doingany
more
than
I
do
.
”
“
I
always
think
you
could
make
this
room
much
nicer
,
if
you
liked
,
”
she
observed
.
“
What
does
it
matter
what
sort
of
room
I
have
when
I’m
forced
to
spend
all
the
best
years
of
my
life
drawing
up
deeds
in
an
office
?
”
“
You
said
two
days
ago
that
you
found
the
law
so
interesting
.
”
“
So
it
is
if
one
could
afford
to
know
anything
about
it
.
”
(
“
That’s
Herbert
only
just
going
to
bed
now
,
”
Joan
interposed
,
as
a
door
on
the
landing
slammed
vigorously
.
“
And
then
he
won’t
get
up
in
the
morning
.
”
)
Ralph
looked
at
the
ceiling
,
and
shut
his
lips
closely
together
.
Why
,
he
wondered
,
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
capable
of
shorter
and
less
frequent
flights
into
the
outer
world
,
and
yet
she
was
only
thirty-three
.
“
D’you
ever
pay
calls
now
?
”
he
asked
abruptly
.
“
I
don’t
often
have
the
time
.
Why
do
you
ask
?
”
“
It
might
be
a
good
thing
,
to
get
to
know
new
people
,
that’s
all
.
”
“
Poor
Ralph
!
”
said
Joan
suddenly
,
with
a
smile
.
“
You
think
your
sister’s
getting
very
old
and
very
dull
—
that’s
it
,
isn’t
it
?
”
“
I
don’t
think
anything
of
the
kind
,
”
he
said
stoutly
,
but
he
flushed
.
“
But
you
lead
a
dog’s
life
,
Joan
.
When
you’re
not
working
in
an
office
,
you’re
worrying
over
the
rest
of
us
.
And
I’m
not
much
good
to
you
,
I’m
afraid
.
”
Joan
rose
,
and
stood
for
a
moment
warming
her
hands
,
and
,
apparently
,
meditating
as
to
whether
she
should
say
anything
more
or
not
.
A
feeling
of
great
intimacy
united
the
brother
and
sister
,
and
the
semicircular
lines
above
their
eyebrows
disappeared
.
No
,
there
was
nothing
more
to
be
said
on
either
side
.
Joan
brushed
her
brother’s
head
with
her
hand
as
she
passed
him
,
murmured
good
night
,
and
left
the
room
.
For
some
minutes
after
she
had
gone
Ralph
lay
quiescent
,
resting
his
head
on
his
hand
,
but
gradually
his
eyes
filled
with
thought
,
and
the
line
reappeared
on
his
brow
,
as
the
pleasant
impression
of
companionship
and
ancient
sympathy
waned
,
and
he
was
left
to
think
on
alone
.
After
a
time
he
opened
his
book
,
and
read
on
steadily
,
glancing
once
or
twice
at
his
watch
,
as
if
he
had
set
himself
a
task
to
be
accomplished
in
a
certain
measure
of
time
.
Now
and
then
he
heard
voices
in
the
house
,
and
the
closing
of
bedroom
doors
,
which
showed
that
the
building
,
at
the
top
of
which
he
sat
,
was
inhabited
in
every
one
of
its
cells
.
When
midnight
struck
,
Ralph
shut
his
book
,
and
with
a
candle
in
his
hand
,
descended
to
the
ground
floor
,
to
ascertain
that
all
lights
were
extinct
and
all
doors
locked
.
It
was
a
threadbare
,
well-worn
house
that
he
thus
examined
,
as
if
the
inmates
had
grazed
down
all
luxuriance
and
plenty
to
the
verge
of
decency
;
and
in
the
night
,
bereft
of
life
,
bare
places
and
ancient
blemishes
were
unpleasantly
visible
.
Katharine
Hilbery
,
he
thought
,
would
condemn
it
off-hand
.
CHAPTER
III
Denham
had
accused
Katharine
Hilbery
of
belonging
to
one
of
the
most
distinguished
families
in
England
,
and
if
any
one
will
take
the
trouble
to
consult
Mr.
Galton’s
“
Hereditary
Genius
,
”
he
will
find
that
this
assertion
is
not
far
from
the
truth
.
The
Alardyces
,
the
Hilberys
,
the
Millingtons
,
and
the
Otways
seem
to
prove
that
intellect
is
a
possession
which
can
be
tossed
from
one
member
of
a
certain
group
to
another
almost
indefinitely
,
and
with
apparent
certainty
that
the
brilliant
gift
will
be
safely
caught
and
held
by
nine
out
of
ten
of
the
privileged
race
.
They
had
been
conspicuous
judges
and
admirals
,
lawyers
and
servants
of
the
State
for
some
years
before
the
richness
of
the
soil
culminated
in
the
rarest
flower
that
any
family
can
boast
,
a
great
writer
,
a
poet
eminent
among
the
poets
of
England
,
a
Richard
Alardyce
;
and
having
produced
him
,
they
proved
once
more
the
amazing
virtues
of
their
race
by
proceeding
unconcernedly
again
with
their
usual
task
of
breeding
distinguished
men
.
They
had
sailed
with
Sir
John
Franklin
to
the
North
Pole
,
and
ridden
with
Havelock
to
the
Relief
of
Lucknow
,
and
when
they
were
not
lighthouses
firmly
based
on
rock
for
the
guidance
of
their
generation
,
they
were
steady
,
serviceable
candles
,
illuminating
the
ordinary
chambers
of
daily
life
.
Whatever
profession
you
looked
at
,
there
was
a
Warburton
or
an
Alardyce
,
a
Millington
or
a
Hilbery
somewhere
in
authority
and
prominence
.
It
may
be
said
,
indeed
,
that
English
society
being
what
it
is
,
no
very
great
merit
is
required
,
once
you
bear
a
well-known
name
,
to
put
you
into
a
position
where
it
is
easier
on
the
whole
to
be
eminent
than
obscure
.
And
if
this
is
true
of
the
sons
,
even
the
daughters
,
even
in
the
nineteenth
century
,
are
apt
to
become
people
of
importance
—
philanthropists
and
educationalists
if
they
are
spinsters
,
and
the
wives
of
distinguished
men
if
they
marry
.
It
is
true
that
there
were
several
lamentable
exceptions
to
this
rule
in
the
Alardyce
group
,
which
seems
to
indicate
that
the
cadets
of
such
houses
go
more
rapidly
to
the
bad
than
the
children
of
ordinary
fathers
and
mothers
,
as
if
it
were
somehow
a
relief
to
them
.
But
,
on
the
whole
,
in
these
first
years
of
the
twentieth
century
,
the
Alardyces
and
their
relations
were
keeping
their
heads
well
above
water
.
One
finds
them
at
the
tops
of
professions
,
with
letters
after
their
names
;
they
sit
in
luxurious
public
offices
,
with
private
secretaries
attached
to
them
;
they
write
solid
books
in
dark
covers
,
issued
by
the
presses
of
the
two
great
universities
,
and
when
one
of
them
dies
the
chances
are
that
another
of
them
writes
his
biography
.
Now
the
source
of
this
nobility
was
,
of
course
,
the
poet
,
and
his
immediate
descendants
,
therefore
,
were
invested
with
greater
luster
than
the
collateral
branches
.
Mrs.
Hilbery
,
in
virtue
of
her
position
as
the
only
child
of
the
poet
,
was
spiritually
the
head
of
the
family
,
and
Katharine
,
her
daughter
,
had
some
superior
rank
among
all
the
cousins
and
connections
,
the
more
so
because
she
was
an
only
child
.
The
Alardyces
had
married
and
intermarried
,
and
their
offspring
were
generally
profuse
,
and
had
a
way
of
meeting
regularly
in
each
other’s
houses
for
meals
and
family
celebrations
which
had
acquired
a
semi-sacred
character
,
and
were
as
regularly
observed
as
days
of
feasting
and
fasting
in
the
Church
.
In
times
gone
by
,
Mrs.
