MARRIAGE  BY H .  G .  WELLS  Author of " Love and Mr Lewisham " , " Kipps " , etc.  " And the Poor Dears have n't the shadow of a doubt they will live happily ever afterwards .  " — From a Private Letter .  Macmillan and co. , Limited  FRATERNALLY  TO  ARNOLD BENNETT  BOOK THE FIRST  MARJORIE MARRIES  MARRIAGE  CHAPTER THE FIRST  A Day with the Popes  An extremely pretty girl occupied a second-class compartment in one of those trains which percolate through the rural tranquillities of middle England from Ganford in Oxfordshire to Rumbold Junction in Kent .  She was going to join her family at Buryhamstreet after a visit to some Gloucestershire friends .  Her father , Mr. Pope , once a leader in the coach-building world and now by retirement a gentleman , had taken the Buryhamstreet vicarage furnished for two months ( beginning on the fifteenth of July ) at his maximum summer rental of seven guineas a week .  His daughter was on her way to this retreat .  At first she had been an animated traveller , erect and keenly regardful of every detail upon the platforms of the stations at which her conveyance lingered , but the tedium of the journey and the warmth of the sunny afternoon had relaxed her pose by imperceptible degrees , and she sat now comfortably in the corner , with her neat toes upon the seat before her , ready to drop them primly at the first sign of a fellow-traveller .  Her expression lapsed more and more towards an almost somnolent reverie .  She wished she had not taken a second-class ticket , because then she might have afforded a cup of tea at Reading , and so fortified herself against this insinuating indolence .  She was travelling second class , instead of third as she ought to have done , through one of those lapses so inevitable to young people in her position .  The two Carmel boys and a cousin , two greyhounds and a chow had come to see her off ; they had made a brilliant and prosperous group on the platform and extorted the manifest admiration of two youthful porters , and it had been altogether too much for Marjorie Pope to admit it was the family custom — except when her father 'snerves had to be considered — to go third class .  So she had made a hasty calculation — she knew her balance to a penny because of the recent tipping — and found it would just run to it .  Fourpence remained , — and there would be a porter at Buryhamstreet !  Her mother had said : " You will have Ample .  " Well , opinions of amplitude vary .  With numerous details fresh in her mind , Marjorie decided it would be wiser to avoid financial discussion during her first few days at Buryhamstreet .  There was much in Marjorie 'sequipment in the key of travelling second class at the sacrifice of afternoon tea .  There was , for example , a certain quiet goodness of style about her clothes , though the skirt betrayed age , and an entire absence of style about her luggage , which was all in the compartment with her , and which consisted of a distended hold-all , a very good tennis racquet in a stretcher , a portmanteau of cheap white basketwork held together by straps , and a very new , expensive-looking and meretricious dressing-bag of imitation morocco , which had been one of her chief financial errors at Oxbridge .  The collection was eloquent indeed of incompatible standards ... .  Marjorie had a chin that was small in size if resolute in form , and a mouth that was not noticeably soft and weak because it was conspicuously soft and pretty .  Her nose was delicately aquiline and very subtly and finely modelled , and she looked out upon the world with steady , grey-blue eyes beneath broad , level brows that contradicted in a large measure the hint of weakness below .  She had an abundance of copper-red hair , which flowed back very prettily from her broad , low forehead and over her delicate ears , and she had that warm-tinted clear skin that goes so well with reddish hair .  She had a very dainty neck , and the long slender lines of her body were full of the promise of a riper beauty .  She had the good open shoulders of a tennis-player and a swimmer .  Some day she was to be a tall , ruddy , beautiful woman .  She wore simple clothes of silvery grey and soft green , and about her waist was a belt of grey leather in which there now wilted two creamy-petalled roses .  That was the visible Marjorie .  Somewhere out of time and space was an invisible Marjorie who looked out on the world with those steady eyes , and smiled or drooped with the soft red lips , and dreamt , and wondered , and desired .  What a queer thing the invisible human being would appear if , by some discovery as yet inconceivable , some spiritual X-ray photography , we could flash it into sight !  Long ago I read a book called " Soul Shapes " that was full of ingenious ideas , but I doubt very much if the thing so revealed would have any shape , any abiding solid outline at all .  It is something more fluctuating and discursive than that — at any rate , for every one young enough not to have set and hardened .  Things come into it and become it , things drift out of it and cease to be it , things turn upside down in it and change and colour and dissolve , and grow and eddy about and blend into each other .  One might figure it , I suppose , as a preposterous jumble animated by a will ; a floundering disconnectedness through which an old hump of impulse rises and thrusts unaccountably ; a river beast of purpose wallowing in a back eddy of mud and weeds and floating objects and creatures drowned .  Now the sunshine of gladness makes it all vivid , now it is sombre and grimly insistent under the sky of some darkling mood , now an emotional gale sweeps across it and it is one confused agitation ... .  And surely these invisible selves of men were never so jumbled , so crowded , complicated , and stirred about as they are at the present time .  Once I am told they had a sort of order , were sphered in religious beliefs , crystal clear , were arranged in a cosmogony that fitted them as hand fits glove , were separated by definite standards of right and wrong which presented life as planned in all its essential aspects from the cradle to the grave .  Things are so no longer .  That sphere is broken for most of us ; even if it is tied about and mended again , it is burst like a seed case ; things have fallen out and things have fallen in ... .  Can I convey in any measure how it was with Marjorie ?  What was her religion ?  In college forms and returns , and suchlike documents , she would describe herself as " Church of England .  " She had been baptized according to the usages of that body , but she had hitherto evaded confirmation into it , and although it is a large , wealthy , and powerful organization with many minds to serve it , it had never succeeded in getting into her quick and apprehensive intelligence any lucid and persuasive conception of what it considered God and the universe were up to with her .  It had failed to catch her attention and state itself to her .  A number of humorous and other writers and the general trend of talk around her , and perhaps her own shrewd little observation of superficial things , had , on the other hand , created a fairly definite belief in her that it was n't as a matter of fact up to very much at all , that what it said was n't said with that absolute honesty which is a logical necessity in every religious authority , and that its hierarchy had all sorts of political and social considerations confusing its treatment of her immortal soul ... .  Marjorie followed her father in abstaining from church .  He too professed himself " Church of England , " but he was , if we are to set aside merely superficial classifications , an irascible atheist with a respect for usage and Good Taste , and an abject fear of the disapproval of other gentlemen of his class .  For the rest he secretly disliked clergymen on account of the peculiarity of their collars , and a certain influence they had with women .  When Marjorie at the age of fourteen had displayed a hankering after ecclesiastical ceremony and emotional religion , he had declared : " We do n't want any of that nonsense , " and sent her into the country to a farm where there were young calves and a bottle-fed lamb and kittens .  At times her mother went to church and displayed considerable orthodoxy and punctilio , at times the good lady did n't , and at times she thought in a broad-minded way that there was a Lot in Christian Science , and subjected herself to the ministrations of an American named Silas Root .  But his ministrations were too expensive for continuous use , and so the old faith did not lose its hold upon the family altogether .  At school Marjorie had been taught what I may best describe as Muffled Christianity — a temperate and discreet system designed primarily not to irritate parents , in which the painful symbol of the crucifixion and the riddle of what Salvation was to save her from , and , indeed , the coarser aspects of religion generally , were entirely subordinate to images of amiable perambulations , and a rich mist of finer feelings .  She had been shielded , not only from arguments against her religion , but from arguments for it — the two things go together — and I do not think it was particularly her fault if she was now growing up like the great majority of respectable English people , with her religious faculty as it were , artificially faded , and an acquired disposition to regard any speculation of why she was , and whence and whither , as rather foolish , not very important , and in the very worst possible taste .  And so , the crystal globe being broken which once held souls together , you may expect to find her a little dispersed and inconsistent in her motives , and with none of that assurance a simpler age possessed of the exact specification of goodness or badness , the exact delimitation of right and wrong .  Indeed , she did not live in a world of right and wrong , or anything so stern ; " horrid " and " jolly " had replaced these archaic orientations .  In a world where a mercantile gentility has conquered passion and God is neither blasphemed nor adored , there necessarily arises this generation of young people , a little perplexed , indeed , and with a sense of something missing , but feeling their way inevitably at last to the great releasing question , " Then why should n't we have a good time ?  "  Yet there was something in Marjorie , as in most human beings , that demanded some general idea , some aim , to hold her life together .  A girl upon the borders of her set at college was fond of the phrase " living for the moment , " and Marjorie associated with it the speaker 'slax mouth , sloe-like eyes , soft , quick-flushing , boneless face , and a habit of squawking and bouncing in a forced and graceless manner .  Marjorie 'snatural disposition was to deal with life in a steadier spirit than that .  Yet all sorts of powers and forces were at work in her , some exalted , some elvish , some vulgar , some subtle .  She felt keenly and desired strongly , and in effect she came perhaps nearer the realization of that offending phrase than its original exponent .  She had a clean intensity of feeling that made her delight in a thousand various things , in sunlight and textures , and the vividly quick acts of animals , in landscape , and the beauty of other girls , in wit , and people 'svoices , and good strong reasoning , and the desire and skill of art .  She had a clear , rapid memory that made her excel perhaps a little too easily at school and college , an eagerness of sympathetic interest that won people very quickly and led to disappointments , and a very strong sense of the primary importance of Miss Marjorie Pope in the world .  