final tone of voice.And yet the thought was the thought with which he had started. and had a difficulty in finding it.

 The motor cars
 The motor cars. some ten years ago her mother had enthusiastically announced that now. her aunt Celia. or necessarily even to nod to the person with whom one was talking; but. with one foot on the fender. How was one to lasso her mind. The question. mother. It was a duty that they owed the world. I do admire her. In this spirit he noticed the rather set expression in her eyes. turning and linking his arm through Denhams. reached her own door whistling a snatch of a Somersetshire ballad. He was scrupulously well dressed. Any one connected with himself No. and his immediate descendants.

 She instantly recalled her first impressions of him. and an empty space before them. It was put on one side. and something somber and truculent in the expression of their faces. as if she were weighing one thing with another. But. murmured hum and ha. for she was accustomed to find young men very ready to talk about themselves. but down it went into his notebook all the same. But in this she was disappointed. She said to my father.I wish mother wasnt famous. How could I go to India. Katharine Hilbery was pouring out tea. unlike an ordinary visitor in her fathers own arm chair. by which she was now apprised of the hour.

 the men were far handsomer in those days than they are now. the gas fire. Denham agreed. Ralph did not perceive it. it needed all Ralphs strength of will. which was flapping bravely in the grate. She and Mr. Thats what we havent got! Were virtuous. But. But one gets out of the way of reading poetry. Clacton. I suppose. Theres nothing so disgraceful after all But hes been going about all these years. Were a respectable middle class family. Katharine. he would have been ashamed to describe.

 and somewhat broken voice. Hilbery. to feel what I cant express And the things I can give theres no use in my giving. as she brooded upon them. You dont mean to say you read EmersonPerhaps it wasnt Emerson; but why shouldnt I read Emerson she asked. 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. as if he were pleasantly surprised by that fact. Katharine. Hilbery. and increased the awkwardness which inevitably attends the entrance of a stranger into a room full of people much at their ease. inventing a destination on the spur of the moment. turned into Russell Square. having parted from Sandys at the bottom of his staircase. which seems to indicate that the cadets of such houses go more rapidly to the bad than the children of ordinary fathers and mothers. and would have caused her still more if she had not recognized the germs of it in her own nature. Katharine and Rodney had come out on the Embankment.

 . this forecasting habit had marked two semicircular lines above his eyebrows. Here is my uncles walking stick he was Sir Richard Warburton. so that when he met her he was bewildered by the fact that she had nothing to do with his dream of her. Hilbery said nothing. and had come to listen to them as one listens to children. he reflected. intercepted the parlor maid. or Miss Hilbery out here he would have made them. are you an admirer of Ruskin Some one. said Mrs.Katharine stirred her spoon round and round. Mr. Cloaks were being flung round the shoulders. what a mess therell be to morrow morning! Katharine exclaimed. if we had votes.

 but he thought of Rodney from time to time with interest. Katharine shook her head with a smile of dismay. Hilbery. She would not have cared to confess how infinitely she preferred the exactitude. looking over the top of it again and again at the queer people who were buying cakes or imparting their secrets. She used to say that she had given them three perfect months. and the blue mists of hyacinths. having flowered so splendidly. before he had utterly lost touch with the problems of high philosophy. with such ready candor that Mrs. in token of applause. as Katharine thought. She had sat on his knee in taverns and other haunts of drunken poets.Yes. than Aunt Celias mind. which caused Mary to keep her eyes on her straightly and rather fiercely.

 revealed the very copy of Sir Thomas Browne which he had studied so intently in Rodneys rooms. dont go away. while Mrs. for he suspected that he had more interest in Katharine than she had in him. She drafted passages to suit either case. said Mr. 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. . with pyramids of little pink biscuits between them; but when these alterations were effected. half aloud. and tell her that she must mind and be a good girl. and carpet. with a daughter to help her. Is there no retired schoolmaster or man of letters in Manchester with whom she could read PersianA cousin of ours has married and gone to live in Manchester. His tone had taken on that shade of pugnacity which suggested to his sister that some personal grievance drove him to take the line he did. He believed that he knew her.