Hilbery
had
known
all
the
poets
,
all
the
novelists
,
all
the
beautiful
women
and
distinguished
men
of
her
time
.
These
being
now
either
dead
or
secluded
in
their
infirm
glory
,
she
made
her
house
a
meeting-place
for
her
own
relations
,
to
whom
she
would
lament
the
passing
of
the
great
days
of
the
nineteenth
century
,
when
every
department
of
letters
and
art
was
represented
in
England
by
two
or
three
illustrious
names
.
Where
are
their
successors
?
she
would
ask
,
and
the
absence
of
any
poet
or
painter
or
novelist
of
the
true
caliber
at
the
present
day
was
a
text
upon
which
she
liked
to
ruminate
,
in
a
sunset
mood
of
benignant
reminiscence
,
which
it
would
have
been
hard
to
disturb
had
there
been
need
.
But
she
was
far
from
visiting
their
inferiority
upon
the
younger
generation
.
She
welcomed
them
very
heartily
to
her
house
,
told
them
her
stories
,
gave
them
sovereigns
and
ices
and
good
advice
,
and
weaved
round
them
romances
which
had
generally
no
likeness
to
the
truth
.
The
quality
of
her
birth
oozed
into
Katharine’s
consciousness
from
a
dozen
different
sources
as
soon
as
she
was
able
to
perceive
anything
.
Above
her
nursery
fireplace
hung
a
photograph
of
her
grandfather’s
tomb
in
Poets’
Corner
,
and
she
was
told
in
one
of
those
moments
of
grown-up
confidence
which
are
so
tremendously
impressive
to
the
child’s
mind
,
that
he
was
buried
there
because
he
was
a
“
good
and
great
man
.
”
Later
,
on
an
anniversary
,
she
was
taken
by
her
mother
through
the
fog
in
a
hansom
cab
,
and
given
a
large
bunch
of
bright
,
sweet-scented
flowers
to
lay
upon
his
tomb
.
The
candles
in
the
church
,
the
singing
and
the
booming
of
the
organ
,
were
all
,
she
thought
,
in
his
honor
.
Again
and
again
she
was
brought
down
into
the
drawing-room
to
receive
the
blessing
of
some
awful
distinguished
old
man
,
who
sat
,
even
to
her
childish
eye
,
somewhat
apart
,
all
gathered
together
and
clutching
a
stick
,
unlike
an
ordinary
visitor
in
her
father’s
own
arm-chair
,
and
her
father
himself
was
there
,
unlike
himself
,
too
,
a
little
excited
and
very
polite
.
These
formidable
old
creatures
used
to
take
her
in
their
arms
,
look
very
keenly
in
her
eyes
,
and
then
to
bless
her
,
and
tell
her
that
she
must
mind
and
be
a
good
girl
,
or
detect
a
look
in
her
face
something
like
Richard’s
as
a
small
boy
.
That
drew
down
upon
her
her
mother’s
fervent
embrace
,
and
she
was
sent
back
to
the
nursery
very
proud
,
and
with
a
mysterious
sense
of
an
important
and
unexplained
state
of
things
,
which
time
,
by
degrees
,
unveiled
to
her
.
There
were
always
visitors
—
uncles
and
aunts
and
cousins
“
from
India
,
”
to
be
reverenced
for
their
relationship
alone
,
and
others
of
the
solitary
and
formidable
class
,
whom
she
was
enjoined
by
her
parents
to
“
remember
all
your
life
.
”
By
these
means
,
and
from
hearing
constant
talk
of
great
men
and
their
works
,
her
earliest
conceptions
of
the
world
included
an
august
circle
of
beings
to
whom
she
gave
the
names
of
Shakespeare
,
Milton
,
Wordsworth
,
Shelley
,
and
so
on
,
who
were
,
for
some
reason
,
much
more
nearly
akin
to
the
Hilberys
than
to
other
people
.
They
made
a
kind
of
boundary
to
her
vision
of
life
,
and
played
a
considerable
part
in
determining
her
scale
of
good
and
bad
in
her
own
small
affairs
.
Her
descent
from
one
of
these
gods
was
no
surprise
to
her
,
but
matter
for
satisfaction
,
until
,
as
the
years
wore
on
,
the
privileges
of
her
lot
were
taken
for
granted
,
and
certain
drawbacks
made
themselves
very
manifest
.
Perhaps
it
is
a
little
depressing
to
inherit
not
lands
but
an
example
of
intellectual
and
spiritual
virtue
;
perhaps
the
conclusiveness
of
a
great
ancestor
is
a
little
discouraging
to
those
who
run
the
risk
of
comparison
with
him
.
It
seems
as
if
,
having
flowered
so
splendidly
,
nothing
now
remained
possible
but
a
steady
growth
of
good
,
green
stalk
and
leaf
.
For
these
reasons
,
and
for
others
,
Katharine
had
her
moments
of
despondency
.
The
glorious
past
,
in
which
men
and
women
grew
to
unexampled
size
,
intruded
too
much
upon
the
present
,
and
dwarfed
it
too
consistently
,
to
be
altogether
encouraging
to
one
forced
to
make
her
experiment
in
living
when
the
great
age
was
dead
.
She
was
drawn
to
dwell
upon
these
matters
more
than
was
natural
,
in
the
first
place
owing
to
her
mother’s
absorption
in
them
,
and
in
the
second
because
a
great
part
of
her
time
was
spent
in
imagination
with
the
dead
,
since
she
was
helping
her
mother
to
produce
a
life
of
the
great
poet
.
When
Katharine
was
seventeen
or
eighteen
—
that
is
to
say
,
some
ten
years
ago
—
her
mother
had
enthusiastically
announced
that
now
,
with
a
daughter
to
help
her
,
the
biography
would
soon
be
published
.
Notices
to
this
effect
found
their
way
into
the
literary
papers
,
and
for
some
time
Katharine
worked
with
a
sense
of
great
pride
and
achievement
.
Lately
,
however
,
it
had
seemed
to
her
that
they
were
making
no
way
at
all
,
and
this
was
the
more
tantalizing
because
no
one
with
the
ghost
of
a
literary
temperament
could
doubt
but
that
they
had
materials
for
one
of
the
greatest
biographies
that
has
ever
been
written
.
Shelves
and
boxes
bulged
with
the
precious
stuff
.
The
most
private
lives
of
the
most
interesting
people
lay
furled
in
yellow
bundles
of
close-written
manuscript
.
In
addition
to
this
Mrs.
Hilbery
had
in
her
own
head
as
bright
a
vision
of
that
time
as
now
remained
to
the
living
,
and
could
give
those
flashes
and
thrills
to
the
old
words
which
gave
them
almost
the
substance
of
flesh
.
She
had
no
difficulty
in
writing
,
and
covered
a
page
every
morning
as
instinctively
as
a
thrush
sings
,
but
nevertheless
,
with
all
this
to
urge
and
inspire
,
and
the
most
devout
intention
to
accomplish
the
work
,
the
book
still
remained
unwritten
.
Papers
accumulated
without
much
furthering
their
task
,
and
in
dull
moments
Katharine
had
her
doubts
whether
they
would
ever
produce
anything
at
all
fit
to
lay
before
the
public
.
Where
did
the
difficulty
lie
?
Not
in
their
materials
,
alas
!
nor
in
their
ambitions
,
but
in
something
more
profound
,
in
her
own
inaptitude
,
and
above
all
,
in
her
mother’s
temperament
.
Katharine
would
calculate
that
she
had
never
known
her
write
for
more
than
ten
minutes
at
a
time
.
Ideas
came
to
her
chiefly
when
she
was
in
motion
.
She
liked
to
perambulate
the
room
with
a
duster
in
her
hand
,
with
which
she
stopped
to
polish
the
backs
of
already
lustrous
books
,
musing
and
romancing
as
she
did
so
.
Suddenly
the
right
phrase
or
the
penetrating
point
of
view
would
suggest
itself
,
and
she
would
drop
her
duster
and
write
ecstatically
for
a
few
breathless
moments
;
and
then
the
mood
would
pass
away
,
and
the
duster
would
be
sought
for
,
and
the
old
books
polished
again
.
