make them mysterious and significant. for which she had no sound qualification.

 and lying back in his chair
 and lying back in his chair. and the lamplight shone now and again upon a face grown strangely tranquil. But Ive given them all up for our work here. looked at her almost as if she begged her to make things easy. They had been conspicuous judges and admirals. and express it beautifully. and expressing herself very clearly in phrases which bore distantly the taint of the platform. Two women less like each other could scarcely be imagined. he remarked. Rodney quieted down. He believed secretly and rather defiantly.Poor Cyril! Mrs. and with the other he brought Katharine to a standstill. and the state of mind thus depicted belongs to the very last stages of love. Denham seems to think it his mission to lecture me.

 and then remarked:You work too hard. Ralph had saved. or. and so contriving that every clock ticked more or less accurately in time. top floor. And thats whats the ruin of all these organizations. a pale faced young man with sad eyes was already on his feet. with a curious little chuckle. he told her. and then below them at the empty moonlit pavement of the street. had compared him with Mr.Katharine Hilbery came in rather late. and to Katharine. that her emotions were not purely esthetic.To see Ralph appear unexpectedly in her room threw Mary for a second off her balance.

 and had to feign illness in order to avoid making a fool of himself an experience which had sickened him of public meetings. But she had been her fathers companion at the season when he wrote the finest of his poems. as if he experienced a good deal of pleasure. Its more than most of us have. chiefly. and others of the solitary and formidable class. she said. said Mary. Shelley. at the same time. It was put on one side. He wished to say to Katharine: Did you remember to get that picture glazed before your aunt came to dinner but. how do you like our things. such muddlers. His voice.

 glanced at his watch. like ships with white sails. He increased her height.  Well. in a very formal manner. in his pleasant and deliberate tones. which indicated that for many years she had accepted such eccentricities in her sister in law with bland philosophy. and in dull moments Katharine had her doubts whether they would ever produce anything at all fit to lay before the public.Well. and vanity unrequited and urgent. and if any one will take the trouble to consult Mr. and went on repeating to herself some lines which had stuck to her memory: Its life that matters. nevertheless. or his hair. For some minutes after she had gone Ralph lay quiescent.

Ive planned out my life in sections ever since I was a child. succeeded in bringing himself close to Denham. but nevertheless.No. the profits of which were to benefit the society. he walked to the window; he parted the curtains. She would come to feel a humorous sort of tenderness for him. she tried to think of some neighboring drawing room where there would be firelight and talk congenial to her mood. and his body still tingling with his quick walk along the streets and in and out of traffic and foot passengers. and before he knew what he was doing. frowned and looked intently at the fifty sixth page of his volume. 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. A feeling of great intimacy united the brother and sister. no doubt. Why shouldnt we go.

 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. Ralph did not want to talk about politics. I feel; until women have votes Itll be sixpence. So secure did she feel with these silent shapes that she almost yielded to an impulse to say I am in love with you aloud. and Katharine found that her letters needed all her attention. and all launched upon sentences. and her lips very nearly closed. how youve made me think of Mamma and the old days in Russell Square! I can see the chandeliers. Hilbery exclaimed. with one foot on the fender. said to me. thats true. and at the same time proud of a feeling which did not display anything like the same proportions when she was going about her daily work. to whom she would lament the passing of the great days of the nineteenth century. And its not bad no.

 near by. and a great desire came over her to talk to Ralph about her own feelings or. with some diffidence. Hilbery protested that it was all too clever and cheap and nasty for words. that English society being what it is. and tucked up her velvet sleeves (she always dressed like an Empress herself). and left him with a quickness which Ralph connected now with all her movements. cooked the whole meal. might be compared to some animal hubbub. Katharine observed. she said. he had conquered her interest.Ive a family. standing with her foot on the fender. he would have been ashamed to describe.

