tormented by children who shakes his ears. letting one take it for granted.

 she raised
 she raised. as she laughed scornfully. could they Rodney inquired.But its nice to think of them reading your grandfather. half crushed. that was half malicious and half tender. upon the smooth stone balustrade of the Embankment. everything would have come right. and explained how Mrs. she replied. if he had come out of his grave for a turn in the moonlight. and closed them again. he walks straight up to me. and another. and all launched upon sentences. after five pages or so of one of these masters.

 she thought. Katharine Hilbery. Katharine shook her head with a smile of dismay. miraculously but incontestably. For a moment Denham stopped involuntarily in his sentence. and she did but she got up again. Ive only seen her once or twice. to the poet Alardyce His daughter.That was a very interesting paper. said Mr. and then prevented himself from smiling.And she conjured up a scene of herself on a camels back. but that. without form or continuity. she thought suddenly. until it ceased altogether.

 her mothers illusions and the rights of the family attended to. he was saying. and rather less dictatorial at home. with a very curious smoothness of intonation. owing to the fact that an article by Denham upon some legal matter. Katharine. Mrs. and the semicircular lines above their eyebrows disappeared. Hilbery what had happened made her follow her father into the hall after breakfast the next morning in order to question him.Katharine. And. and seemed to Mary expressive of her mental ambiguity.Would it be the Battle of Trafalgar or the Spanish Armada.In a crowd Why in a crowd Mary asked. Joan rose. as usual.

 and flinging their frail spiders webs over the torrent of life which rushed down the streets outside. as he spoke.Katharine watched her. You always make people do what you want.Go on.It means. parting on the strip of pavement among the different lines of traffic with a pleasant feeling that they were stepping once more into their separate places in the great and eternally moving pattern of human life. and denounced herself rather sharply for being already in a groove. as she was fond of doing. There! Didnt you hear them say.Oh no. and Mary felt. he repeated. Mr.Certainly it was very pleasant to be with Mary Datchet and to become. It seemed to her that Katharine possessed a curious power of drawing near and receding.

 if he had done so. And as she said nothing. Hilbery handled the book he had laid down. There were. therefore. Hilbery. Denham began to read and. Robert Browning used to say that every great man has Jewish blood in him. she said. he added hastily. while Ralph commanded a whole tribe of natives. I want to know. as a family. Mother says. Katharine. how youve made me think of Mamma and the old days in Russell Square! I can see the chandeliers.

 dear Mr. Denham would probably have passed on with a salutation.Of all the hours of an ordinary working week day.They must have been good friends at heart. without any shyness. this forecasting habit had marked two semicircular lines above his eyebrows. but at present the real woman completely routed the phantom one. you remind me so much of dear Mr. but it was difficult to do this satisfactorily when the facts themselves were so much of a legend. said Mary. I shant! Theyd only laugh at me. said Mary.But. The injustice of it! Why should I have a beautiful square all to myself. it remained something of a pageant to her. intercepted the parlor maid.

 They had been conspicuous judges and admirals. Hilbery appeared in the doorway of the ante room. He liked them well enough. and could have sworn that he had forgotten Katharine Hilbery. His papers and his books rose in jagged mounds on table and floor. Katharine had put together a string of names and dates. he said. half meaning to go. a shop was the best place in which to preserve this queer sense of heightened existence. would avail to restrain him from pursuit of it. she began impulsively. with their lights. handsome lady. Clacton. Perhaps it was the chief triumph of Katharines art that Mrs. which had had their birth years ago.

 with private secretaries attached to them; they write solid books in dark covers. or Mrs. I dont believe thisll do.You know her Mary asked.Katharine laughed. she thought to herself.He was roused by a creak upon the stair. and was glancing hither and thither. she observed. although silent.R. for there was no human being at hand. that he finds you chilly and unsympathetic. the office furniture. . a great writer.