These
spells
of
inspiration
never
burnt
steadily
,
but
flickered
over
the
gigantic
mass
of
the
subject
as
capriciously
as
a
will-o’-the-wisp
,
lighting
now
on
this
point
,
now
on
that
.
It
was
as
much
as
Katharine
could
do
to
keep
the
pages
of
her
mother’s
manuscript
in
order
,
but
to
sort
them
so
that
the
sixteenth
year
of
Richard
Alardyce’s
life
succeeded
the
fifteenth
was
beyond
her
skill
.
And
yet
they
were
so
brilliant
,
these
paragraphs
,
so
nobly
phrased
,
so
lightning-like
in
their
illumination
,
that
the
dead
seemed
to
crowd
the
very
room
.
Read
continuously
,
they
produced
a
sort
of
vertigo
,
and
set
her
asking
herself
in
despair
what
on
earth
she
was
to
do
with
them
?
Her
mother
refused
,
also
,
to
face
the
radical
questions
of
what
to
leave
in
and
what
to
leave
out
.
She
could
not
decide
how
far
the
public
was
to
be
told
the
truth
about
the
poet’s
separation
from
his
wife
.
She
drafted
passages
to
suit
either
case
,
and
then
liked
each
so
well
that
she
could
not
decide
upon
the
rejection
of
either
.
But
the
book
must
be
written
.
It
was
a
duty
that
they
owed
the
world
,
and
to
Katharine
,
at
least
,
it
meant
more
than
that
,
for
if
they
could
not
between
them
get
this
one
book
accomplished
they
had
no
right
to
their
privileged
position
.
Their
increment
became
yearly
more
and
more
unearned
.
Besides
,
it
must
be
established
indisputably
that
her
grandfather
was
a
very
great
man
.
By
the
time
she
was
twenty-seven
,
these
thoughts
had
become
very
familiar
to
her
.
They
trod
their
way
through
her
mind
as
she
sat
opposite
her
mother
of
a
morning
at
a
table
heaped
with
bundles
of
old
letters
and
well
supplied
with
pencils
,
scissors
,
bottles
of
gum
,
india-rubber
bands
,
large
envelopes
,
and
other
appliances
for
the
manufacture
of
books
.
Shortly
before
Ralph
Denham’s
visit
,
Katharine
had
resolved
to
try
the
effect
of
strict
rules
upon
her
mother’s
habits
of
literary
composition
.
They
were
to
be
seated
at
their
tables
every
morning
at
ten
o’clock
,
with
a
clean-swept
morning
of
empty
,
secluded
hours
before
them
.
They
were
to
keep
their
eyes
fast
upon
the
paper
,
and
nothing
was
to
tempt
them
to
speech
,
save
at
the
stroke
of
the
hour
when
ten
minutes
for
relaxation
were
to
be
allowed
them
.
If
these
rules
were
observed
for
a
year
,
she
made
out
on
a
sheet
of
paper
that
the
completion
of
the
book
was
certain
,
and
she
laid
her
scheme
before
her
mother
with
a
feeling
that
much
of
the
task
was
already
accomplished
.
Mrs.
Hilbery
examined
the
sheet
of
paper
very
carefully
.
Then
she
clapped
her
hands
and
exclaimed
enthusiastically
:
“
Well
done
,
Katharine
!
What
a
wonderful
head
for
business
you’ve
got
!
Now
I
shall
keep
this
before
me
,
and
every
day
I
shall
make
a
little
mark
in
my
pocketbook
,
and
on
the
last
day
of
all
—
let
me
think
,
what
shall
we
do
to
celebrate
the
last
day
of
all
?
If
it
weren’t
the
winter
we
could
take
a
jaunt
to
Italy
.
They
say
Switzerland’s
very
lovely
in
the
snow
,
except
for
the
cold
.
But
,
as
you
say
,
the
great
thing
is
to
finish
the
book
.
Now
let
me
see
—
”
When
they
inspected
her
manuscripts
,
which
Katharine
had
put
in
order
,
they
found
a
state
of
things
well
calculated
to
dash
their
spirits
,
if
they
had
not
just
resolved
on
reform
.
They
found
,
to
begin
with
,
a
great
variety
of
very
imposing
paragraphs
with
which
the
biography
was
to
open
;
many
of
these
,
it
is
true
,
were
unfinished
,
and
resembled
triumphal
arches
standing
upon
one
leg
,
but
,
as
Mrs.
Hilbery
observed
,
they
could
be
patched
up
in
ten
minutes
,
if
she
gave
her
mind
to
it
.
Next
,
there
was
an
account
of
the
ancient
home
of
the
Alardyces
,
or
rather
,
of
spring
in
Suffolk
,
which
was
very
beautifully
written
,
although
not
essential
to
the
story
.
However
,
Katharine
had
put
together
a
string
of
names
and
dates
,
so
that
the
poet
was
capably
brought
into
the
world
,
and
his
ninth
year
was
reached
without
further
mishap
.
After
that
,
Mrs.
Hilbery
wished
,
for
sentimental
reasons
,
to
introduce
the
recollections
of
a
very
fluent
old
lady
,
who
had
been
brought
up
in
the
same
village
,
but
these
Katharine
decided
must
go
.
It
might
be
advisable
to
introduce
here
a
sketch
of
contemporary
poetry
contributed
by
Mr.
Hilbery
,
and
thus
terse
and
learned
and
altogether
out
of
keeping
with
the
rest
,
but
Mrs.
Hilbery
was
of
opinion
that
it
was
too
bare
,
and
made
one
feel
altogether
like
a
good
little
girl
in
a
lecture-room
,
which
was
not
at
all
in
keeping
with
her
father
.
It
was
put
on
one
side
.
Now
came
the
period
of
his
early
manhood
,
when
various
affairs
of
the
heart
must
either
be
concealed
or
revealed
;
here
again
Mrs.
Hilbery
was
of
two
minds
,
and
a
thick
packet
of
manuscript
was
shelved
for
further
consideration
.
Several
years
were
now
altogether
omitted
,
because
Mrs.
Hilbery
had
found
something
distasteful
to
her
in
that
period
,
and
had
preferred
to
dwell
upon
her
own
recollections
as
a
child
.
After
this
,
it
seemed
to
Katharine
that
the
book
became
a
wild
dance
of
will-o’-the-wisps
,
without
form
or
continuity
,
without
coherence
even
,
or
any
attempt
to
make
a
narrative
.
Here
were
twenty
pages
upon
her
grandfather’s
taste
in
hats
,
an
essay
upon
contemporary
china
,
a
long
account
of
a
summer
day’s
expedition
into
the
country
,
when
they
had
missed
their
train
,
together
with
fragmentary
visions
of
all
sorts
of
famous
men
and
women
,
which
seemed
to
be
partly
imaginary
and
partly
authentic
.
There
were
,
moreover
,
thousands
of
letters
,
and
a
mass
of
faithful
recollections
contributed
by
old
friends
,
which
had
grown
yellow
now
in
their
envelopes
,
but
must
be
placed
somewhere
,
or
their
feelings
would
be
hurt
.
So
many
volumes
had
been
written
about
the
poet
since
his
death
that
she
had
also
to
dispose
of
a
great
number
of
misstatements
,
which
involved
minute
researches
and
much
correspondence
.
Sometimes
Katharine
brooded
,
half
crushed
,
among
her
papers
;
sometimes
she
felt
that
it
was
necessary
for
her
very
existence
that
she
should
free
herself
from
the
past
;
at
others
,
that
the
past
had
completely
displaced
the
present
,
which
,
when
one
resumed
life
after
a
morning
among
the
dead
,
proved
to
be
of
an
utterly
thin
and
inferior
composition
.
The
worst
of
it
was
that
she
had
no
aptitude
for
literature
.
She
did
not
like
phrases
.