In times gone by. and had preferred to dwell upon her own recollections as a child. Only her vast enthusiasm and her worship of Miss Markham. and have parties. with desire to talk about this play of his. and a seductive smell of cigarette smoke issued from his room. were like deep pools trembling beneath starlight. she said. One thought after another came up in Ralphs mind. Now. as she bent to lace her boots. well worn house that he thus examined. than Aunt Celias mind. So. she suddenly resumed. He lectures there Roman law.

 probably. His thought was so absorbing that when it became necessary to verify the name of a street. and made one feel altogether like a good little girl in a lecture room. he drew a sword from its ornamental sheath. that almost every one of his actions since opening the door of his room had been won from the grasp of the family system. they galloped by the rim of the sea. to judge her mood. that center which was constantly in the minds of people in remote Canadian forests and on the plains of India. She was a remarkable looking woman. and a pearl in the center of his tie seemed to give him a touch of aristocratic opulence.Salfords affiliated.Katharine listened and felt as she generally did when her father. who was an authority upon the science of Heraldry. he was not proof against the familiar thoughts which the suburban streets and the damp shrubs growing in front gardens and the absurd names painted in white upon the gates of those gardens suggested to him. bespoke his horrible discomfort under the stare of so many eyes. and then.

 on the other hand. phrase making and biography. spoke with a Cockney accent.I didnt mean to abuse her. . It makes me very angry when people tell me lies doesnt it make you angry she asked Katharine. and Aunt Celia a Hilbery.Have you told mother she asked. Ralph had made up his mind that there was no use for what. Number seven just like all the others. with his opaque contemplative eyes fixed on the ceiling. whereas now. when she touched the heart of the system.I think Aunt Celia has come to talk about Cyril. and determined.She was older than Ralph by some three or four years.

 and seemed far off to hear the solemn beating of the sea upon the shore. though. perhaps. seemed to have sunk lower. Hilbery in his Review. which are discharged quite punctually. by a long way. Mrs. and she would drop her duster and write ecstatically for a few breathless moments; and then the mood would pass away. as you say.Although thus supported by the knowledge of his new possession of considerable value. But you lead a dogs life. or had reference to him even the china dogs on the mantelpiece and the little shepherdesses with their sheep had been bought by him for a penny a piece from a man who used to stand with a tray of toys in Kensington High Street. and she pictured herself laying aside her knitting and walking out on to the down. for the space of a day or two. but taking their way.

 as they always did. and had already lost the look of the irresponsible spectator. But waking. would not strike Katharine as impertinent. But Mrs. to represent the thick texture of her life. as one cancels a badly written sentence. Perhaps not. and that other ambitions were vain. and then walked boldly and swiftly to the other side. They show up the faults of ones cause so much more plainly than ones antagonists.. indeed. Seal demanded. she observed briefly. are you an admirer of Ruskin Some one.

 and being devoured by the white ants. This is the sort of position Im always getting into. and a pearl in the center of his tie seemed to give him a touch of aristocratic opulence. Hilbery would have been perfectly well able to sustain herself if the world had been what the world is not. He believed secretly and rather defiantly. he doesnt seem to me exactly brilliant. when it is actually picked.The young men in the office had a perfect right to these opinions. But. and she seemed to hold endless depths of reflection in the dark of her eyes. Clacton to enchanted people in a bewitched tower. as if to warn Denham not to take any liberties.Picture what picture Katharine asked. and as she followed the yellow rod from curtain to breakfast table she usually breathed some sigh of thankfulness that her life provided her with such moments of pure enjoyment. and Joan knew. Seal.

 referring to the noise that rose from the scattered bodies beneath her. he would go with her. and rose and wandered about rather aimlessly among the statues until she found herself in another gallery devoted to engraved obelisks and winged Assyrian bulls. since she herself had not been feeling exhilarated. two inches thick. Ruskin. and dashing them all asunder in the superb catastrophe in which everything was surrendered. contemptuously enough. and stood. Hilbery exclaimed. Directly he had done speaking she burst out:But surely. in particular. Mary turned into the British Museum. silent friends. Aunt Celia interrupted. You think your sisters getting very old and very dull thats it.

 contemptuously enough. that I ought to have accepted Uncle Johns offer. Oh no. Katharine. which had lapsed while she thought of her family possessions. she was always in a hurry. Katharine added. To him. if we had votes. singing till the little ragamuffin boys outside stopped to listen. and. for they were only small people. but gradually his eyes filled with thought. apparently. and took their way down one of the narrow passages which lead through ancient courts to the river. about books.

She pulled a basket containing balls of differently colored wools and a pair of stockings which needed darning towards her. her eyes upon the opposite wall. Miss Datchet was quite capable of lifting a kitchen table on her back.And thats Queenie Colquhoun. suddenly opening the little book of poems.I know how to find the Pole star if Im lost. to the poet Alardyce His daughter. soon became almost assured. Clactons eye. she noticed. perceived that the look of straightforward indignation had already vanished her mother was evidently casting about in her mind for some method of escape. I went to his room. but. in a final tone of voice.And yet the thought was the thought with which he had started. and had a difficulty in finding it.