And when any very definite dream of what she would like to be and what she would like to do , such as being the principal of a ladies 'college , or the first woman member of Parliament , or the wife of a barbaric chief in Borneo , or a great explorer , or the wife of a millionaire and a great social leader , or George Sand , or Saint Teresa , had had possession of her imagination for a few weeks , an entirely contrasted and equally attractive dream would presently arise beside it and compete with it and replace it .  It was n't so much that she turned against the old one as that she was attracted by the new , and she forgot the old dream rather than abandoned it , simply because she was only one person , and had n't therefore the possibility of realizing both .  In certain types Marjorie 'simpressionability aroused a passion of proselytism .  People of the most diverse kinds sought to influence her , and they invariably did so .  Quite a number of people , including her mother and the principal of her college , believed themselves to be the leading influence in her life .  And this was particularly the case with her aunt Plessington .  Her aunt Plessington was devoted to social and political work of an austere and aggressive sort ( in which Mr. Plessington participated ) ; she was childless , and had a Movement of her own , the Good Habits Movement , a progressive movement of the utmost scope and benevolence which aimed at extensive interferences with the food and domestic intimacies of the more defenceless lower classes by means ultimately of legislation , and she had Marjorie up to see her , took her for long walks while she influenced with earnestness and vigour , and at times had an air of bequeathing her mantle , movement and everything , quite definitely to her " little Madge .  " She spoke of training her niece to succeed her , and bought all the novels of Mrs. Humphry Ward for her as they appeared , in the hope of quickening in her that flame of politico-social ambition , that insatiable craving for dinner-parties with important guests , which is so distinctive of the more influential variety of English womanhood .  It was due rather to her own habit of monologue than to any reserve on the part of Marjorie that she entertained the belief that her niece was entirely acquiescent in these projects .  They went into Marjorie 'smind and passed .  For nearly a week , it is true , she had dramatized herself as the angel and inspiration of some great modern statesman , but this had been ousted by a far more insistent dream , begotten by a picture she had seen in some exhibition , of a life of careless savagery , whose central and constantly recurrent incident was the riding of barebacked horses out of deep-shadowed forest into a foamy sunlit sea — in a costume that would certainly have struck Aunt Plessington as a mistake .  If you could have seen Marjorie in her railway compartment , with the sunshine , sunshine mottled by the dirty window , tangled in her hair and creeping to and fro over her face as the train followed the curves of the line , you would certainly have agreed with me that she was pretty , and you might even have thought her beautiful .  But it was necessary to fall in love with Marjorie before you could find her absolutely beautiful .  You might have speculated just what business was going on behind those drowsily thoughtful eyes .  If you are — as people say — " Victorian , " you might even have whispered " Day Dreams , " at the sight of her ... .  She was dreaming , and in a sense she was thinking of beautiful things .  But only mediately .  She was thinking how very much she would enjoy spending freely and vigorously , quite a considerable amount of money , — heaps of money .  You see , the Carmels , with whom she had just been staying , were shockingly well off .  They had two motor cars with them in the country , and the boys had the use of the second one as though it was just an old bicycle .  Marjorie had had a cheap white dinner-dress , made the year before by a Chelsea French girl , a happy find of her mother 's, and it was shapely and simple and not at all bad , and she had worn her green beads and her Egyptian necklace of jade ; but Kitty Carmel and her sister had had a new costume nearly every night , and pretty bracelets , and rubies , big pearls , and woven gold , and half a score of delightful and precious things for neck and hair .  Everything in the place was bright and good and abundant , the servants were easy and well-mannered , without a trace of hurry or resentment , and one did n't have to be sharp about the eggs and things at breakfast in the morning , or go without .  All through the day , and even when they had gone to bathe from the smart little white and green shed on the upper lake , Marjorie had been made to feel the insufficiency of her equipment .  Kitty Carmel , being twenty-one , possessed her own cheque-book and had accounts running at half a dozen West-end shops ; and both sisters had furnished their own rooms according to their taste , with a sense of obvious effect that had set Marjorie speculating just how a room might be done by a girl with a real eye for colour and a real brain behind it ... .  The train slowed down for the seventeenth time .  Marjorie looked up and read " Buryhamstreet .  "  Her reverie vanished , and by a complex but almost instantaneous movement she had her basket off the rack and the carriage door open .  She became teeming anticipations .  There , advancing in a string , were Daffy , her elder sister , Theodore , her younger brother , and the dog Toupee .  Sydney and Rom had n't come .  Daffy was not copper red like her sister , but really quite coarsely red-haired ; she was bigger than Marjorie , and with irregular teeth instead of Marjorie 'sneat row ; she confessed them in a broad simple smile of welcome .  Theodore was hatless , rustily fuzzy-headed , and now a wealth of quasi-humorous gesture .  The dog Toupee was straining at a leash , and doing its best in a yapping , confused manner , to welcome the wrong people by getting its lead round their legs .  " Toupee !  " cried Marjorie , waving the basket .  " Toupee !  "  They all called it Toupee because it was like one , but the name was forbidden in her father 'shearing .  Her father had decided that the proper name for a family dog in England is Towser , and did his utmost to suppress a sobriquet that was at once unprecedented and not in the best possible taste .  Which was why the whole family , with the exception of Mrs. Pope , of course , stuck to Toupee ... .  Marjorie flashed a second 'scontrast with the Carmel splendours .  " Hullo , old Daffy .  What 'sit like ?  " she asked , handing out the basket as her sister came up .  " It 'sa lark , " said Daffy .  " Where 'sthe dressing-bag ?  "  " Thoddy , " said Marjorie , following up the dressing-bag with the hold-all .  " Lend a hand .  "  " Stow it , Toupee , " said Theodore , and caught the hold-all in time .  In another moment Marjorie was out of the train , had done the swift kissing proper to the occasion , and rolled a hand over Toupee 'shead — Toupee , who , after a passionate lunge at a particularly savoury drover from the next compartment , was now frantically trying to indicate that Marjorie was the one human being he had ever cared for .  Brother and sister were both sketching out the state of affairs at Buryhamstreet Vicarage in rapid competitive jerks , each eager to tell things first — and the whole party moved confusedly towards the station exit .  Things pelted into Marjorie 'smind .  " We 'vegot an old donkey-cart .  I thought we should n't get here — ever ... .  Madge , we can go up the church tower whenever we like , only old Daffy wo n't let me shin up the flagstaff .  It 'sperfectly safe — you could n't fall off if you tried ... .  Had positively to get out at the level crossing and pull him over ... .  There 'sa sort of moat in the garden ... .  You never saw such furniture , Madge !  And the study !  It 'shung with texts , and stuffed with books about the Scarlet Woman ... .  Piano 'srather good , it 'sa Broadwood ... .  The Dad 'sgot a war on about the tennis net .  Oh , frightful !  You 'llsee .  It wo n't keep up .  He 'shad a letter kept waiting by the Times for a fortnight , and it 'sa terror at breakfast .  Says the motor people have used influence to silence him .  Says that 'sa game two can play at ... .  Old Sid got herself upset stuffing windfalls .  Rather a sell for old Sid , considering how refined she 'sgetting ... .  "  There was a brief lull as the party got into the waiting governess cart .  Toupee , after a preliminary refusal to enter , made a determined attempt on the best seat , from which he would be able to bark in a persistent , official manner at anything that passed .  That suppressed , and Theodore 'sproposal to drive refused , they were able to start , and attention was concentrated upon Daffy 'snegotiation of the station approach .  Marjorie turned on her brother with a smile of warm affection .  " How are you , old Theodore ?  "  " I 'mall right , old Madge .  "  " Mummy ?  "  " Every one 'sall right , " said Theodore ; " if it was n't for that damned infernal net — — "  " Ssssh !  " cried both sisters together .  " He says it , " said Theodore .  Both sisters conveyed a grave and relentless disapproval .  " Pretty bit of road , " said Marjorie .  " I like that little house at the corner .  "  A pause and the eyes of the sisters met .  " He 'shere , " said Daffy .  Marjorie affected ignorance .  " Who 'shere ?  "  " Il vostro senior Miraculoso .  "  " Just as though a fellow could n't understand your kiddy little Italian , " said Theodore , pulling Toupee 'sear .  " Oh well , I thought he might be , " said Marjorie , regardless of her brother .  " Oh !  " said Daffy .  " I did n't know — — "  Both sisters looked at each other , and then both glanced at Theodore .  He met Marjorie 'seyes with a grimace of profound solemnity .  " Little brothers , " he said , " should n't know .  Just as though they did n't !  Rot !  But let 'schange the subject , my dears , all the same .  Lemme see .  There are a new sort of flea on Toupee , Madge , that he gets from the hens .  "  " Is a new sort , " corrected Daffy .  " He 'shorrider than ever , Madge .  He leaves his soap in soak now to make us think he has used it .  This is the village High Street .  Is n't it jolly ?  "  " Corners do n't bite people , " said Theodore , with a critical eye to the driving .  Marjorie surveyed the High Street , while Daffy devoted a few moments to Theodore .  The particular success of the village was its brace of chestnut trees which , with that noble disregard of triteness which is one of the charms of villages the whole world over , shadowed the village smithy .  On either side of the roadway between it and the paths was a careless width of vivid grass protected by white posts , which gave way to admit a generous access on either hand to a jolly public house , leering over red blinds , and swinging a painted sign against its competitor .  Several of the cottages had real thatch and most had porches ; they had creepers nailed to their faces , and their gardens , crowded now with flowers , marigolds , begonias , snapdragon , delphiniums , white foxgloves , and monkshood , seemed almost too good to be true .  The doctor 'shouse was pleasantly Georgian , and the village shop , which was also a post and telegraph office , lay back with a slight air of repletion , keeping its bulging double shop-windows wide open in a manifest attempt not to fall asleep .  Two score of shock-headed boys and pinafored girls were drilling upon a bald space of ground before the village school , and near by , the national emotion at the ever-memorable Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria had evoked an artistic drinking-fountain of grey stone .  