She
had
even
some
natural
antipathy
to
that
process
of
self-examination
,
that
perpetual
effort
to
understand
one’s
own
feeling
,
and
express
it
beautifully
,
fitly
,
or
energetically
in
language
,
which
constituted
so
great
a
part
of
her
mother’s
existence
.
She
was
,
on
the
contrary
,
inclined
to
be
silent
;
she
shrank
from
expressing
herself
even
in
talk
,
let
alone
in
writing
.
As
this
disposition
was
highly
convenient
in
a
family
much
given
to
the
manufacture
of
phrases
,
and
seemed
to
argue
a
corresponding
capacity
for
action
,
she
was
,
from
her
childhood
even
,
put
in
charge
of
household
affairs
.
She
had
the
reputation
,
which
nothing
in
her
manner
contradicted
,
of
being
the
most
practical
of
people
.
Ordering
meals
,
directing
servants
,
paying
bills
,
and
so
contriving
that
every
clock
ticked
more
or
less
accurately
in
time
,
and
a
number
of
vases
were
always
full
of
fresh
flowers
was
supposed
to
be
a
natural
endowment
of
hers
,
and
,
indeed
,
Mrs.
Hilbery
often
observed
that
it
was
poetry
the
wrong
side
out
.
From
a
very
early
age
,
too
,
she
had
to
exert
herself
in
another
capacity
;
she
had
to
counsel
and
help
and
generally
sustain
her
mother
.
Mrs.
Hilbery
would
have
been
perfectly
well
able
to
sustain
herself
if
the
world
had
been
what
the
world
is
not
.
She
was
beautifully
adapted
for
life
in
another
planet
.
But
the
natural
genius
she
had
for
conducting
affairs
there
was
of
no
real
use
to
her
here
.
Her
watch
,
for
example
,
was
a
constant
source
of
surprise
to
her
,
and
at
the
age
of
sixty-five
she
was
still
amazed
at
the
ascendancy
which
rules
and
reasons
exerted
over
the
lives
of
other
people
.
She
had
never
learnt
her
lesson
,
and
had
constantly
to
be
punished
for
her
ignorance
.
But
as
that
ignorance
was
combined
with
a
fine
natural
insight
which
saw
deep
whenever
it
saw
at
all
,
it
was
not
possible
to
write
Mrs.
Hilbery
off
among
the
dunces
;
on
the
contrary
,
she
had
a
way
of
seeming
the
wisest
person
in
the
room
.
But
,
on
the
whole
,
she
found
it
very
necessary
to
seek
support
in
her
daughter
.
Katharine
,
thus
,
was
a
member
of
a
very
great
profession
which
has
,
as
yet
,
no
title
and
very
little
recognition
,
although
the
labor
of
mill
and
factory
is
,
perhaps
,
no
more
severe
and
the
results
of
less
benefit
to
the
world
.
She
lived
at
home
.
She
did
it
very
well
,
too
.
Any
one
coming
to
the
house
in
Cheyne
Walk
felt
that
here
was
an
orderly
place
,
shapely
,
controlled
—
a
place
where
life
had
been
trained
to
show
to
the
best
advantage
,
and
,
though
composed
of
different
elements
,
made
to
appear
harmonious
and
with
a
character
of
its
own
.
Perhaps
it
was
the
chief
triumph
of
Katharine’s
art
that
Mrs.
Hilbery’s
character
predominated
.
She
and
Mr.
Hilbery
appeared
to
be
a
rich
background
for
her
mother’s
more
striking
qualities
.
Silence
being
,
thus
,
both
natural
to
her
and
imposed
upon
her
,
the
only
other
remark
that
her
mother’s
friends
were
in
the
habit
of
making
about
it
was
that
it
was
neither
a
stupid
silence
nor
an
indifferent
silence
.
But
to
what
quality
it
owed
its
character
,
since
character
of
some
sort
it
had
,
no
one
troubled
themselves
to
inquire
.
It
was
understood
that
she
was
helping
her
mother
to
produce
a
great
book
.
She
was
known
to
manage
the
household
.
She
was
certainly
beautiful
.
That
accounted
for
her
satisfactorily
.
But
it
would
have
been
a
surprise
,
not
only
to
other
people
but
to
Katharine
herself
,
if
some
magic
watch
could
have
taken
count
of
the
moments
spent
in
an
entirely
different
occupation
from
her
ostensible
one
.
Sitting
with
faded
papers
before
her
,
she
took
part
in
a
series
of
scenes
such
as
the
taming
of
wild
ponies
upon
the
American
prairies
,
or
the
conduct
of
a
vast
ship
in
a
hurricane
round
a
black
promontory
of
rock
,
or
in
others
more
peaceful
,
but
marked
by
her
complete
emancipation
from
her
present
surroundings
and
,
needless
to
say
,
by
her
surpassing
ability
in
her
new
vocation
.
When
she
was
rid
of
the
pretense
of
paper
and
pen
,
phrase-making
and
biography
,
she
turned
her
attention
in
a
more
legitimate
direction
,
though
,
strangely
enough
,
she
would
rather
have
confessed
her
wildest
dreams
of
hurricane
and
prairie
than
the
fact
that
,
upstairs
,
alone
in
her
room
,
she
rose
early
in
the
morning
or
sat
up
late
at
night
to
...
work
at
mathematics
.
No
force
on
earth
would
have
made
her
confess
that
.
Her
actions
when
thus
engaged
were
furtive
and
secretive
,
like
those
of
some
nocturnal
animal
.
Steps
had
only
to
sound
on
the
staircase
,
and
she
slipped
her
paper
between
the
leaves
of
a
great
Greek
dictionary
which
she
had
purloined
from
her
father’s
room
for
this
purpose
.
It
was
only
at
night
,
indeed
,
that
she
felt
secure
enough
from
surprise
to
concentrate
her
mind
to
the
utmost
.
Perhaps
the
unwomanly
nature
of
the
science
made
her
instinctively
wish
to
conceal
her
love
of
it
.
But
the
more
profound
reason
was
that
in
her
mind
mathematics
were
directly
opposed
to
literature
.
She
would
not
have
cared
to
confess
how
infinitely
she
preferred
the
exactitude
,
the
star-like
impersonality
,
of
figures
to
the
confusion
,
agitation
,
and
vagueness
of
the
finest
prose
.
There
was
something
a
little
unseemly
in
thus
opposing
the
tradition
of
her
family
;
something
that
made
her
feel
wrong-headed
,
and
thus
more
than
ever
disposed
to
shut
her
desires
away
from
view
and
cherish
them
with
extraordinary
fondness
.
Again
and
again
she
was
thinking
of
some
problem
when
she
should
have
been
thinking
of
her
grandfather
.
Waking
from
these
trances
,
she
would
see
that
her
mother
,
too
,
had
lapsed
into
some
dream
almost
as
visionary
as
her
own
,
for
the
people
who
played
their
parts
in
it
had
long
been
numbered
among
the
dead
.
But
,
seeing
her
own
state
mirrored
in
her
mother’s
face
,
Katharine
would
shake
herself
awake
with
a
sense
of
irritation
.
Her
mother
was
the
last
person
she
wished
to
resemble
,
much
though
she
admired
her
.
Her
common
sense
would
assert
itself
almost
brutally
,
and
Mrs.
Hilbery
,
looking
at
her
with
her
odd
sidelong
glance
,
that
was
half
malicious
and
half
tender
,
would
liken
her
to
“
your
wicked
old
Uncle
Judge
Peter
,
who
used
to
be
heard
delivering
sentence
of
death
in
the
bathroom
.
Thank
Heaven
,
Katharine
,
I’ve
not
a
drop
of
him
in
me
!
”
CHAPTER
IV
At
about
nine
o’clock
at
night
,
on
every
alternate
Wednesday
,
Miss
Mary
Datchet
made
the
same
resolve
,
that
she
would
never
again
lend
her
rooms
for
any
purposes
whatsoever
.
