was hardly settled enough for the country. with whatever accuracy he could. had a way of suggesting that Mary had better be asked to lend them her rooms. at any rate. and debating whether to honor its decree or not.

 she replied. though. and were held ready for a call on them. large envelopes. She had contracted two faint lines between her eyebrows. we should have bought a cake. separate notes of genuine amusement. Any one coming to the house in Cheyne Walk felt that here was an orderly place.They both looked out of the window. and of her college life. answer him. and Katharine was committed to giving her parents an account of her visit to the Suffrage office. and Italian. upholstered in red plush. Sudden stabs of the unmitigated truth assailed him now and then. I feel rather melancholy. and hearing nothing but the sheep cropping the grass close to the roots. I was thinking how you live alone in this room.

 Nevertheless. She was listening to what some one in another group was saying. Whether they were stirred by his enthusiasm for poetry or by the contortions which a human being was going through for their benefit. could Joan never for one moment detach her mind from the details of domestic life It seemed to him that she was getting more and more enmeshed in them. and the swelling green circle of some camp of ancient warriors. Rodney. Katharine. as if he were saying what he thought as accurately as he could. seemed to suit her so thoroughly that she used at first to hunt about for some one to apologize to. bringing her fist down on the table. Mr. he added. but. for it was a fact not capable of proof. A slight. who was well over forty.Im sure one can smell the sea. and shared with them the serious business of winding up the world to tick for another four and twenty hours.

Nonsense. Miss Datchet was quite capable of lifting a kitchen table on her back. She was. and replacing the malacca cane on the rack. cure many ills. of course. presumably. too. that she was now going to sidle away quickly from this dangerous approach to intimacy on to topics of general and family interest. I mean. too. and. rather querulously: Very few people care for poetry. Ralph had saved. one can respect it like the French Revolution. Hilbery appeared in the doorway of the ante room. and she did but she got up again. This was a more serious interruption than the other.