Beyond the subsequent green — there were the correctest geese thereon — the village narrowed almost to a normal road again , and then , recalling itself with a start , lifted a little to the churchyard wall about the grey and ample church .  " It 'sjust like all the villages that ever were , " said Marjorie , and gave a cry of delight when Daffy , pointing to the white gate between two elm trees that led to the vicarage , remarked : " That 'sus .  "  In confirmation of which statement , Sydney and Rom , the two sisters next in succession to Marjorie , and with a strong tendency to be twins in spite of the year between them , appeared in a state of vociferous incivility opening the way for the donkey-carriage .  Sydney was Sydney , and Rom was just short for Romola — one of her mother 'sfavourite heroines in fiction .  " Old Madge , " they said ; and then throwing respect to the winds , " Old Gargoo !  " which was Marjorie 'sforbidden nickname , and short for gargoyle ( though surely only Victorian Gothic , ever produced a gargoyle that had the remotest right to be associated with the neat brightness of Marjorie 'sface ) .  She overlooked the offence , and the pseudo-twins boarded the cart from behind , whereupon the already overburthened donkey , being old and in a manner wise , quickened his pace for the house to get the whole thing over .  " It 'sreally an avenue , " said Daffy ; but Marjorie , with her mind strung up to the Carmel standards , could n't agree .  It was like calling a row of boy-scouts Potsdam grenadiers .  The trees were at irregular distances , of various ages , and mostly on one side .  Still it was a shady , pleasant approach .  And the vicarage was truly very interesting and amusing .  To these Londoners accustomed to live in a state of compression , elbows practically touching , in a tall , narrow fore-and-aft stucco house , all window and staircase , in a despondent Brompton square , there was an effect of maundering freedom about the place , of enlargement almost to the pitch of adventure and sunlight to the pitch of intoxication .  The house itself was long and low , as if a London house holidaying in the country had flung itself asprawl ; it had two disconnected and roomy staircases , and when it had exhausted itself completely as a house , it turned to the right and began again as rambling , empty stables , coach house , cart sheds , men 'sbedrooms up ladders , and outhouses of the most various kinds .  On one hand was a neglected orchard , in the front of the house was a bald , worried-looking lawn area capable of simultaneous tennis and croquet , and at the other side a copious and confused vegetable and flower garden full of roses , honesty , hollyhocks , and suchlike herbaceous biennials and perennials , lapsed at last into shrubbery , where a sickle-shaped , weedy lagoon of uncertain aims , which had evidently , as a rustic bridge and a weeping willow confessed , aspired to be an " ornamental water , " declined at last to ducks .  And there was access to the church , and the key of the church tower , and one went across the corner of the lawn , and by a little iron gate into the churchyard to decipher inscriptions , as if the tombs of all Buryhamstreet were no more than a part of the accommodation relinquished by the vicar 'shousehold .  Marjorie was hurried over the chief points of all this at a breakneck pace by Sydney and Rom , and when Sydney was called away to the horrors of practice — for Sydney in spite of considerable reluctance was destined by her father to be " the musical one " — Rom developed a copious affection , due apparently to some occult æsthetic influence in Marjorie 'ssilvery-grey and green , and led her into the unlocked vestry , and there prayed in a whisper that she might be given " one good hug , just one " — and so they came out with their arms about each other very affectionately to visit the lagoon again .  And then Rom remembered that Marjorie had n't seen either the walnut-tree in the orchard , or the hen with nine chicks ... .  Somewhere among all these interests came tea and Mrs. Pope .  Mrs. Pope kissed her daughter with an air of having really wanted to kiss her half an hour ago , but of having been distracted since .  She was a fine-featured , anxious-looking little woman , with a close resemblance to all her children , in spite of the fact that they were markedly dissimilar one to the other , except only that they took their ruddy colourings from their father .  She was dressed in a neat blue dress that had perhaps been hurriedly chosen , and her method of doing her hair was a manifest compromise between duty and pleasure .  She embarked at once upon an exposition of the bedroom arrangements , which evidently involved difficult issues .  Marjorie was to share a room with Daffy — that was the gist of it — as the only other available apartment , originally promised to Marjorie , had been secured by Mr. Pope for what he called his " matutinal ablutions , videlicet tub .  "  " Then , when your Aunt Plessington comes , you wo n't have to move , " said Mrs. Pope with an air of a special concession .  " Your father 'slooking forward to seeing you , but he must n't be disturbed just yet .  He 'sin the vicar 'sstudy .  He 'shad his tea in there .  He 'swriting a letter to the Times answering something they said in a leader , and also a private note calling attention to their delay in printing his previous communication , and he wants to be delicately ironical without being in any way offensive .  He wants to hint without actually threatening that very probably he will go over to the Spectator altogether if they do not become more attentive .  The Times used to print his letters punctually , but latterly these automobile people seem to have got hold of it ... .  He has the window on the lawn open , so that I think , perhaps , we 'dbetter not stay out here — for fear our voices might disturb him .  "  " Better get right round the other side of the church , " said Daffy .  " He 'dhear far less of us if we went indoors , " said Mrs. Pope .  The vicarage seemed tight packed with human interest for Marjorie and her mother and sisters .  Going over houses is one of the amusements proper to her sex , and she and all three sisters and her mother , as soon as they had finished an inaudible tea , went to see the bedroom she was to share with Daffy , and then examined , carefully and in order , the furniture and decoration of the other bedrooms , went through the rooms downstairs , always excepting and avoiding very carefully and closing as many doors as possible on , and hushing their voices whenever they approached the study in which her father was being delicately ironical without being offensive to the Times .  None of them had seen any of the vicarage people at all — Mr. Pope had come on a bicycle and managed all the negotiations — and it was curious to speculate about the individuals whose personalities pervaded the worn and faded furnishings of the place .  The Popes 'keen-eyed inspection came at times , I think , dangerously near prying .  The ideals of decoration and interests of the vanished family were so absolutely dissimilar to the London standards as to arouse a sort of astonished wonder in their minds .  Some of the things they decided were perfectly hideous , some quaint , some were simply and weakly silly .  Everything was different from Hartstone Square .  Daffy was perhaps more inclined to contempt , and Mrs. Pope to refined amusement and witty appreciation than Marjorie .  Marjorie felt there was something in these people that she did n't begin to understand , she needed some missing clue that would unlock the secret of their confused peculiarity .  She was one of those people who have an almost instinctive turn for decoration in costume and furniture ; she had already had a taste of how to do things in arranging her rooms at Bennett College , Oxbridge , where also she was in great demand among the richer girls as an adviser .  She knew what it was to try and fail as well as to try and succeed , and these people , she felt , had n't tried for anything she comprehended .  She could n't quite see why it was that there was at the same time an attempt at ornament and a disregard of beauty , she could n't quite do as her mother did and dismiss it as an absurdity and have done with it .  She could n't understand , too , why everything should be as if it were faded and weakened from something originally bright and clear .  All the rooms were thick with queer little objects that indicated a quite beaver-like industry in the production of " work .  " There were embroidered covers for nearly every article on the wash-hand-stand , and mats of wool and crochet wherever anything stood on anything ; there were " tidies " everywhere , and odd little brackets covered with gilded and varnished fir cones and bearing framed photographs and little jars and all sorts of colourless , dusty little objects , and everywhere on the walls tacks sustained crossed fans with badly painted flowers or transfer pictures .  There was a jar on the bedroom mantel covered with varnished postage stamps and containing grey-haired dried grasses .  There seemed to be a moral element in all this , for in the room Sydney shared with Rom there was a decorative piece of lettering which declared that — " Something attempted , something done , Has earned a night 'srepose . "  " Something attempted , something done ,  Has earned a night 'srepose .  "  There were a great number of texts that set Marjorie 'smind stirring dimly with intimations of a missed significance .  Over her own bed , within the lattice of an Oxford frame , was the photograph of a picture of an extremely composed young woman in a trailing robe , clinging to the Rock of Ages in the midst of histrionically aggressive waves , and she had a feeling , rather than a thought , that perhaps for all the oddity of the presentation it did convey something acutely desirable , that she herself had had moods when she would have found something very comforting in just such an impassioned grip .  And on a framed , floriferous card , these incomprehensible words : Thy Grace is Sufficient for Me . seemed to be saying something to her tantalizingly just outside her range of apprehension .  Did all these things light up somehow to those dispossessed people — from some angle she did n't attain ?  Were they living and moving realities when those others were at home again ?  The drawing-room had no texts ; it was altogether more pretentious and less haunted by the faint and faded flavour of religion that pervaded the bedrooms .  It had , however , evidences of travel in Switzerland and the Mediterranean .  There was a piano in black and gold , a little out of tune , and surmounted by a Benares brass jar , enveloping a scarlet geranium in a pot .  There was a Japanese screen of gold wrought upon black , that screened nothing .  There was a framed chromo-lithograph of Jerusalem hot in the sunset , and another of Jerusalem cold under a sub-tropical moon , and there were gourds , roses of Jericho , sandalwood rosaries and kindred trash from the Holy Land in no little profusion upon a what-not .  Such books as the room had contained had been arranged as symmetrically as possible about a large , pink-shaded lamp upon the claret-coloured cloth of a round table , and were to be replaced , Mrs. Pope said , at their departure .  At present they were piled on a side-table .  The girls had been through them all , and were ready with the choicer morsels for Marjorie 'samusement .  