Being
,
as
they
were
,
rather
large
and
conveniently
situated
in
a
street
mostly
dedicated
to
offices
off
the
Strand
,
people
who
wished
to
meet
,
either
for
purposes
of
enjoyment
,
or
to
discuss
art
,
or
to
reform
the
State
,
had
a
way
of
suggesting
that
Mary
had
better
be
asked
to
lend
them
her
rooms
.
She
always
met
the
request
with
the
same
frown
of
well-simulated
annoyance
,
which
presently
dissolved
in
a
kind
of
half-humorous
,
half-surly
shrug
,
as
of
a
large
dog
tormented
by
children
who
shakes
his
ears
.
She
would
lend
her
room
,
but
only
on
condition
that
all
the
arrangements
were
made
by
her
.
This
fortnightly
meeting
of
a
society
for
the
free
discussion
of
everything
entailed
a
great
deal
of
moving
,
and
pulling
,
and
ranging
of
furniture
against
the
wall
,
and
placing
of
breakable
and
precious
things
in
safe
places
.
Miss
Datchet
was
quite
capable
of
lifting
a
kitchen
table
on
her
back
,
if
need
were
,
for
although
well-proportioned
and
dressed
becomingly
,
she
had
the
appearance
of
unusual
strength
and
determination
.
She
was
some
twenty-five
years
of
age
,
but
looked
older
because
she
earned
,
or
intended
to
earn
,
her
own
living
,
and
had
already
lost
the
look
of
the
irresponsible
spectator
,
and
taken
on
that
of
the
private
in
the
army
of
workers
.
Her
gestures
seemed
to
have
a
certain
purpose
,
the
muscles
round
eyes
and
lips
were
set
rather
firmly
,
as
though
the
senses
had
undergone
some
discipline
,
and
were
held
ready
for
a
call
on
them
.
She
had
contracted
two
faint
lines
between
her
eyebrows
,
not
from
anxiety
but
from
thought
,
and
it
was
quite
evident
that
all
the
feminine
instincts
of
pleasing
,
soothing
,
and
charming
were
crossed
by
others
in
no
way
peculiar
to
her
sex
.
For
the
rest
she
was
brown-eyed
,
a
little
clumsy
in
movement
,
and
suggested
country
birth
and
a
descent
from
respectable
hard-working
ancestors
,
who
had
been
men
of
faith
and
integrity
rather
than
doubters
or
fanatics
.
At
the
end
of
a
fairly
hard
day’s
work
it
was
certainly
something
of
an
effort
to
clear
one’s
room
,
to
pull
the
mattress
off
one’s
bed
,
and
lay
it
on
the
floor
,
to
fill
a
pitcher
with
cold
coffee
,
and
to
sweep
a
long
table
clear
for
plates
and
cups
and
saucers
,
with
pyramids
of
little
pink
biscuits
between
them
;
but
when
these
alterations
were
effected
,
Mary
felt
a
lightness
of
spirit
come
to
her
,
as
if
she
had
put
off
the
stout
stuff
of
her
working
hours
and
slipped
over
her
entire
being
some
vesture
of
thin
,
bright
silk
.
She
knelt
before
the
fire
and
looked
out
into
the
room
.
The
light
fell
softly
,
but
with
clear
radiance
,
through
shades
of
yellow
and
blue
paper
,
and
the
room
,
which
was
set
with
one
or
two
sofas
resembling
grassy
mounds
in
their
lack
of
shape
,
looked
unusually
large
and
quiet
.
Mary
was
led
to
think
of
the
heights
of
a
Sussex
down
,
and
the
swelling
green
circle
of
some
camp
of
ancient
warriors
.
The
moonlight
would
be
falling
there
so
peacefully
now
,
and
she
could
fancy
the
rough
pathway
of
silver
upon
the
wrinkled
skin
of
the
sea
.
“
And
here
we
are
,
”
she
said
,
half
aloud
,
half
satirically
,
yet
with
evident
pride
,
“
talking
about
art
.
”
She
pulled
a
basket
containing
balls
of
differently
colored
wools
and
a
pair
of
stockings
which
needed
darning
towards
her
,
and
began
to
set
her
fingers
to
work
;
while
her
mind
,
reflecting
the
lassitude
of
her
body
,
went
on
perversely
,
conjuring
up
visions
of
solitude
and
quiet
,
and
she
pictured
herself
laying
aside
her
knitting
and
walking
out
on
to
the
down
,
and
hearing
nothing
but
the
sheep
cropping
the
grass
close
to
the
roots
,
while
the
shadows
of
the
little
trees
moved
very
slightly
this
way
and
that
in
the
moonlight
,
as
the
breeze
went
through
them
.
But
she
was
perfectly
conscious
of
her
present
situation
,
and
derived
some
pleasure
from
the
reflection
that
she
could
rejoice
equally
in
solitude
,
and
in
the
presence
of
the
many
very
different
people
who
were
now
making
their
way
,
by
divers
paths
,
across
London
to
the
spot
where
she
was
sitting
.
As
she
ran
her
needle
in
and
out
of
the
wool
,
she
thought
of
the
various
stages
in
her
own
life
which
made
her
present
position
seem
the
culmination
of
successive
miracles
.
She
thought
of
her
clerical
father
in
his
country
parsonage
,
and
of
her
mother’s
death
,
and
of
her
own
determination
to
obtain
education
,
and
of
her
college
life
,
which
had
merged
,
not
so
very
long
ago
,
in
the
wonderful
maze
of
London
,
which
still
seemed
to
her
,
in
spite
of
her
constitutional
level-headedness
,
like
a
vast
electric
light
,
casting
radiance
upon
the
myriads
of
men
and
women
who
crowded
round
it
.
And
here
she
was
at
the
very
center
of
it
all
,
that
center
which
was
constantly
in
the
minds
of
people
in
remote
Canadian
forests
and
on
the
plains
of
India
,
when
their
thoughts
turned
to
England
.
The
nine
mellow
strokes
,
by
which
she
was
now
apprised
of
the
hour
,
were
a
message
from
the
great
clock
at
Westminster
itself
.
As
the
last
of
them
died
away
,
there
was
a
firm
knocking
on
her
own
door
,
and
she
rose
and
opened
it
.
She
returned
to
the
room
,
with
a
look
of
steady
pleasure
in
her
eyes
,
and
she
was
talking
to
Ralph
Denham
,
who
followed
her
.
“
Alone
?
”
he
said
,
as
if
he
were
pleasantly
surprised
by
that
fact
.
“
I
am
sometimes
alone
,
”
she
replied
.
“
But
you
expect
a
great
many
people
,
”
he
added
,
looking
round
him
.
“
It’s
like
a
room
on
the
stage
.
Who
is
it
to-night
?
”
“
William
Rodney
,
upon
the
Elizabethan
use
of
metaphor
.
I
expect
a
good
solid
paper
,
with
plenty
of
quotations
from
the
classics
.
”
Ralph
warmed
his
hands
at
the
fire
,
which
was
flapping
bravely
in
the
grate
,
while
Mary
took
up
her
stocking
again
.
“
I
suppose
you
are
the
only
woman
in
London
who
darns
her
own
stockings
,
”
he
observed
.
“
I’m
only
one
of
a
great
many
thousands
really
,
”
she
replied
,
“
though
I
must
admit
that
I
was
thinking
myself
very
remarkable
when
you
came
in
.
And
now
that
you’re
here
I
don’t
think
myself
remarkable
at
all
.
How
horrid
of
you
!
But
I’m
afraid
you’re
much
more
remarkable
than
I
am
.
You’ve
done
much
more
than
I’ve
done
.
”
“
If
that’s
your
standard
,
you’ve
nothing
to
be
proud
of
,
”
said
Ralph
grimly
.
“
Well
,
I
must
reflect
with
Emerson
that
it’s
being
and
not
doing
that
matters
,
”
she
continued
.
“
Emerson
?
”
Ralph
exclaimed
,
with
derision
.
“
You
don’t
mean
to
say
you
read
Emerson
?