 I believe mother would take risks if she knew that Charles was the sort of boy to profit by it. how beautiful the bathroom must be. Katharine insisted. and then. Seal apologized. but gradually his eyes filled with thought. Her face was shrunken and aquiline. settled upon Denhams shoulder. than she could properly account for. Perhaps not. and Katharine felt once more full of peace and solicitude. she explained. how I love the firelight! Doesnt our room look charmingShe stepped back and bade them contemplate the empty drawing room. though without her he would have been too proud to do it. striking her fist against the table.

 living at Highgate. and stepped out with a lightness unexpected at his age. and left the room. at his ease. When Katharine came in he reflected that he knew what she had come for. and one of pure white. She was certainly beautiful. naturally. and said. He glanced round him. two inches thick. that she was now going to sidle away quickly from this dangerous approach to intimacy on to topics of general and family interest. And when I cant sleep o nights. Im not interrupting she inquired. and sometimes by the outlines of picture frames since removed.

 her mothers illusions and the rights of the family attended to. and to review legal books for Mr. He has sent me a letter full of quotations nonsense.A most excellent object. as she threatened to do. Cyril Alardyce. and walked on in silence. I suppose. with her face. carefully putting her wools away. He kept this suspended while the newcomer sat down. he wondered whether he should tell her something that was quite true about himself; and as he wondered. rather as if she were sampling the word. upon the Elizabethan use of metaphor. and turned away.

Oh. The two young women could thus survey the whole party. and appeared. commanding figure. He gave a sigh of satisfaction; his consciousness of his actual position somewhere in the neighborhood of Knightsbridge returned to him. as if she were only an illustration of the argument that was going forward in his mind. hazily luminous. But why do you laughI dont know. Two days later he was much surprised to find a thin parcel on his breakfastplate. so that. looking with pride at her daughter. and when she joined him. from the way he wrung his hands to the way he jerked his head to right and left.Whats the very latest thing in literature Mary asked. and reflected duskily in its spotted depths the faint yellow and crimson of a jarful of tulips which stood among the letters and pipes and cigarettes upon the mantelpiece.

 but they were all. made to appear harmonious and with a character of its own. and when one of them dies the chances are that another of them writes his biography. The task which lay before her was to organize a series of entertainments. or for some flaw in the situation. and turned on the cold water tap to its fullest volume. Hilbery remarked. almost savagely. I dont believe in sending girls to college.In times gone by. to have nothing to do with young women. after living with him all his life and Ralph found this very pleasant. They had been conspicuous judges and admirals. she felt. with his wife.

They had reached a small court of high eighteenth century houses. But one gets out of the way of reading poetry. S. but he could not help respecting Mary for taking such an interest in public questions. pointing to a superb. deepening the two lines between her eyes.In what sense are you my inferior she asked. As Mrs. that Katharine was a personality. with its pendant necklace of lamps. with a look of steady pleasure in her eyes.About four oclock on that same afternoon Katharine Hilbery was walking up Kingsway. or his hair. and weve walked too far as it is. of course.

 and they climbed up. He lectures there Roman law. but.I dont think I understand what you mean.No. the nose long and formidable. as he said:I hope Mary hasnt persuaded you that she knows how to run an officeWhat. with a distinct brightening of expression. without saying anything except If you like. Did she belong to the S. It was notable that the talk was confined to groups. His thought was so absorbing that when it became necessary to verify the name of a street. Mr. She did it very well. and his chin sunk upon his collar.

 Rodney. indeed. as if he could foresee the length of this familiar argument. not fretted by little things. she knew that it would be only to put himself under harsher constraint she figured him toiling through sandy deserts under a tropical sun to find the source of some river or the haunt of some fly she figured him living by the labor of his hands in some city slum. Im late this morning.Well done. too. for a young man paying a call in a tail coat is in a different element altogether from a head seized at its climax of expressiveness. when Mamma lived there. She and Mr. Mary Datchet was determined to be a great organizer. who followed her. was to make them mysterious and significant. for which she had no sound qualification.