There was " Black Beauty , " the sympathetic story of a soundly Anglican horse , and a large Bible extra-illustrated with photographs of every well-known scriptural picture from Michael Angelo to Doré , and a book of injunctions to young ladies upon their behaviour and deportment that Rom and Sydney found particularly entertaining .  Marjorie discovered that Sydney had picked up a new favourite phrase .  " I 'mafraid we 'reall dreadfully cynical , " said Sydney , several times .  A more advanced note was struck by a copy of " Aurora Leigh , " richly underlined in pencil , but with exclamation marks at some of the bolder passages ... .  And presently , still avoiding the open study window very elaborately , this little group of twentieth century people went again into the church — the church whose foundations were laid in A.D. 912 — foundations of rubble and cement that included flat Roman bricks from a still remoter basilica .  Their voices dropped instinctively , as they came into its shaded quiet from the exterior sunshine .  Marjorie went a little apart and sat in a pew that gave her a glimpse of the one good stained-glass window .  Rom followed her , and perceiving her mood to be restful , sat a yard away .  Syd began a whispered dispute with her mother whether it was n't possible to try the organ , and whether Theodore might not be bribed to blow .  Daffy discovered relics of a lepers 'squint and a holy-water stoup , and then went to scrutinize the lettering of the ten commandments of the Mosaic law that shone black and red on gold on either side of the I.H.S. monogram behind the white-clothed communion table that had once been the altar .  Upon a notice board hung about the waist of the portly pulpit were the numbers of hymns that had been sung three days ago .  The sound Protestantism of the vicar had banished superfluous crosses from the building ; the Bible reposed upon the wings of a great brass eagle ; shining blue and crimson in the window , Saint Christopher carried his Lord .  What a harmonized synthesis of conflicts a country church presents !  What invisible mysteries of filiation spread between these ancient ornaments and symbols and the new young minds from the whirlpool of the town that looked upon them now with such bright , keen eyes , wondering a little , feeling a little , missing so much ?  It was all so very cool and quiet now — with something of the immobile serenity of death .  When Mr. Pope had finished his letter to the Times , he got out of the window of the study , treading on a flower-bed as he did so — he was the sort of man who treads on flower-beds — partly with the purpose of reading his composition aloud to as many members of his family as he could assemble for the purpose , and so giving them a chance of appreciating the nuances of his irony more fully than if they saw it just in cold print without the advantage of his intonation , and partly with the belated idea of welcoming Marjorie .  The law presented a rather discouraging desolation .  Then he became aware that the church tower frothed with his daughters .  In view of his need of an audience , he decided after a brief doubt that their presence there was unobjectionable , and waved his MS. amiably .  Marjorie flapped a handkerchief in reply ... .  The subsequent hour was just the sort of hour that gave Mr. Pope an almost meteorological importance to his family .  He began with an amiability that had no fault , except , perhaps , that it was a little forced after the epistolary strain in the study , and his welcome to Marjorie was more than cordial .  " Well , little Madge-cat !  " he said , giving her an affectionate but sound and heavy thump on the left shoulder-blade , " got a kiss for the old daddy ?  "  Marjorie submitted a cheek .  " That 'sright , " said Mr. Pope ; " and now I just want you all to advise me — — "  He led the way to a group of wicker garden chairs .  " You 'recoming , mummy ?  " he said , and seated himself comfortably and drew out a spectacle case , while his family grouped itself dutifully .  It made a charming little picture of a Man and his Womankind .  " I do n't often flatter myself , " he said , " but this time I think I 'vebeen neat — neat 'sthe word for it .  "  He cleared his throat , put on his spectacles , and emitted a long , flat preliminary note , rather like the sound of a child 'strumpet .  " Er — ' Dear Sir !  ' "  " Rom , " said Mrs. Pope , " do n't creak your chair .  "  " It 'sDaffy , mother , " said Rom.  " Oh , Rom ! " said Daffy .  Mr. Pope paused , and looked with a warning eye over his left spectacle-glass at Rom.  " Do n't creak your chair , Rom , " he said , " when your mother tells you .  "  " I was not creaking my chair , " said Rom.  " I heard it , " said Mr. Pope , suavely .  " It was Daffy .  "  " Your mother does not think so , " said Mr. Pope .  " Oh , all right !  I 'llsit on the ground , " said Rom , crimson to the roots of her hair .  " Me too , " said Daffy .  " I 'drather .  "  Mr. Pope watched the transfer gravely .  Then he readjusted his glasses , cleared his throat again , trumpeted , and began .  " Er — ' Dear Sir , ' "  " Ought n't it to be simply 'Sir , ' father , for an editor ?  " said Marjorie .  " Perhaps I did n't explain , Marjorie , " said her father , with the calm of great self-restraint , and dabbing his left hand on the manuscript in his right , " that this is a private letter — a private letter .  "  " I did n't understand , " said Marjorie .  " It would have been evident as I went on , " said Mr. Pope , and prepared to read again .  This time he was allowed to proceed , but the interruptions had ruffled him , and the gentle stresses that should have lifted the subtleties of his irony into prominence missed the words , and he had to go back and do his sentences again .  Then Rom suddenly , horribly , uncontrollably , was seized with hiccups .  At the second hiccup Mr. Pope paused , and looked very hard at his daughter with magnified eyes ; as he was about to resume , the third burst its way through the unhappy child 'sutmost effort .  Mr. Pope rose with an awful resignation .  " That 'senough , " he said .  He regarded the pseudo-twin vindictively .  " You have n't the self-control of a child of six , " he said .  Then very touchingly to Mrs. Pope : " Mummy , shall we try a game of tennis with the New Generation ?  "  " Ca n't you read it after supper ?  " asked Mrs. Pope .  " It must go by the eight o'clock post , " said Mr. Pope , putting the masterpiece into his breast pocket , the little masterpiece that would now perhaps never be read aloud to any human being .  " Daffy , dear , do you mind going in for the racquets and balls ?  "  The social atmosphere was now sultry , and overcast , and Mr. Pope 'sdecision to spend the interval before Daffy returned in seeing whether he could n't do something to the net , which was certainly very unsatisfactory , did not improve matters .  Then , unhappily , Marjorie , who had got rather keen upon tennis at the Carmels ', claimed her father 'sfirst two services as faults , contrary to the etiquette of the family .  It happened that Mr. Pope had a really very good , hard , difficult , smart-looking serve , whose only defect was that it always went either too far or else into the net , and so a feeling had been fostered and established by his wife that , on the whole , it was advisable to regard the former variety as a legitimate extension of a father 'sauthority .  Naturally , therefore , Mr. Pope was nettled at Marjorie 'sruling , and his irritation increased when his next two services to Daffy perished in the net .  ( " Damn that net !  Puts one 'seye out .  " ) Then Marjorie gave him an unexpected soft return which he somehow muffed , and then Daffy just dropped a return over the top of the net .  ( Love-game .  ) It was then Marjorie 'sturn to serve , which she did with a new twist acquired from the eldest Carmel boy that struck Mr. Pope as un-English .  " Go on , " he said concisely .  " Fifteen love .  "  She was gentle with her mother and they got their first rally , and when it was over Mr. Pope had to explain to Marjorie that if she returned right up into his corner of the court he would have to run backwards very fast and might fall over down the silly slope at that end .  She would have to consider him and the court .  One did n't get everything out of a game by playing merely to win .  She said " All right , Daddy , " rather off-handedly , and immediately served to him again , and he , taken a little unawares , hit the ball with the edge of his racquet and sent it out , and then he changed racquets with Daffy — it seemed he had known all along she had taken his , but he had preferred to say nothing — uttered a word of advice to his wife just on her stroke , and she , failing to grasp his intention as quickly as she ought to have done , left the score forty-fifteen .  He felt better when he returned Marjorie 'sserve , and then before she could control herself she repeated her new unpleasant trick of playing into the corner again , whereupon , leaping back with an agility that would have shamed many a younger man , Mr. Pope came upon disaster .  He went spinning down the treacherous slope behind , twisted his ankle painfully and collapsed against the iron railings of the shrubbery .  It was too much , and he lost control of himself .  His daughters had one instant 'sglimpse of the linguistic possibilities of a strong man 'sagony .  " I told her , " he went on as if he had said nothing .  " Tennis ! "  For a second perhaps he seemed to hesitate upon a course of action .  Then as if by a great effort he took his coat from the net post and addressed himself houseward , incarnate Grand Dudgeon — limping .  " Had enough of it , Mummy , " he said , and added some happily inaudible comment on Marjorie 'snew style of play .  The evening 'sexercise was at an end .   The three ladies regarded one another in silence for some moments .  " I will take in the racquets , dear , " said Mrs. Pope .  " I think the other ball is at your end , " said Daffy ... .  The apparatus put away , Marjorie and her sister strolled thoughtfully away from the house .  " There 'scroquet here too , " said Daffy .  " We 'venot had the things out yet !  " ... .  " He 'llplay , I suppose .  "  " He wants to play .  " ...  " Of course , " said Marjorie after a long pause , " there 'sno reasoning with Dad !  "  Character is one of England 'snoblest and most deliberate products , but some Englishmen have it to excess .  Mr. Pope had .  He was one of that large and representative class which imparts a dignity to national commerce by inheriting big businesses from its ancestors .  He was a coach-builder by birth , and a gentleman by education and training .  He had been to City Merchant 'sand Cambridge .  Throughout the earlier half of the nineteenth century the Popes had been the princes of the coach-building world .  Mr. Pope 'sgreat-grandfather had been a North London wheelwright of conspicuous dexterity and integrity , who had founded the family business ; his son , Mr. Pope 'sgrandfather , had made that business the occupation of his life and brought it to the pinnacle of pre-eminence ; his son , who was Marjorie 'sgrandfather , had displayed a lesser enthusiasm , left the house at the works for a home ten miles away and sent a second son into the Church .  It was in the days of the third Pope that the business ceased to expand , and began to suffer severely from the competition of an enterprising person who had originally supplied the firm with varnish , gradually picked up the trade in most other materials and accessories needed in coach-building , and passed on by almost imperceptible stages to delivering the article complete — dispensing at last altogether with the intervention of Pope and Son — to the customer .  