The Awkward Age

of compromising his tailor, had for his main facial sign a certain pleasant brutality, the effect partly of a bold handsome parade of carnivorous teeth, partly of

sound of his voice, the voice, as it were, of another man, a nature reclaimed, supercivilised, adjusted to the perpetual "chaff" which kept him smiling in a way that would have been a mistake and indeed an impossibility if h

that had nothing in common save the violence and the independence of their pattern a belief that in the desperation of humility he wished to render public his having thrown to the winds the effort to please. It was written all over him that he had judged once for all his personal case and that, as his character, superficially disposed to gaiety, deprived him of the resource of shyness an

e?" he asked of his hostess as

were different from any other time?

ver I don't see her, to think what she does with herself-or what you do with her. What i

e never had to take any in your life, you're the spoiled child of fortune and you skim over the surface of things in a way tha

distance with their host, he glanced about the room, taking in afresh the Louis Seize secretary whic

dear, those two French books you were so good as to send me and which-really this time, you extraordinary man!" She fe

hat's the confounded thing called?-I thought it had a sort of a something-or-other." He had cast his eye about as

dernity? There IS that

ly good name. You must have got i

d ones from you. But you're not to suppose," Mrs. Brookenham

books from Vanderbank which if you HAVE discussed them with

particularly positive. "Van on the contrary gives tremendous warnings, make

s a little, after the

s taken one's dose and one isn't such a fool as to be deaf to some fresh true note if i

the end?" Mr. Mi

they were in my hands they were not in the hands of others. Please to remember in future that

itchett returned, "as soon as

in general an amount of what one may call editing!" She gave one of her droll universal sighs. "I've got your books at any rate locked up and I wish you'd sen

awful things ARE found! Have you heard about old Randage and

have your offerings removed, since I can't think of confiding them for the purpose to any one in t

d, as you may imagine, and of a discretion-what do you call it?-a toute epreuve. Only you must let m

as so becoming to her as the act of hesitation. "Dear Mitc

ion to you about that, the better they seem positively to be for one's feeling up in the language. They're more

en as if she had not heard what her interlocutor had just said she

e laughed out. "Why on earth-? But do

borrowed the mos

verted. "Why should

t does he do with it all? Wha

ld's irreproachable-hasn't a vice. Who knows in these days what may

el it would be a horror to be talking to you. But I insist on knowing." Sh

s. "Harold's one of my great amusements-I really have awfully few; and if you deprive me of him you'll be a fiend. There ar

hout waiting for his answer: "You have the common charity to US, I suppose, to

ad on his side a wonder.

life." She still had her eyes on him. "Therefore i

shion of a clean domestic vessel, a receptacle with the peculiar property of constantly serving yet never filling, to Lord Petherton's talkative splash. "Well, only don't let him take it up. Let it be only between you and m

don't think I quite understand what dreadful joke you may be making, but I dare say if you HAD let Haro

ho are by no means always so frank with me as I recognise-oh, I do THAT!-what it must have co

dear Mitchy?" Mrs. Broo

you ever, on my doing so, said 'my darling Mitchy, I'll ring for her to be asked to com

all, and I've certainly a delightful circle. The Duchess has just been letting me have it mo

at a loss. "On the subj

in for an instant the slight bewilderment against which, as a result of her speech, even so expert an intelligence as Mr. Mitchett's had not be

e other two. "Between

ense. Between Pe

his regard was at such moments really the redemption

appreciatively sighed, "your relatio

" Mitchy laughed, "not to

opped. "DOES he like her?" sh

uty of my loyalty-of my delicacy." He had his qui

of darkness. Yet there's in the midst of all this and in the general abyss of you a little deepdown delicious niceness, a sweet sensibility, that one has actually one's self, shocked as one perpetually is at you, quite to hold one's breath and stay one's hand for fear of ruffling or bruising. There's no one in talk with whom," she balmily continued, "I find myself half so often suddenly moved t

general weaknesses, drawbacks, immense indebtedness, all round, for the start, as it were, that I feel my friends have been so good as to allow me: how can such a man no

e checked a motion that he had apparently meant as a protest-she went on with her muffled wisdom. "There isn't a man but YOU whom Petherton wouldn't have made vulgar. He isn't vulgar himself-at least not exceptionally; but he's just one of those people,

. Thank you above all for

ll no one on earth. If you're proud I'm not. There! It's most extraordinary and I try to conceal it even to myself; but there's no doubt what

d. When that happens to YOUR tire, Mrs. Brook, you'll let me know. And you do make me wonder just now," he confessed, "why you're taking such particular precautions and throwing out such a cloud of skirmishers. If you wan

ion after a moment resumed. "Do you

so seen, and seen with all the reasons, that there's no chance for him whatever. Of course, with all that, he has done his best not to

eplied, "the difficulties in your way.

already mentioned. I

Mrs. Brookenham p

at-very naturall

om under

are, met his eyes long enough to have tak

suspected? With whom co

carce to be expressed. "Why he's twice her age-he has seen her in a pinafore with

ut, so beastly good-looking, so infernally well turned out in the way of 'culture,' and so bringing them down in short on every side, and expect in the bosom of your family

eeply affected. "Nand

ever saw. It's too absurd

w light, she should be quite ready to abase herself. "There are so many things in one's life. One follows fals

ill that do me?"

could speak, "Poor little darling dear!" his hostess tenderly ejacul

id Mitchy. "He likes

n he has to

kes her," Mr. Mitchett stubbornly rep

ou like him yourself. You're so wonderful to your friends"-oh she could let him see that she knew!-"and in such different and exquisite ways. There are those like HIM"-she signified her other v

with a certain disguised emotion. He grinned almost too muc

t we won't go-at least I won't. You may make Van," she wonderfully continued. "There's nothing you wouldn't do for him or give him." Mitchy admired her from his position, slowly shaking his head with it

to a flush. "Magnificent, magnificent Mr

t on, "it's not to do him an ill turn that y

but his high colour and his queer gla

nda as much as you please: he'll never, never," Mrs. Brookenham resolutely quavered-"he'll never come to th

poor Mitchy did see. "By taking it i

Or by shipping HER off. Will you help me to save her?" she broke out again afte

Mitchy demanded with a courage

k, of as fine a quality now as her diplomacy, which was sayi

I know wha

lutely de

the effect I produce is, though at first upsetting, one that little by little they find it possi

threshed you out really MORE with Nanda," she continued, "it has been from a scruple of a sort you people

nd then, his hands in his pockets, fixed on his hostess a countenance more controlled. "What does the

rose-smiling. "You fit the cap. You kn

, what does she mea

anced round. "You've the chance to find out from herself!"