Jaffery

ic conversation with a first distracted, then conscience-smitten and then much relieved Euphemia had for effect the payment of bills at the Savoy and th

itude. So many difficulties were solved. Not only were we spared the problem of what the deuce to do with Liosha during the daytime, but also Barbara was able to send the nurse away for a short and much needed holiday. Of course Barbara herself undertook all practical duties; but when she discovered that Liosha experienced primitive delight in bathing Susan-Susan's bath being a heathen rite in which ducks and fish and swimming women and horrible spiders played orgiac parts, and in getting up at seven in the morning-("Good God! Is there such an hour?" asked Adrian, when he heard about it)-in order to breakfast with Susan, and in dressing and undressing her and brushing her hair, and in tramping for mile

rissinia avis in the lands of small girls-one of the few points on which Barbara and I are in unclouded agreement. No one could have helped falling captive to Susan. But, I admit, in the case of Liosha, wh

essing for dinner, Barbara

has given

ay of husbands the world over) from the absorbin

one for her with a

ing more finnikin in ghastliness than to cut anybody's throat

pshawed. It was no

g hour is the calmest and most

d innocent, and with a traitorous

, now

insisted on her being properly corseted. Liosha, agonisingly constricted, rebelled. The maid was obdurate. Liosha flew at her with a pair of scissors. I think I should have done the same. Re

ose Reynold

rse we

off at a moment's notice,

said my wife, and left me to the t

on a prodigious air of authority. As a punishment for bloodthirsty behaviour she had made her wear the gown in the manner

circulars-gave her overwhelming joy and sense of importance. This harmless craze, however, led to another outb

you this mo

terday," said Liosha, "and you

I haven't," sa

ed Liosha, "and I gu

tched him onto the side of the road and calmly entered into felonious possession of His Majesty's mails. Then finding

ed by blind rage. Most people who heave a postman about a peaceful county would do so in a fit of passion, throu

ise in order to hush up the matter. As for Liosha, both Jaffery and I rated her soundly. I explained loftily that not so

bly disconcerted,

a jolly good thrash

t eyes of angelic meekness, took a golfclub from a bag lyi

o," she said

er at her word and laid on lustily she would have taken her th

e frowned portentously and shook his head. Her lips worked, and after a convulsive sob or two, she threw herself on the ground, clasped his knees, and to our dismay burst into a pas

, both of yo

and left her to

h of the perfect lovers, while I, to justify my position as President of the Hafiz Society, worked hard at a Persian Grammar. Barbara, the never idle, was in the meantime arranging for Liosha's future. Her organising genius

f Schopenhauer, a professional disparager of her se

knew how to deal with people of queer races. Heaven indicated her for appointment by Barbara as Liosha's duenna in the Boarding House. Mrs. Considine, herself compelled to live in these homes for the homeless, gladly accepted the proposal, came down, interviewed her charge, who happened then to be in a mood of meekness indescribable, and went away, so to speak, with her contract in her pocket. It was part of the p

hanged. He established himself as fellow slave with her under the whip of Susan's tyranny. It did one good to see these two magnificent creatures

uite a good sor

ttitude towards Doria. He seemed so anxious to do her service, so deferential to her views, so puzz

rather wasting your life

u thin

es

en there's one for me to do. And when there isn't I kind of prepare m

onal, the essential self that matters. Life, properly understood, is a process of self-development. If a

eard. "In other words, h

cise

nimal from one year's end to another and that I don

a little bit unless they deteriorate. But the conscious striving after spiritual

s, in a way," J

may be useful to you in the future. When you come across anything to kill, you kill it. It also pleases you to come across anything that calls for an exercise of st

gh enough to come out rosy at the end of a campaign. And it isn't every chap tha

think it's a noble one. But should it be the Alpha and Omega of things? Don't yo

eyes lay the spirituality that made her a mystery so sacred.

pose I have

erybody has, to a

the ancient Persians, I suppose it was the Per

Nietzsche?" she

e-that's the mad superman chap, i

rating. You might possibly agree with a lot of

he promised to carry out her wishes. So, when I came down to my library that evening dressed for dinner, I found

d this, Hilar

," s

rstan

or l

t too, or she wouldn't have recommended it. But," he rose ponderously

before rushing up-stairs to dress," said I, "don't gi

o a condition of helpless introspection. I cannot say that it lasted very long. Psychology and metaphysics and ?sthetics lay outside Jaffery's sphere. But while seeing no harm in his own simple creed of straight-riding and truth-speaking, he added to it an unshakable faith in Doria's intellectual and spiritual superiority. On his first meeting with her he had disclaimed the subtler mental qualities, videlicet his similitude of the bum

aid) the incidence of the thunderbolt, found in his humility something pathetic which was lost to Adrian. The latter only saw the blustering, wo

he library, Jaffery having gone off to golf, "can't

regarded her as an abominable nuisance-a

yields and they pick him up-look at him and stand him on his head and do whatever they darn well like to him; but with Liosha he knows he isn't safe. You see," Adrian conti

y would just as soon think of marrying th

unk lest his animated Statue of Liberty should descend from her

psychologist of the day," said I, "you seem

Adrian's pale face flushed s

atter of fact," he added, after a pause, "the psychology in a novel is all imagination, and it's t

you're right and I'm wrong. I was only talking lightly.

off his cigarette. "I've got an idea, of course. A

" I a

rk? Wasn't his head full of his approaching marriage? Could he see at present anything beyond the t

get into it someti

back from Venice, and settle do

ria think of

o loved him, were peculiarly interested. Somehow or other we had not touched before

even that was not sympathetic would paralyse me, it would shatter my faith in the whole structure I had built up. I can't help it. It's my nature. As I told you two or three months ago, it has always been my instinct to work in the dark. I instanced my First at Cambridge. How much more powerful is the instinct when it's a question of a vital created th

this impassioned exposition of the artistic te

nfess it-so do our dearest Barbara and old Jaff, and you yourself, when you want to know how I'm getting on. Look, dear old Hilary"-he laughed again and threw himself into an armchair-"giving birth to a book isn't very much unlike giving birth to a baby. It's analogical in all sorts of ways. Well, some women, as soon

s heart. I under

orrowful, great gift,'" said I. "We who hav

ook a few strides

ted nonsense. It must sound awfully like swe

said I. "Let us tal

return to t

arbara and Susan and I think of kindly feeling for myself. A few days afterwards Jaffery went off to sail a small boat with another lunatic in the Hebrides. A little

"I can get thro

ara, "we can run

" I sh

always go. We only put it off th

t we weren't going to leave this beautiful garden.

oom, whistling a m

t to D