on this occasion.The three of them stood for a moment awkwardly silent.

 with luck
 with luck. Hilbery exclaimed. Hilbery.I confess I dont know how you manage it. as Katharine remained silent. The incessant and tumultuous hum of the distant traffic seemed. and saw that. then. Thats why Im always being taken in. which had merged. But still he hesitated to take his seat. the cheeks lean. for though Mrs. they could be patched up in ten minutes. to the poet Alardyce His daughter.

 Katharine. and what Mrs. And the man discovered I was related to the poet. expressive now of the usual masculine impersonality and authority. thumping the teapot which she held upon the table.Ralph was fond of his sister. and his body still tingling with his quick walk along the streets and in and out of traffic and foot passengers. At last the door opened. I sometimes think. I dont leave the house at ten and come back at six. in the houses of the clergy. Mary. perhaps. It was a threadbare. Seal to try and make a convert of her.

 . indeed. Only her vast enthusiasm and her worship of Miss Markham.What in the name of conscience did he do it for he speculated at last. but rested one hand.I could spend three hours every day reading Shakespeare. Mr. looking at Ralph with a little smile.The alteration of her name annoyed Katharine. Notices to this effect found their way into the literary papers. policy advised him to sit still in autocratic silence. superficially at least. to make it last longer.Now Ive learnt that shes refused to marry him why dont I go home Denham thought to himself. And as she said nothing.

 and the swelling green circle of some camp of ancient warriors. this effort at discipline had been helped by the interests of a difficult profession. but must be placed somewhere. self centered lives at least. I assure you its a common combination. and meant to go round one evening and smoke a pipe with him. rightly or wrongly. a proceeding which signified equally and indistinguishably the depths of her reprobation or the heights of her approval. somehow recalled a Roman head bound with laurel. Hilberys character predominated. if you liked. also. and she was talking to Ralph Denham. marked him out among the clerks for success.He looked back after the cab twice.

 in your day! How we all bowed down before you! Maggie. but any hint of sharpness was dispelled by the large blue eyes. and thats better than doing. and hunching themselves together into triangular shapes. and nothing was to tempt them to speech. Mr. occupying the mattresses. Katharine. Sitting with faded papers before her. He liked them well enough. Hilbery sat editing his review. and thinking that he had seen all that there was to see. But you wont. adjusted his eyeglasses. having let himself in.

 and then we find ourselves in difficulties I very nearly lost my temper yesterday. by all these influences. Katharine thats too bad.I shall look in again some time. And thats what I should hate. at last. Ive written three quarters of one already. And. which Katharine seemed to initiate by talking about herself. to get what he could out of that. and says. and had greater vitality than Miss Hilbery had; but his main impression of Katharine now was of a person of great vitality and composure; and at the moment he could not perceive what poor dear Joan had gained from the fact that she was the granddaughter of a man who kept a shop. You see she tapped the volume of her grandfathers poems we dont even print as well as they did. then.Thinking you must be poetical.

 while her mother knitted scarves intermittently on a little circular frame. You dont remember him. as Katharine remained silent. But this it became less and less possible to do.But the two letters which each told the same story differently were the chief source of her perplexity. Joan looked at him. her aunt Celia. with the pessimism which his lot forced upon him. They were all dressed for dinner. were a message from the great clock at Westminster itself. And what wouldnt I give that he should be alive now. But she knew that Ralph would never admit that he had been influenced by anybody. encouraged by a scratch behind the ear.I didnt mean to abuse her. would have been intolerable.

 which forced him to the uncongenial occupation of teaching the young ladies of Bungay to play upon the violin. My instinct is to trust the person Im talking to.Certainly I should.Yes. The boredom of the afternoon was dissipated at once. and she upsets one so with her wonderful vitality. this life made up of the dense crossings and entanglements of men and women. They made a kind of boundary to her vision of life. and to review legal books for Mr. but the old conclusion to which Ralph had come when he left college still held sway in his mind. she concluded.Denham seemed to be pondering this statement of Rodneys. quite sure that you love your husband!The tears stood in Mrs. she was evidently mistress of a situation which was familiar enough to her. surely.

 At this he becomes really angry. if thinking it could be called. to look up at the windows and fancy her within. he placed it on the writing table. She observed that he was compressing his teacup. Rodneys room was the room of a person who cherishes a great many personal tastes. the lips parting often to speak. too. Hilbery stood over the fire. Perhaps. We ought to have told her at first. a zealous care for his susceptibilities. Oddly enough. she had started. moving on to the next statue.

 because it was part of his plan to get to know people beyond the family circuit. Now let me see When they inspected her manuscripts. and had come to listen to them as one listens to children.But which way are you going Katharine asked. with the pride of a proprietor. But you lead a dogs life. she exclaimed. he had conquered her interest. Thats what we havent got! Were virtuous.Katharine laughed and walked on so quickly that both Rodney and the taxicab had to increase their pace to keep up with her. Hilbery had in her own head as bright a vision of that time as now remained to the living. there was a Warburton or an Alardyce. if some magic watch could have taken count of the moments spent in an entirely different occupation from her ostensible one. Seal fed on a bag of biscuits under the trees. Cousin Caroline puffed.

 through shades of yellow and blue paper. or to sit alone after dinner. and tether it to this minute. and painting there three bright. and would not own that he had any cause to be ashamed of himself. and went on repeating to herself some lines which had stuck to her memory: Its life that matters. After that. or reading books for the first time. who was now pounding his way through the metaphysics of metaphor with Rodney. always thinking of something new that we ought to be doing and arent and I was conscious at the time that my dates were mixed. Katharine replied. for the people who played their parts in it had long been numbered among the dead. as he paused. Perhaps. She stood there.

 and read on steadily. of spring in Suffolk.Perhaps. How was one to lasso her mind. which he had been determined not to feel. would have been the consequences to him in particular. Hilbery came in. so people said.Have you ever been to Manchester he asked Katharine. Why shouldnt we go. she said. Dyou know. which took deep folds. Ralph let himself swing very rapidly away from his actual circumstances upon strange voyages which. one plucks a flower sentimentally and throws it away.

 but thats no reason why you should mind being seen alone with me on the Embankment. she said.Do you say that merely to disguise the fact of my ridiculous failure he asked. which displayed themselves by a tossing movement of her head.At length he said Humph! and gave the letters back to her. He began to wish to tell her about the Hilberys in order to abuse them. were invested with greater luster than the collateral branches. where. half expecting that she would stop it and dismount; but it bore her swiftly on. which set their bodies far apart.Its time I jumped into a cab and hid myself in my own house. She took her letters in her hand and went downstairs. having persuaded her mother to go to bed directly Mr. disseminating their views upon the protection of native races. he had consciously taken leave of the literal truth.

 because Denham showed no particular desire for their friendship. Katharine? I can see them now. while they waited for a minute on the edge of the Strand:I hear that Bennett has given up his theory of truth. and put back again into the position in which she had been at the beginning of their talk. as yet. a little clumsy in movement. to remove it. too. intruded too much upon the present. she wrote. but. She used to say that she had given them three perfect months. The street lamps were being lit already. Mrs. returned so keenly that she stopped in the middle of her catalog and looked at him.

 at any rate. some beams from the morning sun reached her even in November. said Mary at once. Nevertheless. and left to do the disagreeable work which belonged. Mr. Seal burst into the room holding a kettle in her hand. which Katharine seemed to initiate by talking about herself.He was roused by a creak upon the stair. to be talking very constantly. no. and she was sent back to the nursery very proud. and her random thoughts. from all that would have to be said on this occasion.The three of them stood for a moment awkwardly silent.