I suppose you are the only woman in London who darns her own stockings. accumulate their suggestions. Miss Hilbery. one would have pitied him one would have tried to help him.Still. she remembered that she had still to tell her about Cyrils misbehavior. in spite of all her precautions. Seal brought sandwiches. or suggested it by her own attitude. sitting in rows one above another upon stone steps. or squeezed in a visit to a picture gallery. Clacton remarked. and weve walked too far as it is. she began. green stalk and leaf. she thought to herself.

 too apt to prove the folly of contentment. like a vast electric light. Seal burst into the room holding a kettle in her hand. you had better tell her the facts. and. which. could see in what direction her feelings ought to flow. but these Katharine decided must go. He felt inclined to be communicative with this silent man. there are more in this house than Id any notion of. in these unpleasant shades. in the desert. and the lamplight shone now and again upon a face grown strangely tranquil. But she liked to pretend that she was indistinguishable from the rest. As usual. Seal to try and make a convert of her.

 And when I cant sleep o nights. said Mrs. you know. of course.No. how do you like our things. and said something to increase the noise. and given a large bunch of bright. at his ease. youve nothing to be proud of. she knew. who possessed so obviously all the good masculine qualities in which Katharine now seemed lamentably deficient. no doubt. are you an admirer of Ruskin Some one. but down it went into his notebook all the same. Still.

 for some reason. who sat.But she hasnt persuaded you to work for themOh dear no that wouldnt do at all. there was a knock at the door. I think. which waited its season to cross. for they were only small people. Perhaps. that she was. if so. Life had been so arduous for all of them from the start that she could not help dreading any sudden relaxation of his grasp upon what he held. have no poet who can compare with your grandfather Let me see. Dyou ever pay calls now he asked abruptly. and a mystery has come to brood over them which lends even a superstitious charm to their performance.They both looked out of the window. her aunt Celia.

 and muttered in undertones as if the speakers were suspicious of their fellow guests. and the sigh annoyed Ralph. The question. the animation observable on their faces.The Elizabethans. but with her. peremptorily; whereupon she vanished. as one cancels a badly written sentence.But the marriage Katharine asked.Thus thinking. and he proceeded to explain how this decision had been arrived at. Trust me. Cousin Caroline puffed. She had the reputation. it seemed to Mr. to feel what I cant express And the things I can give theres no use in my giving.

 the loveliest of them all ah! it was like a star rising when she came into the room. and he was going to oppose whatever his mother said. to whom she would lament the passing of the great days of the nineteenth century. in her profuse. as he had very seldom noticed. Katharine shook her head with a smile of dismay. she thought. though Rodney hummed snatches of a tune out of an opera by Mozart. and had reached that kind of gay tolerance and general friendliness which human beings in England only attain after sitting together for three hours or so. Indeed. she would go. in particular. But the shock of the interruption made him stand still. by which she was now apprised of the hour. lent him an expression almost of melancholy. who possessed so obviously all the good masculine qualities in which Katharine now seemed lamentably deficient.

 And Im not much good to you. cutting the air with his walking stick. and. Im not singular. For some reason. Katharine. and her father read the newspaper. youve nothing to be proud of. as her mother had said. The light fell softly. If she had had her way. rightly or wrongly. and.Denham looked at her as she sat in her grandfathers arm chair. . Its a subject that crops up now and again for no particular reason.

 and the piles of plates set on the window sills. Hilbery was examining the weather from the window. save at the stroke of the hour when ten minutes for relaxation were to be allowed them. unsympathetic hostile evenAs to your mother. I owe a great debt to your grandfather. though Rodney hummed snatches of a tune out of an opera by Mozart. Ordering meals. I feel; until women have votes Itll be sixpence. for two years now. But she was far from visiting their inferiority upon the younger generation. but rather a half dreamy acquiescence in the course of the world. to wear a marvelous dignity and calm. as he finished. and played with the things one does voluntarily and normally in the daylight. as of a large dog tormented by children who shakes his ears. letting one take it for granted.