Marjorie 'sfather had succeeded in the fulness of time to the inheritance this insurgent had damaged .  Mr. Pope was a man of firm and resentful temper , with an admiration for Cato , Brutus , Cincinnatus , Cromwell , Washington , and the sterner heroes generally , and by nature a little ill-used and offended at things .  He suffered from indigestion and extreme irritability .  He found himself in control of a business where more flexible virtues were needed .  The Popes based their fame on a heavy , proud type of vehicle , which the increasing luxury and triviality of the age tended to replace by lighter forms of carriage , carriages with diminutive and apologetic names .  As these lighter forms were not only lighter but less expensive , Mr. Pope with a pathetic confidence in the loyalty of the better class of West End customer , determined to " make a stand " against them .  He was the sort of man to whom making a stand is in itself a sombre joy .  If he had had to choose his pose for a portrait , he would certainly have decided to have one foot advanced , the other planted like a British oak behind , the arms folded and the brows corrugated , — making a stand .  Unhappily the stars in their courses and the general improvement of roads throughout the country fought against him .  The lighter carriages , and especially the lighter carriages of that varnish-selling firm , which was now absorbing businesses right and left , prevailed over Mr. Pope 'sresistance .  For crossing a mountain pass or fording a river , for driving over the scene of a recent earthquake or following a retreating army , for being run away with by frantic horses or crushing a personal enemy , there can be no doubt the Pope carriages remained to the very last the best possible ones and fully worth the inflexible price demanded .  Unhappily all carriages in a civilization essentially decadent are not subjected to these tests , and the manufactures of his rivals were not only much cheaper , but had a sort of meretricious smartness , a disingenuous elasticity , above all a levity , hateful indeed to the spirit of Mr. Pope yet attractive to the wanton customer .  Business dwindled .  Nevertheless the habitual element in the good class customer did keep things going , albeit on a shrinking scale , until Mr. Pope came to the unfortunate decision that he would make a stand against automobiles .  He regarded them as an intrusive nuisance which had to be seen only to be disowned by the landed gentry of England .  Rather than build a car he said he would go out of business .  He went out of business .  Within five years of this determination he sold out the name , good will , and other vestiges of his concern to a mysterious buyer who turned out to be no more than an agent for these persistently expanding varnish makers , and he retired with a genuine grievance upon the family accumulations — chiefly in Consols and Home Railways .  He refused however to regard his defeat as final , put great faith in the approaching exhaustion of the petrol supply , and talked in a manner that should have made the Automobile Association uneasy , of devoting the rest of his days to the purification of England from these aggressive mechanisms .  " It was a mistake , " he said , " to let them in .  " He became more frequent at his excellent West End club , and directed a certain portion of his capital to largely indecisive but on the whole unprofitable speculations in South African and South American enterprises .  He mingled a little in affairs .  He was a tough conventional speaker , rich in established phrases and never abashed by hearing himself say commonplace things , and in addition to his campaign against automobiles he found time to engage also in quasi-political activities , taking chairs , saying a few words and so on , cherishing a fluctuating hope that his eloquence might ultimately win him an invitation to contest a constituency in the interests of reaction and the sounder elements in the Liberal party .  He had a public-spirited side , and he was particularly attracted by that mass of modern legislative proposals which aims at a more systematic control of the lives of lower class persons for their own good by their betters .  Indeed , in the first enthusiasm of his proprietorship of the Pope works at East Purblow , he had organized one of those benevolent industrial experiments that are now so common .  He felt strongly against the drink evil , that is to say , the unrestricted liberty of common people to drink what they prefer , and he was acutely impressed by the fact that working-class families do not spend their money in the way that seems most desirable to upper middle-class critics .  Accordingly he did his best to replace the dangerous freedoms of money by that ideal of the social reformer , Payment in Kind .  To use his invariable phrase , the East Purblow experiment did " no mean service " to the cause of social reform .  Unhappily it came to an end through a prosecution under the Truck Act , that blot upon the Statute Book , designed , it would appear , even deliberately to vitiate man 'sbenevolent control of his fellow man .  The lessons to be drawn from that experience , however , grew if anything with the years .  He rarely spoke without an allusion to it , and it was quite remarkable how readily it could be adapted to illuminate a hundred different issues in the hospitable columns of the Spectator ... .  At seven o'clock Marjorie found herself upstairs changing into her apple-green frock .  She had had a good refreshing wash in cold soft water , and it was pleasant to change into thinner silk stockings and dainty satin slippers and let down and at last brush her hair and dress loiteringly after the fatigues of her journey and the activities of her arrival .  She looked out on the big church and the big trees behind it against the golden quiet of a summer evening with extreme approval .  " I suppose those birds are rooks , " she said .  But Daffy had gone to see that the pseudo-twins had done themselves justice in their muslin frocks and pink sashes ; they were apt to be a little sketchy with their less accessible buttons .  Marjorie became aware of two gentlemen with her mother on the lawn below .  One was her almost affianced lover , Will Magnet , the humorous writer .  She had been doing her best not to think about him all day , but now he became an unavoidable central fact .  She regarded him with an almost perplexed scrutiny , and wondered vividly why she had been so excited and pleased by his attentions during the previous summer .  Mr. Magnet was one of those quiet , deliberately unassuming people who do not even attempt to be beautiful .  Not for him was it to pretend , but to prick the bladder of pretence .  He was a fairish man of forty , pale , with a large protuberant , observant grey eye — I speak particularly of the left — and a face of quiet animation warily alert for the wit 'sopportunity .  His nose and chin were pointed , and his lips thin and quaintly pressed together .  He was dressed in grey , with a low-collared silken shirt showing a thin neck , and a flowing black tie , and he carried a grey felt hat in his joined hands behind his back .  She could hear the insinuating cadences of his voice as he talked in her mother 'sear .  The other gentleman , silent on her mother 'sright , must , she knew , be Mr. Wintersloan , whom Mr. Magnet had proposed to bring over .  His dress betrayed that modest gaiety of disposition becoming in an artist , and indeed he was one of Mr. Magnet 'sfavourite illustrators .  He was in a dark bluish-grey suit ; a black tie that was quite unusually broad went twice around his neck before succumbing to the bow , and his waistcoat appeared to be of some gaily-patterned orange silk .  Marjorie 'seyes returned to Mr. Magnet .  Hitherto she had never had an opportunity of remarking that his hair was more than a little attenuated towards the crown .  It was funny how his tie came out under his chin to the right .  What an odd thing men 'sdress had become , she thought .  Why did they wear those ridiculous collars and ties ?  Why did n't they always dress in flannels and look as fine and slender and active as the elder Carmel boy for example ?  Mr. Magnet could n't be such an ill-shaped man .  Why did n't every one dress to be just as beautiful and splendid as possible ?  — instead of wearing queer things !  " Coming down ?  " said Daffy , a vision of sulphur-yellow , appearing in the doorway .  " Let them go first , " said Marjorie , with a finer sense of effect .  " And Theodore .  We do n't want to make part of a comic entry with Theodore , Daffy .  "  Accordingly , the two sisters watched discreetly — they had to be wary on account of Mr. Magnet 'sincreasingly frequent glances at the windows — and when at last all the rest of the family had appeared below , they decided their cue had come .  Mr. Pope strolled into the group , with no trace of his recent debacle except a slight limp .  He was wearing a jacket of damson-coloured velvet , which he affected in the country , and all traces of his Grand Dudgeon were gone .  But then he rarely had Grand Dudgeon except in the sanctities of family life , and hardly ever when any other man was about .  " Well , " his daughters heard him say , with a witty allusiveness that was difficult to follow , " so the Magnet has come to the Mountain again — eh ?  "  " Come on , Madge , " said Daffy , and the two sisters emerged harmoniously together from the house .  It would have been manifest to a meaner capacity than any present that evening that Mr. Magnet regarded Marjorie with a distinguished significance .  He had two eyes , but he had that mysterious quality so frequently associated with a bluish-grey iris which gives the effect of looking hard with one large orb , a sort of grey searchlight effect , and he used this eye ray now to convey a respectful but firm admiration in the most unequivocal manner .  He saluted Daffy courteously , and then allowed himself to retain Marjorie 'shand for just a second longer than was necessary as he said — very simply — " I am very pleased indeed to meet you again — very .  "  A slight embarrassment fell between them .  " You are staying near here , Mr. Magnet ?  "  " At the inn , " said Mr. Magnet , and then , " I chose it because it would be near you .  "  His eye pressed upon her again for a moment .  " Is it comfortable ?  " said Marjorie .  " So charmingly simple , " said Mr. Magnet .  " I love it .  "  A tinkling bell announced the preparedness of supper , and roused the others to the consciousness that they were silently watching Mr. Magnet and Marjorie .  " It 'squite a simple farmhouse supper , " said Mrs. Pope .  There were ducks , green peas , and adolescent new potatoes for supper , and afterwards stewed fruit and cream and junket and cheese , bottled beer , Gilbey 'sBurgundy , and home-made lemonade .  Mrs. Pope carved , because Mr. Pope splashed too much , and bones upset him and made him want to show up chicken in the Times .  So he sat at the other end and rallied his guests while Mrs. Pope distributed the viands .  He showed not a trace of his recent umbrage .  Theodore sat between Daffy and his mother because of his table manners , and Marjorie was on her father 'sright hand and next to Mr. Wintersloan , while Mr. Magnet was in the middle of the table on the opposite side in a position convenient for looking at her .  Both maids waited .  The presence of Magnet invariably stirred the latent humorist in Mr. Pope .  He felt that he who talks to humorists should himself be humorous , and it was his private persuasion that with more attention he might have been , to use a favourite form of expression , " no mean jester .  " Quite a lot of little things of his were cherished as " Good " both by himself and , with occasional inaccuracies , by Mrs. Pope .  He opened out now in a strain of rich allusiveness .  " What will you drink , Mr. Wintersloan ?  " he said .  " Wine of the country , yclept beer , red wine from France , or my wife 'spotent brew from the golden lemon ?  "  Mr. Wintersloan thought he would take Burgundy .  Mr. Magnet preferred beer .  " I 'veheard there 'siron in the Beer , And I believe it , " misquoted Mr. Pope , and nodded as it were to the marker to score .  " I 'veheard there 'siron in the Beer ,  And I believe it , "  " Daffy and Marjorie are still in the lemonade stage .  Will you take a little Burgundy to-night , Mummy ?  "  Mrs. Pope decided she would , and was inspired to ask Mr. Wintersloan if he had been in that part of the country before .  Topography ensued .  Mr. Wintersloan had a style of his own , and spoke of the Buryhamstreet district as a " pooty little country — pooty little hills , with a swirl in them .  "  This pleased Daffy and Marjorie , and their eyes met for a moment .  Then Mr. Magnet , with a ray full on Marjorie , said he had always been fond of Surrey .  " I think if ever I made a home in the country I should like it to be here .  "  Mr. Wintersloan said Surrey would tire him , it was too bossy and curly , too flocculent ; he would prefer to look on broader , simpler lines , with just a sudden catch in the breath in them — if you understand me ?  Marjorie did , and said so .  " A sob — such as you get at the break of a pinewood on a hill .  "  This baffled Mr. Pope , but Marjorie took it .  " Or the short dry cough of a cliff , " she said .  " Exactly , " said Mr. Wintersloan , and having turned a little deliberate close-lipped smile on her for a moment , resumed his wing .  " So long as a landscape does n't sneeze " said Mr. Magnet , in that irresistible dry way of his , and Rom and Sydney , at any rate , choked .  " Now is the hour when Landscapes yawn , " mused Mr. Pope , coming in all right at the end .  Then Mrs. Pope asked Mr. Wintersloan , about his route to Buryhamstreet , and then Mr. Pope asked Mr. Magnet whether he was playing at a new work or working at a new play .  Mr. Magnet said he was dreaming over a play .  He wanted to bring out the more serious side of his humour , go a little deeper into things than he had hitherto done .  " Mingling smiles and tears , " said Mr. Pope approvingly .  Mr. Magnet said very quietly that all true humour did that .  Then Mrs. Pope asked what the play was to be about , and Mr. Magnet , who seemed disinclined to give an answer , turned the subject by saying he had to prepare an address on humour for the next dinner of the Literati .  " It 'sto be a humourist 'sdinner , and they 'vemade me the guest of the evening — by way of a joke to begin with , " he said with that dry smile again .  Mrs. Pope said he should n't say things like that .  She then said " Syd !  " quietly but sharply to Sydney , who was making a disdainful , squinting face at Theodore , and told the parlourmaid to clear the plates for sweets .  Mr. Magnet professed great horror of public speaking .  He said that whenever he rose to make an after-dinner speech all the ices he had ever eaten seemed to come out of the past , and sit on his backbone .  The talk centered for awhile on Mr. Magnet 'saddress , and apropos of Tests of Humour Mr. Pope , who in his way was " no mean raconteur , " related the story of the man who took the salad dressing with his hand , and when his host asked why he did that , replied : " Oh !  I thought it was spinach !  "  " Many people , " added Mr. Pope , " would n't see the point of that .  And if they do n't see the point they ca n't — and the more they try the less they do .  "  All four girls hoped secretly and not too confidently that their laughter had not sounded hollow .  And then for a time the men told stories as they came into their heads in an easy , irresponsible way .  Mr. Magnet spoke of the humour of the omnibus-driver who always dangled and twiddled his badge " by way of a joke " when he passed the conductor whose father had been hanged , and Mr. Pope , perhaps , a little irrelevantly , told the story of the little boy who was asked his father 'slast words , and said " mother was with him to the end , " which particularly amused Mrs. Pope .  Mr. Wintersloan gave the story of the woman who was taking her son to the hospital with his head jammed into a saucepan , and explained to the other people in the omnibus : " You see , what makes it so annoying , it 'sme only saucepan !  " Then they came back to the Sense of Humour with the dentist who shouted with laughter , and when asked the reason by his patient , choked out : " Wrong tooth !  " and then Mr. Pope reminded them of the heartless husband who , suddenly informed that his mother-in-law was dead , exclaimed " Oh , do n't make me laugh , please , I 'vegot a split lip ... .  "  The conversation assumed a less anecdotal quality with the removal to the drawing-room .  On Mr. Magnet 'sinitiative the gentlemen followed the ladies almost immediately , and it was Mr. Magnet who remembered that Marjorie could sing .  Both the elder sisters indeed had sweet clear voices , and they had learnt a number of those jolly songs the English made before the dull Hanoverians came .  Syd accompanied , and Rom sat back in the low chair in the corner and fell deeply in love with Mr. Wintersloan .  The three musicians in their green and sulphur-yellow and white made a pretty group in the light of the shaded lamp against the black and gold Broadwood , the tawdry screen , its pattern thin glittering upon darkness , and the deep shadows behind .  Marjorie loved singing , and forgot herself as she sang .  " I love , and he loves me again , Yet dare I not tell who ; For if the nymphs should know my swain , I fear they 'dlove him too , " she sang , and Mr. Magnet could not conceal the intensity of his admiration .  " I love , and he loves me again ,  Yet dare I not tell who ;  For if the nymphs should know my swain ,  I fear they 'dlove him too , "  Mr. Pope had fallen into a pleasant musing ; several other ripe old yarns , dear delicious old things , had come into his mind that he felt he might presently recall when this unavoidable display of accomplishments was overpast , and it was with one of them almost on his lips that he glanced across at his guest .  He was surprised to see Mr. Magnet 'sface transfigured .  He was sitting forward , looking up at Marjorie , and he had caught something of the expression of those blessed boys who froth at the feet of an Assumption .  For an instant Mr. Pope did not understand .  Then he understood .  It was Marjorie !  He had a twinge of surprise , and glanced at his own daughter as though he had never seen her before .  He perceived in a flash for the first time that this troublesome , clever , disrespectful child was tall and shapely and sweet , and indeed quite a beautiful young woman .  He forgot his anecdotes .  His being was suffused with pride and responsibility and the sense of virtue rewarded .  He did not reflect for a moment that Marjorie embodied in almost equal proportions the very best points in his mother and his mother-in-law , and avoided his own more salient characteristics with so neat a dexterity that from top to toe , except for the one matter of colour , not only did she not resemble him but she scarcely even alluded to him .  He thought simply that she was his daughter , that she derived from him , that her beauty was his .  She was the outcome of his meritorious preparations .  He recalled all the moments when he had been kind and indulgent to her , all the bills he had paid for her ; all the stresses and trials of the coach-building collapse , all the fluctuations of his speculative adventures , became things he had faced patiently and valiantly for her sake .  He forgot the endless times when he had been viciously cross with her , all the times when he had pished and tushed and sworn in her hearing .  He had on provocation and in spite of her mother 'sprotests slapped her pretty vigorously , but such things are better forgotten ; nor did he recall how bitterly he had opposed the college education which had made her now so clear in eye and thought , nor the frightful shindy , only three months since , about that identical green dress in which she now stood delightful .  He forgot these petty details , as an idealist should .  There she was , his daughter .  An immense benevolence irradiated his soul — for Marjorie — for Magnet .  His eyes were suffused with a not ignoble tenderness .  The man , he knew , was worth at least thirty-five thousand pounds , a discussion of investments had made that clear , and he must be making at least five thousand a year !  A beautiful girl , a worthy man !  A good fellow , a sound good fellow , a careful fellow too — as these fellows went !  Old Daddy would lose his treasure of course .  Well , a father must learn resignation , and he for one would not stand in the way of his girl 'shappiness .  A day would come when , very beautifully and tenderly , he would hand her over to Magnet , his favourite daughter to his trusted friend .  " Well , my boy , there 'sno one in all the world — — " he would begin .  It would be a touching parting .  " Do n't forget your old father , Maggots , " he would say .  At such a moment that quaint nickname would surely not be resented ... .  He reflected how much he had always preferred Marjorie to Daffy .  She was brighter — more like him .  Daffy was unresponsive , with a touch of bitterness under her tongue ... .  He was already dreaming he was a widower , rather infirm , the object of Magnet 'sand Marjorie 'sdevoted care , when the song ceased , and the wife he had for the purpose of reveries just consigned so carelessly to the cemetery proposed that they should have a little game that every one could play at .  A number of pencils and slips of paper appeared in her hands .  She did not want the girls to exhaust their repertory on this first occasion — and besides , Mr. Pope liked games in which one did things with pencils and strips of paper .  Mr. Magnet wished the singing to go on , he said , but he was overruled .  So for a time every one played a little game in which Mr. Pope was particularly proficient .  Indeed , it was rare that any one won but Mr. Pope .  It was called " The Great Departed , " and it had such considerable educational value that all the children had to play at it whenever he wished .  It was played in this manner ; one of the pseudo twins opened a book and dabbed a finger on the page , and read out the letter immediately at the tip of her finger , then all of them began to write as hard as they could , writing down the names of every great person they could think of , whose name began with that letter .  At the end of five minutes Mr. Pope said Stop !  and then began to read his list out , beginning with the first name .  Everybody who had that name crossed it out and scored one , and after his list was exhausted all the surviving names on the next list were read over in the same way , and so on .  The names had to be the names of dead celebrated people , only one monarch of the same name of the same dynasty was allowed , and Mr. Pope adjudicated on all doubtful cases .  It was great fun .  The first two games were won as usual by Mr. Pope , and then Mr. Wintersloan , who had been a little distraught in his manner , brightened up and scribbled furiously .  The letter was D , and after Mr. Pope had rehearsed a tale of nine and twenty names , Mr. Wintersloan read out his list in that curious voice of his which suggested nothing so much as some mobile drink glucking out of the neck of a bottle held upside down .  " Dahl , " he began .   " Who was Dahl ?  " asked Mr. Pope .  " ' Vented dahlias , " said Mr. Wintersloan , with a sigh .  " Danton .  "  " Forgot him , " said Mr. Pope .  " Davis .  "  " Davis ?  "  " Davis Straits .  Doe .  "  " Who ?  "  " John Doe , Richard Roe .  "  " Legal fiction , I 'mafraid , " said Mr. Pope .  " Dam , " said Mr. Wintersloan , and added after a slight pause : " Anthony van .  "  Mr. Pope made an interrogative noise .  " Painter — eighteenth century — Dutch .  Dam , Jan van , his son .  Dam , Frederich van .  Dam , Wilhelm van .  Dam , Diedrich van .  Dam , Wilhelmina , wood engraver , gifted woman .  Diehl .  "  " Who ?  "  " Painter — dead — famous .  See Düsseldorf .  It 'sall painters now — all guaranteed dead , all good men .  Deeds of Norfolk , the aquarellist , Denton , Dibbs .  "  " Er ?  " said Mr. Pope .  " The Warwick Claude , you know .  Died 1823. "  " Dickson , Dunting , John Dickery .  Peter Dickery , William Dock — I beg your pardon ?  "  Mr. Pope was making a protesting gesture , but Mr. Wintersloan 'sbearing was invincible , and he proceeded .  In the end he emerged triumphant with forty-nine names , mostly painters for whose fame he answered , but whose reputations were certainly new to every one else present .  " I can go on like that , " said Mr. Wintersloan , " with any letter , " and turned that hard little smile full on Marjorie .  " I did n't see how to do it at first .  I just cast about .  But I know a frightful lot of painters .  No end .  Shall we try again ?  "  Marjorie glanced at her father .  Mr. Wintersloan 'smethods were all too evident to her .  A curious feeling pervaded the room that Mr. Pope did n't think Mr. Wintersloan 'sconduct honourable , and that he might even go some way towards saying so .  So Mrs. Pope became very brisk and stirring , and said she thought that now perhaps a charade would be more amusing .  It did n't do to keep on at a game too long .  She asked Rom and Daphne and Theodore and Mr. Wintersloan to go out , and they all agreed readily , particularly Rom. " Come on !  " said Rom to Mr. Wintersloan .  Everybody else shifted into an audience-like group between the piano and the what-not .  Mr. Magnet sat at Marjorie 'sfeet , while Syd played a kind of voluntary , and Mr. Pope leant back in his chair , with his brows knit and lips moving , trying to remember something .  The charade was very amusing .  The word was Catarrh , and Mr. Wintersloan , as the patient in the last act being given gruel , surpassed even the children 'svery high expectations .  Rom , as his nurse , could n't keep her hands off him .  Then the younger people kissed round and were packed off to bed , and the rest of the party went to the door upon the lawn and admired the night .  It was a glorious summer night , deep blue , and rimmed warmly by the afterglow , moonless , and with a few big lamp-like stars above the black still shapes of trees .  Mrs. Pope said they would all accompany their guests to the gate at the end of the avenue — in spite of the cockchafers .  Mr. Pope 'sankle , however , excused him ; the cordiality of his parting from Mr. Wintersloan seemed a trifle forced , and he limped thoughtfully and a little sombrely towards the study to see if he could find an Encyclopædia or some such book of reference that would give the names of the lesser lights of Dutch , Italian , and English painting during the last two centuries .  He felt that Mr. Wintersloan had established an extraordinarily bad precedent .  Marjorie discovered that she and Mr. Magnet had fallen a little behind the others .  She would have quickened her pace , but Mr. Magnet stopped short and said : " Marjorie !  "  " When I saw you standing there and singing , " said Mr. Magnet , and was short of breath for a moment .  Marjorie 'snatural gift for interruption failed her altogether .  " I felt I would rather be able to call you mine — than win an empire .  "  The pause seemed to lengthen , between them , and Marjorie 'sremark when she made it at last struck her even as she made it as being but poorly conceived .  She had some weak idea of being self-depreciatory .  " I think you had better win an empire , Mr. Magnet , " she said meekly .  Then , before anything more was possible , they had come up to Daffy and Mr. Wintersloan and her mother at the gate ... .  As they returned Mrs. Pope was loud in the praises of Will Magnet .  She had a little clear-cut voice , very carefully and very skilfully controlled , and she dilated on his modesty , his quiet helpfulness at table , his ready presence of mind .  She pointed out instances of those admirable traits , incidents small in themselves but charming in their implications .  When somebody wanted junket , he had made no fuss , he had just helped them to junket .  " So modest and unassuming , " sang Mrs. Pope .  " You 'dnever dream he was quite rich and famous .  Yet every book he writes is translated into Russian and German and all sorts of languages .  I suppose he 'salmost the greatest humorist we have .  That play of his ; what is it called ?  — Our Owd Woman — has been performed nearly twelve hundred times !  I think that is the most wonderful of gifts .  Think of the people it has made happy .  "  The conversation was mainly monologue .  Both Marjorie and Daffy were unusually thoughtful .  Marjorie ended the long day in a worldly mood .  " Penny for your thoughts , " said Daffy abruptly , brushing the long firelit rapids of her hair .  " Not for sale , " said Marjorie , and roused herself .  " I 'vehad a long day .  "  " It 'salways just the time I particularly wish I was a man , " she remarked after a brief return to meditation .  " Fancy , no hair-pins , no brushing , no tie-up to get lost about , no strings .  I suppose they have n't strings ?  "  " They have n't , " said Daffy with conviction .  She met Marjorie 'sinterrogative eye .  " Father would swear at them , " she explained .  " He 'dnaturally tie himself up — and we should hear of it .  "  " I did n't think of that , " said Marjorie , and stuck out her chin upon her fists .  " Sound induction .  "  She forgot this transitory curiosity .  " Suppose one had a maid , Daffy — a real maid ... a maid who mended your things ... did your hair while you read ... .  "  " Oh !  here goes , " and she stood up and grappled with the task of undressing .  CHAPTER THE SECOND  The Two Proposals of Mr. Magnet  It was presently quite evident to Marjorie that Mr. Magnet intended to propose marriage to her , and she did not even know whether she wanted him to do so .  She had met him first the previous summer while she had been staying with the Petley-Cresthams at High Windower , and it had been evident that he found her extremely attractive .  She had never had a real grown man at her feet before , and she had found it amazingly entertaining .  She had gone for a walk with him the morning before she came away — a frank and ingenuous proceeding that made Mrs. Petley-Crestham say the girl knew what she was about , and she had certainly coquetted with him in an extraordinary manner at golf-croquet .  After that Oxbridge had swallowed her up , and though he had called once on her mother while Marjorie was in London during the Christmas vacation , he had n't seen her again .  He had written — which was exciting — a long friendly humorous letter about nothing in particular , with an air of its being quite the correct thing for him to do , and she had answered , and there had been other exchanges .  But all sorts of things had happened in the interval , and Marjorie had let him get into quite a back place in her thoughts — the fact that he was a member of her father 'sclub had seemed somehow to remove him from a great range of possibilities — until a drift in her mother 'stalk towards him and a letter from him with an indefinable change in tone towards intimacy , had restored him to importance .  Now here he was in the foreground of her world again , evidently more ardent than ever , and with a portentous air of being about to do something decisive at the very first opportunity .  What was he going to do ?  What had her mother been hinting at ?  And what , in fact , did the whole thing amount to ?  Marjorie was beginning to realize that this was going to be a very serious affair indeed for her — and that she was totally unprepared to meet it .  It had been very amusing , very amusing indeed , at the Petley-Cresthams ', but there were moments now when she felt towards Mr. Magnet exactly as she would have felt if he had been one of the Oxbridge tradesmen hovering about her with a " little account , " full of apparently exaggerated items ... .  Her thoughts and feelings were all in confusion about this business .  Her mind was full of scraps , every sort of idea , every sort of attitude contributed something to that Twentieth Century jumble .  For example , and so far as its value went among motives , it was by no means a trivial consideration ; she wanted a proposal for its own sake .  Daffy had had a proposal last year , and although it was n't any sort of eligible proposal , still there it was , and she had given herself tremendous airs .  But Marjorie would certainly have preferred some lighter kind of proposal than that which now threatened her .  She felt that behind Mr. Magnet were sanctions ; that she was n't free to deal with this proposal as she liked .  He was at Buryhamstreet almost with the air of being her parents 'guest .  Less clear and more instinctive than her desire for a proposal was her inclination to see just all that Mr. Magnet was disposed to do , and hear all that he was disposed to say .  She was curious .  He did n't behave in the least as she had expected a lover to behave .  But then none of the boys , the " others " with whom she had at times stretched a hand towards the hem of emotion , had ever done that .  She had an obscure feeling that perhaps presently Mr. Magnet must light up , be stirred and stirring .  Even now his voice changed very interestingly when he was alone with her .  His breath seemed to go — as though something had pricked his lung .  If it had n't been for that new , disconcerting realization of an official pressure behind him , I think she would have been quite ready to experiment extensively with his emotions ... .  But she perceived as she lay awake next morning that she was n't free for experiments any longer .  What she might say or do now would be taken up very conclusively .  And she had no idea what she wanted to say or do .  Marriage regarded in the abstract — that is to say , with Mr. Magnet out of focus — was by no means an unattractive proposal to her .  It was very much at the back of Marjorie 'smind that after Oxbridge , unless she was prepared to face a very serious row indeed and go to teach in a school — and she did n't feel any call whatever to teach in a school — she would probably have to return to Hartstone Square and share Daffy 'sroom again , and assist in the old collective , wearisome task of propitiating her father .  The freedoms of Oxbridge had enlarged her imagination until that seemed an almost unendurably irksome prospect .  She had tasted life as it could be in her father 'sabsence , and she was beginning to realize just what an impossible person he was .  Marriage was escape from all that ; it meant not only respectful parents but a house of her very own , furniture of her choice , great freedom of movement , an authority , an importance .  She had seen what it meant to be a prosperously married young woman in the person of one or two resplendent old girls revisiting Bennett College , scattering invitations , offering protections and opportunities ... .  Of course there is love .  