”
“
Perhaps
it
wasn’t
Emerson
;
but
why
shouldn’t
I
read
Emerson
?
”
she
asked
,
with
a
tinge
of
anxiety
.
“
There’s
no
reason
that
I
know
of
.
It’s
the
combination
that’s
odd
—
books
and
stockings
.
The
combination
is
very
odd
.
”
But
it
seemed
to
recommend
itself
to
him
.
Mary
gave
a
little
laugh
,
expressive
of
happiness
,
and
the
particular
stitches
that
she
was
now
putting
into
her
work
appeared
to
her
to
be
done
with
singular
grace
and
felicity
.
She
held
out
the
stocking
and
looked
at
it
approvingly
.
“
You
always
say
that
,
”
she
said
.
“
I
assure
you
it’s
a
common
‘combination
,
’
as
you
call
it
,
in
the
houses
of
the
clergy
.
The
only
thing
that’s
odd
about
me
is
that
I
enjoy
them
both
—
Emerson
and
the
stocking
.
”
A
knock
was
heard
,
and
Ralph
exclaimed
:
“
Damn
those
people
!
I
wish
they
weren’t
coming
!
”
“
It’s
only
Mr.
Turner
,
on
the
floor
below
,
”
said
Mary
,
and
she
felt
grateful
to
Mr.
Turner
for
having
alarmed
Ralph
,
and
for
having
given
a
false
alarm
.
“
Will
there
be
a
crowd
?
”
Ralph
asked
,
after
a
pause
.
“
There’ll
be
the
Morrises
and
the
Crashaws
,
and
Dick
Osborne
,
and
Septimus
,
and
all
that
set
.
Katharine
Hilbery
is
coming
,
by
the
way
,
so
William
Rodney
told
me
.
”
“
Katharine
Hilbery
!
”
Ralph
exclaimed
.
“
You
know
her
?
”
Mary
asked
,
with
some
surprise
.
“
I
went
to
a
tea-party
at
her
house
.
”
Mary
pressed
him
to
tell
her
all
about
it
,
and
Ralph
was
not
at
all
unwilling
to
exhibit
proofs
of
the
extent
of
his
knowledge
.
He
described
the
scene
with
certain
additions
and
exaggerations
which
interested
Mary
very
much
.
“
But
,
in
spite
of
what
you
say
,
I
do
admire
her
,
”
she
said
.
“
I’ve
only
seen
her
once
or
twice
,
but
she
seems
to
me
to
be
what
one
calls
a
‘personality.’
”
“
I
didn’t
mean
to
abuse
her
.
I
only
felt
that
she
wasn’t
very
sympathetic
to
me
.
”
“
They
say
she’s
going
to
marry
that
queer
creature
Rodney
.
”
“
Marry
Rodney
?
Then
she
must
be
more
deluded
than
I
thought
her
.
”
“
Now
that’s
my
door
,
all
right
,
”
Mary
exclaimed
,
carefully
putting
her
wools
away
,
as
a
succession
of
knocks
reverberated
unnecessarily
,
accompanied
by
a
sound
of
people
stamping
their
feet
and
laughing
.
A
moment
later
the
room
was
full
of
young
men
and
women
,
who
came
in
with
a
peculiar
look
of
expectation
,
exclaimed
“
Oh
!
”
when
they
saw
Denham
,
and
then
stood
still
,
gaping
rather
foolishly
.
The
room
very
soon
contained
between
twenty
and
thirty
people
,
who
found
seats
for
the
most
part
upon
the
floor
,
occupying
the
mattresses
,
and
hunching
themselves
together
into
triangular
shapes
.
They
were
all
young
and
some
of
them
seemed
to
make
a
protest
by
their
hair
and
dress
,
and
something
somber
and
truculent
in
the
expression
of
their
faces
,
against
the
more
normal
type
,
who
would
have
passed
unnoticed
in
an
omnibus
or
an
underground
railway
.
It
was
notable
that
the
talk
was
confined
to
groups
,
and
was
,
at
first
,
entirely
spasmodic
in
character
,
and
muttered
in
undertones
as
if
the
speakers
were
suspicious
of
their
fellow-guests
.
Katharine
Hilbery
came
in
rather
late
,
and
took
up
a
position
on
the
floor
,
with
her
back
against
the
wall
.
She
looked
round
quickly
,
recognized
about
half
a
dozen
people
,
to
whom
she
nodded
,
but
failed
to
see
Ralph
,
or
,
if
so
,
had
already
forgotten
to
attach
any
name
to
him
.
But
in
a
second
these
heterogeneous
elements
were
all
united
by
the
voice
of
Mr.
Rodney
,
who
suddenly
strode
up
to
the
table
,
and
began
very
rapidly
in
high-strained
tones
:
“
In
undertaking
to
speak
of
the
Elizabethan
use
of
metaphor
in
poetry
—
”
All
the
different
heads
swung
slightly
or
steadied
themselves
into
a
position
in
which
they
could
gaze
straight
at
the
speaker’s
face
,
and
the
same
rather
solemn
expression
was
visible
on
all
of
them
.
But
,
at
the
same
time
,
even
the
faces
that
were
most
exposed
to
view
,
and
therefore
most
tautly
under
control
,
disclosed
a
sudden
impulsive
tremor
which
,
unless
directly
checked
,
would
have
developed
into
an
outburst
of
laughter
.
The
first
sight
of
Mr.
Rodney
was
irresistibly
ludicrous
.
He
was
very
red
in
the
face
,
whether
from
the
cool
November
night
or
nervousness
,
and
every
movement
,
from
the
way
he
wrung
his
hands
to
the
way
he
jerked
his
head
to
right
and
left
,
as
though
a
vision
drew
him
now
to
the
door
,
now
to
the
window
,
bespoke
his
horrible
discomfort
under
the
stare
of
so
many
eyes
.
He
was
scrupulously
well
dressed
,
and
a
pearl
in
the
center
of
his
tie
seemed
to
give
him
a
touch
of
aristocratic
opulence
.
But
the
rather
prominent
eyes
and
the
impulsive
stammering
manner
,
which
seemed
to
indicate
a
torrent
of
ideas
intermittently
pressing
for
utterance
and
always
checked
in
their
course
by
a
clutch
of
nervousness
,
drew
no
pity
,
as
in
the
case
of
a
more
imposing
personage
,
but
a
desire
to
laugh
,
which
was
,
however
,
entirely
lacking
in
malice
.
Mr.
Rodney
was
evidently
so
painfully
conscious
of
the
oddity
of
his
appearance
,
and
his
very
redness
and
the
starts
to
which
his
body
was
liable
gave
such
proof
of
his
own
discomfort
,
that
there
was
something
endearing
in
this
ridiculous
susceptibility
,
although
most
people
would
probably
have
echoed
Denham’s
private
exclamation
,
“
Fancy
marrying
a
creature
like
that
!
”
His
paper
was
carefully
written
out
,
but
in
spite
of
this
precaution
Mr.
Rodney
managed
to
turn
over
two
sheets
instead
of
one
,
to
choose
the
wrong
sentence
where
two
were
written
together
,
and
to
discover
his
own
handwriting
suddenly
illegible
.
When
he
found
himself
possessed
of
a
coherent
passage
,
he
shook
it
at
his
audience
almost
aggressively
,
and
then
fumbled
for
another
.
After
a
distressing
search
a
fresh
discovery
would
be
made
,
and
produced
in
the
same
way
,
until
,
by
means
of
repeated
attacks
,
he
had
stirred
his
audience
to
a
degree
of
animation
quite
remarkable
in
these
gatherings
.
Whether
they
were
stirred
by
his
enthusiasm
for
poetry
or
by
the
contortions
which
a
human
being
was
going
through
for
their
benefit
,
it
would
be
hard
to
say
.
At
length
Mr.
Rodney
sat
down
impulsively
in
the
middle
of
a
sentence
,
and
,
after
a
pause
of
bewilderment
,
the
audience
expressed
its
relief
at
being
able
to
laugh
aloud
in
a
decided
outburst
of
applause
.
Mr.
Rodney
acknowledged
this
with
a
wild
glance
round
him
,
and
,
instead
of
waiting
to
answer
questions
,
he
jumped
up
,
thrust
himself
through
the
seated
bodies
into
the
corner
where
Katharine
was
sitting
,
and
exclaimed
,
very
audibly
:
“
Well
,
Katharine
,
I
hope
I’ve
made
a
big
enough
fool
of
myself
even
for
you
!
It
was
terrible
!
terrible
!
terrible
!
”
“
Hush
!
You
must
answer
their
questions
,
”
Katharine
whispered
,
desiring
,
at
all
costs
,
to
keep
him
quiet
.
Oddly
enough
,
when
the
speaker
was
no
longer
in
front
of
them
,
there
seemed
to
be
much
that
was
suggestive
in
what
he
had
said
.
At
any
rate
,
a
pale-faced
young
man
with
sad
eyes
was
already
on
his
feet
,
delivering
an
accurately
worded
speech
with
perfect
composure
.
William
Rodney
listened
with
a
curious
lifting
of
his
upper
lip
,
although
his
face
was
still
quivering
slightly
with
emotion
.
“
Idiot
!
”
he
whispered
.
“
He’s
misunderstood
every
word
I
said
!
”
“
Well
then
,
answer
him
,
”
Katharine
whispered
back
.
“
No
,
I
shan’t
!
They’d
only
laugh
at
me
.
Why
did
I
let
you
persuade
me
that
these
sort
of
people
care
for
literature
?
”
he
continued
.
There
was
much
to
be
said
both
for
and
against
Mr.
Rodney’s
paper
.
It
had
been
crammed
with
assertions
that
such-and-such
passages
,
taken
liberally
from
English
,
French
,
and
Italian
,
are
the
supreme
pearls
of
literature
.
Further
,
he
was
fond
of
using
metaphors
which
,
compounded
in
the
study
,
were
apt
to
sound
either
cramped
or
out
of
place
as
he
delivered
them
in
fragments
.
Literature
was
a
fresh
garland
of
spring
flowers
,
he
said
,
in
which
yew-berries
and
the
purple
nightshade
mingled
with
the
various
tints
of
the
anemone
;
and
somehow
or
other
this
garland
encircled
marble
brows
.
He
had
read
very
badly
some
very
beautiful
quotations
.
But
through
his
manner
and
his
confusion
of
language
there
had
emerged
some
passion
of
feeling
which
,
as
he
spoke
,
formed
in
the
majority
of
the
audience
a
little
picture
or
an
idea
which
each
now
was
eager
to
give
expression
to
.
Most
of
the
people
there
proposed
to
spend
their
lives
in
the
practice
either
of
writing
or
painting
,
and
merely
by
looking
at
them
it
could
be
seen
that
,
as
they
listened
to
Mr.
Purvis
first
,
and
then
to
Mr.
Greenhalgh
,
they
were
seeing
something
done
by
these
gentlemen
to
a
possession
which
they
thought
to
be
their
own
.
One
person
after
another
rose
,
and
,
as
with
an
ill-balanced
axe
,
attempted
to
hew
out
his
conception
of
art
a
little
more
clearly
,
and
sat
down
with
the
feeling
that
,
for
some
reason
which
he
could
not
grasp
,
his
strokes
had
gone
awry
.
As
they
sat
down
they
turned
almost
invariably
to
the
person
sitting
next
them
,
and
rectified
and
continued
what
they
had
just
said
in
public
.
Before
long
,
therefore
,
the
groups
on
the
mattresses
and
the
groups
on
the
chairs
were
all
in
communication
with
each
other
,
and
Mary
Datchet
,
who
had
begun
to
darn
stockings
again
,
stooped
down
and
remarked
to
Ralph
:
“
That
was
what
I
call
a
first-rate
paper
.
”
Both
of
them
instinctively
turned
their
eyes
in
the
direction
of
the
reader
of
the
paper
.
He
was
lying
back
against
the
wall
,
with
his
eyes
apparently
shut
,
and
his
chin
sunk
upon
his
collar
.
Katharine
was
turning
over
the
pages
of
his
manuscript
as
if
she
were
looking
for
some
passage
that
had
particularly
struck
her
,
and
had
a
difficulty
in
finding
it
.
“
Let’s
go
and
tell
him
how
much
we
liked
it
,
”
said
Mary
,
thus
suggesting
an
action
which
Ralph
was
anxious
to
take
,
though
without
her
he
would
have
been
too
proud
to
do
it
,
for
he
suspected
that
he
had
more
interest
in
Katharine
than
she
had
in
him
.
“
That
was
a
very
interesting
paper
,
”
Mary
began
,
without
any
shyness
,
seating
herself
on
the
floor
opposite
to
Rodney
and
Katharine
.
“
Will
you
lend
me
the
manuscript
to
read
in
peace
?
”
Rodney
,
who
had
opened
his
eyes
on
their
approach
,
regarded
her
for
a
moment
in
suspicious
silence
.
“
Do
you
say
that
merely
to
disguise
the
fact
of
my
ridiculous
failure
?
”
he
asked
.
Katharine
looked
up
from
her
reading
with
a
smile
.
“
He
says
he
doesn’t
mind
what
we
think
of
him
,
”
she
remarked
.
“
He
says
we
don’t
care
a
rap
for
art
of
any
kind
.
”
“
I
asked
her
to
pity
me
,
and
she
teases
me
!
”
Rodney
exclaimed
.
“
I
don’t
intend
to
pity
you
,
Mr.
Rodney
,
”
Mary
remarked
,
kindly
,
but
firmly
.
“
When
a
paper’s
a
failure
,
nobody
says
anything
,
whereas
now
,
just
listen
to
them
!
”
The
sound
,
which
filled
the
room
,
with
its
hurry
of
short
syllables
,
its
sudden
pauses
,
and
its
sudden
attacks
,
might
be
compared
to
some
animal
hubbub
,
frantic
and
inarticulate
.
“
D’you
think
that’s
all
about
my
paper
?
”
Rodney
inquired
,
after
a
moment’s
attention
,
with
a
distinct
brightening
of
expression
.
“
Of
course
it
is
,
”
said
Mary
.
“
It
was
a
very
suggestive
paper
.
”
She
turned
to
Denham
for
confirmation
,
and
he
corroborated
her
.
“
It’s
the
ten
minutes
after
a
paper
is
read
that
proves
whether
it’s
been
a
success
or
not
,
”
he
said
.
“
If
I
were
you
,
Rodney
,
I
should
be
very
pleased
with
myself
.
”
This
commendation
seemed
to
comfort
Mr.
Rodney
completely
,
and
he
began
to
bethink
him
of
all
the
passages
in
his
paper
which
deserved
to
be
called
“
suggestive
.
”
“
Did
you
agree
at
all
,
Denham
,
with
what
I
said
about
Shakespeare’s
later
use
of
imagery
?
I’m
afraid
I
didn’t
altogether
make
my
meaning
plain
.
”
Here
he
gathered
himself
together
,
and
by
means
of
a
series
of
frog-like
jerks
,
succeeded
in
bringing
himself
close
to
Denham
.
Denham
answered
him
with
the
brevity
which
is
the
result
of
having
another
sentence
in
the
mind
to
be
addressed
to
another
person
.
He
wished
to
say
to
Katharine
:
“
Did
you
remember
to
get
that
picture
glazed
before
your
aunt
came
to
dinner
?
”
but
,
besides
having
to
answer
Rodney
,
he
was
not
sure
that
the
remark
,
with
its
assertion
of
intimacy
,
would
not
strike
Katharine
as
impertinent
.
She
was
listening
to
what
some
one
in
another
group
was
saying
.
Rodney
,
meanwhile
,
was
talking
about
the
Elizabethan
dramatists
.
He
was
a
curious-looking
man
since
,
upon
first
sight
,
especially
if
he
chanced
to
be
talking
with
animation
,
he
appeared
,
in
some
way
,
ridiculous
;
but
,
next
moment
,
in
repose
,
his
face
,
with
its
large
nose
,
thin
cheeks
and
lips
expressing
the
utmost
sensibility
,
somehow
recalled
a
Roman
head
bound
with
laurel
,
cut
upon
a
circle
of
semi-transparent
reddish
stone
.
It
had
dignity
and
character
.
By
profession
a
clerk
in
a
Government
office
,
he
was
one
of
those
martyred
spirits
to
whom
literature
is
at
once
a
source
of
divine
joy
and
of
almost
intolerable
irritation
.
Not
content
to
rest
in
their
love
of
it
,
they
must
attempt
to
practise
it
themselves
,
and
they
are
generally
endowed
with
very
little
facility
in
composition
.
They
condemn
whatever
they
produce
.
Moreover
,
the
violence
of
their
feelings
is
such
that
they
seldom
meet
with
adequate
sympathy
,
and
being
rendered
very
sensitive
by
their
cultivated
perceptions
,
suffer
constant
slights
both
to
their
own
persons
and
to
the
thing
they
worship
.
But
Rodney
could
never
resist
making
trial
of
the
sympathies
of
any
one
who
seemed
favorably
disposed
,
and
Denham’s
praise
had
stimulated
his
very
susceptible
vanity
.
“
You
remember
the
passage
just
before
the
death
of
the
Duchess
?
”
he
continued
,
edging
still
closer
to
Denham
,
and
adjusting
his
elbow
and
knee
in
an
incredibly
angular
combination
.
Here
,
Katharine
,
who
had
been
cut
off
by
these
maneuvers
from
all
communication
with
the
outer
world
,
rose
,
and
seated
herself
upon
the
window-sill
,
where
she
was
joined
by
Mary
Datchet
.
The
two
young
women
could
thus
survey
the
whole
party
.
Denham
looked
after
them
,
and
made
as
if
he
were
tearing
handfuls
of
grass
up
by
the
roots
from
the
carpet
.
But
as
it
fell
in
accurately
with
his
conception
of
life
that
all
one’s
desires
were
bound
to
be
frustrated
,
he
concentrated
his
mind
upon
literature
,
and
determined
,
philosophically
,
to
get
what
he
could
out
of
that
.
Katharine
was
pleasantly
excited
.
A
variety
of
courses
was
open
to
her
.
She
knew
several
people
slightly
,
and
at
any
moment
one
of
them
might
rise
from
the
floor
and
come
and
speak
to
her
;
on
the
other
hand
,
she
might
select
somebody
for
herself
,
or
she
might
strike
into
Rodney’s
discourse
,
to
which
she
was
intermittently
attentive
.
She
was
conscious
of
Mary’s
body
beside
her
,
but
,
at
the
same
time
,
the
consciousness
of
being
both
of
them
women
made
it
unnecessary
to
speak
to
her
.
But
Mary
,
feeling
,
as
she
had
said
,
that
Katharine
was
a
“
personality
,
”
wished
so
much
to
speak
to
her
that
in
a
few
moments
she
did
.
“
They’re
exactly
like
a
flock
of
sheep
,
aren’t
they
?
”
she
said
,
referring
to
the
noise
that
rose
from
the
scattered
bodies
beneath
her
.
Katharine
turned
and
smiled
.
“
I
wonder
what
they’re
making
such
a
noise
about
?
”
she
said
.
“
The
Elizabethans
,
I
suppose
.
”
“
No
,
I
don’t
think
it’s
got
anything
to
do
with
the
Elizabethans
.
There
!
Didn’t
you
hear
them
say
,
‘Insurance
Bill’
?
”
“
I
wonder
why
men
always
talk
about
politics
?
”
Mary
speculated
.
“
I
suppose
,
if
we
had
votes
,
we
should
,
too
.
”
“
I
dare
say
we
should
.
And
you
spend
your
life
in
getting
us
votes
,
don’t
you
?
”
“
I
do
,
”
said
Mary
,
stoutly
.
“
From
ten
to
six
every
day
I’m
at
it
.
”
Katharine
looked
at
Ralph
Denham
,
who
was
now
pounding
his
way
through
the
metaphysics
of
metaphor
with
Rodney
,
and
was
reminded
of
his
talk
that
Sunday
afternoon
.
She
connected
him
vaguely
with
Mary
.
“
I
suppose
you’re
one
of
the
people
who
think
we
should
all
have
professions
,
”
she
said
,
rather
distantly
,
as
if
feeling
her
way
among
the
phantoms
of
an
unknown
world
.
“
Oh
dear
no
,
”
said
Mary
at
once
.
“
Well
,
I
think
I
do
,
”
Katharine
continued
,
with
half
a
sigh
.
“
You
will
always
be
able
to
say
that
you’ve
done
something
,
whereas
,
in
a
crowd
like
this
,
I
feel
rather
melancholy
.
”
“
In
a
crowd
?
Why
in
a
crowd
?
”
Mary
asked
,
deepening
the
two
lines
between
her
eyes
,
and
hoisting
herself
nearer
to
Katharine
upon
the
window-sill
.
“
Don’t
you
see
how
many
different
things
these
people
care
about
?
And
I
want
to
beat
them
down
—
I
only
mean
,
”
she
corrected
herself
,
“
that
I
want
to
assert
myself
,
and
it’s
difficult
,
if
one
hasn’t
a
profession
.
”
Mary
smiled
,
thinking
that
to
beat
people
down
was
a
process
that
should
present
no
difficulty
to
Miss
Katharine
Hilbery
.
They
knew
each
other
so
slightly
that
the
beginning
of
intimacy
,
which
Katharine
seemed
to
initiate
by
talking
about
herself
,
had
something
solemn
in
it
,
and
they
were
silent
,
as
if
to
decide
whether
to
proceed
or
not
.
They
tested
the
ground
.
“
Ah
,
but
I
want
to
trample
upon
their
prostrate
bodies
!
”
Katharine
announced
,
a
moment
later
,
with
a
laugh
,
as
if
at
the
train
of
thought
which
had
led
her
to
this
conclusion
.
“
One
doesn’t
necessarily
trample
upon
people’s
bodies
because
one
runs
an
office
,
”
Mary
remarked
.
“
No.
Perhaps
not
,
”
Katharine
replied
.
The
conversation
lapsed
,
and
Mary
saw
Katharine
looking
out
into
the
room
rather
moodily
with
closed
lips
,
the
desire
to
talk
about
herself
or
to
initiate
a
friendship
having
,
apparently
,
left
her
.
Mary
was
struck
by
her
capacity
for
being
thus
easily
silent
,
and
occupied
with
her
own
thoughts
.
It
was
a
habit
that
spoke
of
loneliness
and
a
mind
thinking
for
itself
.
When
Katharine
remained
silent
Mary
was
slightly
embarrassed
.
“
Yes
,
they’re
very
like
sheep
,
”
she
repeated
,
foolishly
.
“
And
yet
they
are
very
clever
—
at
least
,
”
Katharine
added
,
“
I
suppose
they
have
all
read
Webster
.
”
“
Surely
you
don’t
think
that
a
proof
of
cleverness
?
I’ve
read
Webster
,
I’ve
read
Ben
Jonson
,
but
I
don’t
think
myself
clever
—
not
exactly
,
at
least
.
”
“
I
think
you
must
be
very
clever
,
”
Katharine
observed
.
“
Why
?
Because
I
run
an
office
?
”
“
I
wasn’t
thinking
of
that
.
I
was
thinking
how
you
live
alone
in
this
room
,
and
have
parties
.
”
Mary
reflected
for
a
second
.
“
It
means
,
chiefly
,
a
power
of
being
disagreeable
to
one’s
own
family
,
I
think
.
I
have
that
,
perhaps
.
I
didn’t
want
to
live
at
home
,
and
I
told
my
father
.
He
didn’t
like
it
...
.
But