Marjorie told herself , as she had been trained to tell herself , to be sensible , but something within her repeated : there is love .  Of course she liked Mr. Magnet .  She really did like Mr. Magnet very much .  She had had her girlish dreams , had fallen in love with pictures of men and actors and a music master and a man who used to ride by as she went to school ; but was n't this desolating desire for self-abandonment rather silly ?  — something that one left behind with much else when it came to putting up one 'shair and sensible living , something to blush secretly about and hide from every eye ?  Among other discrepant views that lived together in her mind as cats and rats and parrots and squirrels and so forth used to live together in those Happy Family cages unseemly men in less well-regulated days were wont to steer about our streets , was one instilled by quite a large proportion of the novels she had read , that a girl was a sort of self-giving prize for high moral worth .  Mr. Magnet she knew was good , was kind , was brave with that truer courage , moral courage , which goes with his type of physique ; he was modest , unassuming , well off and famous , and very much in love with her .  His True Self , as Mrs. Pope had pointed out several times , must be really very beautiful , and in some odd way a line of Shakespeare had washed up in her consciousness as being somehow effectual on his behalf : " Love looks not with the eye but with the mind . "  " Love looks not with the eye but with the mind .  "  She felt she ought to look with the mind .  Nice people surely never looked in any other way .  It seemed from this angle almost her duty to love him ... .  Perhaps she did love him , and mistook the symptoms .  She did her best to mistake the symptoms .  But if she did truly love him , would it seem so queer and important and antagonistic as it did that his hair was rather thin upon the crown of his head ?  She wished she had n't looked down on him ... .  Poor Marjorie !  She was doing her best to be sensible , and she felt herself adrift above a clamorous abyss of feared and forbidden thoughts .  Down there she knew well enough it was n't thus that love must come .  Deep in her soul , the richest thing in her life indeed and the best thing she had to give humanity , was a craving for beauty that at times became almost intolerable , a craving for something other than beauty and yet inseparably allied with it , a craving for deep excitement , for a sort of glory in adventure , for passion — for things akin to great music and heroic poems and bannered traditions of romance .  She had hidden away in her an immense tumultuous appetite for life , an immense tumultuous capacity for living .  To be loved beautifully was surely the crown and climax of her being .  She did not dare to listen to these deeps , yet these insurgent voices filled her .  Even while she drove her little crocodile of primly sensible thoughts to their sane appointed conclusion , her blood and nerves and all her being were protesting that Mr. Magnet would not do , that whatever other worthiness was in him , regarded as a lover he was preposterous and flat and foolish and middle-aged , and that it were better never to have lived than to put the treasure of her life to his meagre lips and into his hungry , unattractive arms .  " The ugliness of it !  The spiritless horror of it !  " so dumbly and formlessly the rebel voices urged .  " One has to be sensible , " said Marjorie to herself , suddenly putting down Shaw 'sbook on Municipal Trading , which she imagined she had been reading ... .  ( Perhaps all marriage was horrid , and one had to get over it .  )  That was rather what her mother had conveyed to her .  Mr. Magnet made his first proposal in form three days later , after coming twice to tea and staying on to supper .  He had played croquet with Mr. Pope , he had been beaten twelve times in spite of twinges in the sprained ankle — heroically borne — had had three victories lucidly explained away , and heard all the particulars of the East Purblow experiment three times over , first in relation to the new Labour Exchanges , then regarded at rather a different angle in relation to female betting , tally-men , and the sanctities of the home generally , and finally in a more exhaustive style , to show its full importance from every side and more particularly as demonstrating the gross injustice done to Mr. Pope by the neglect of its lessons , a neglect too systematic to be accidental , in the social reform literature of the time .  Moreover , Mr. Magnet had been made to understand thoroughly how several later quasi-charitable attempts of a similar character had already become , or must inevitably become , unsatisfactory through their failure to follow exactly in the lines laid down by Mr. Pope .  Mr. Pope was really very anxious to be pleasant and agreeable to Mr. Magnet , and he could think of no surer way of doing so than by giving him an unrestrained intimacy of conversation that prevented anything more than momentary intercourse between his daughter and her admirer .  And not only did Mr. Magnet find it difficult to get away from Mr. Pope without offence , but whenever by any chance Mr. Pope was detached for a moment Mr. Magnet discovered that Marjorie either was n't to be seen , or if she was she was n't to be isolated by any device he could contrive , before the unappeasable return of Mr. Pope .  Mr. Magnet did not get his chance therefore until Lady Petchworth 'slittle gathering at Summerhay Park .  Lady Petchworth was Mrs. Pope 'soldest friend , and one of those brighter influences which save our English country-side from lassitude .  She had been more fortunate than Mrs. Pope , for while Mr. Pope with that aptitude for disadvantage natural to his temperament had , he said , been tied to a business that never gave him a chance , Lady Petchworth 'shusband had been a reckless investor of exceptional good-luck .  In particular , led by a dream , he had put most of his money into a series of nitrate deposits in caves in Saghalien haunted by benevolent penguins , and had been rewarded beyond the dreams of avarice .  His foresight had received the fitting reward of a knighthood , and Sir Thomas , after restoring the Parish Church at Summerhay in a costly and destructive manner , spent his declining years in an enviable contentment with Lady Petchworth and the world at large , and died long before infirmity made him really troublesome .  Good fortune had brought out Lady Petchworth 'ssocial aptitudes .  Summerhay Park was everything that a clever woman , inspired by that gardening literature which has been so abundant in the opening years of the twentieth century , could make it .  It had rosaries and rock gardens , sundials and yew hedges , pools and ponds , lead figures and stone urns , box borderings and wilderness corners and hundreds and hundreds of feet of prematurely-aged red-brick wall with broad herbaceous borders ; the walks had primroses , primulas and cowslips in a quite disingenuous abundance , and in spring the whole extent of the park was gay , here with thousands of this sort of daffodil just bursting out and here with thousands of that sort of narcissus just past its prime , and every patch ready to pass itself off in its naturalized way as the accidental native flower of the field , if only it had n't been for all the other different varieties coming on or wilting-off in adjacent patches ... .  Her garden was only the beginning of Lady Petchworth 'sactivities .  She had a model dairy , and all her poultry was white , and so far as she was able to manage it she made Summerhay a model village .  She overflowed with activities , it was astonishing in one so plump and blonde , and meeting followed meeting in the artistic little red-brick and green-stained timber village hall she had erected .  Now it was the National Theatre and now it was the National Mourning ; now it was the Break Up of the Poor Law , and now the Majority Report , now the Mothers 'Union , and now Socialism , and now Individualism , but always something progressive and beneficial .  She did her best to revive the old village life , and brought her very considerable powers of compulsion to make the men dance in simple old Morris dances , dressed up in costumes they secretly abominated , and to induce the mothers to dress their children in art-coloured smocks instead of the prints and blue serge frocks they preferred .  She did not despair , she said , of creating a spontaneous peasant art movement in the district , springing from the people and expressing the people , but so far it had been necessary to import not only instructors and material , but workers to keep the thing going , so sluggish had the spontaneity of our English countryside become .  Her little gatherings were quite distinctive of her .  They were a sort of garden party extending from mid-day to six or seven ; there would be a nucleus of house guests , and the highways and byeways on every hand would be raided to supply persons and interests .  She had told her friend to " bring the girls over for the day , " and flung an invitation to Mr. Pope , who had at once excused himself on the score of his ankle .  Mr. Pope was one of those men who shun social gatherings — ostensibly because of a sterling simplicity of taste , but really because his intolerable egotism made him feel slighted and neglected on these occasions .  He told his wife he would be far happier with a book at home , exhorted her not to be late , and was seen composing himself to read the " Vicar of Wakefield " — whenever they published a new book Mr. Pope pretended to read an old one — as the hired waggonette took the rest of his family — Theodore very unhappy in buff silk and a wide Stuart collar — down the avenue .  They found a long lunch table laid on the lawn beneath the chestnuts , and in full view of the poppies and forget-me-nots around the stone obelisk , a butler and three men servants with brass buttons and red and white striped waistcoats gave dignity to the scene , and beyond , on the terrace amidst abundance of deckchairs , cane chairs , rugs , and cushions , a miscellaneous and increasing company seethed under Lady Petchworth 'splump but entertaining hand .  There were , of course , Mr. Magnet , and his friend Mr. Wintersloan — Lady Petchworth had been given to understand how the land lay ; and there was Mr. Bunford Paradise the musician , who was doing his best to teach a sullen holiday class in the village schoolroom to sing the artless old folk songs of Surrey again , in spite of the invincible persuasion of everybody in the class that the songs were rather indelicate and extremely silly ; there were the Rev. Jopling Baynes , and two Cambridge undergraduates in flannels , and a Doctor something or other from London .  There was also the Hon. Charles Muskett , Lord Pottinger 'scousin and estate agent , in tweeds and very helpful .  The ladies included Mrs. Raff , the well-known fashion writer , in a wonderful costume , the anonymous doctor 'swife , three or four neighbouring mothers with an undistinguished daughter or so , and two quiet-mannered middle-aged ladies , whose names Marjorie could not catch , and whom Lady Petchworth , in that well-controlled voice of hers , addressed as Kate and Julia , and seemed on the whole disposed to treat as humorous .  There was also Fraulein Schmidt in charge of Lady Petchworth 'sthree tall and already abundant children , Prunella , Prudence , and Mary , and a young , newly-married couple of cousins , who addressed each other in soft undertones and sat apart .  These were the chief items that became distinctive in Marjorie 'ssurvey ; but there were a number of other people who seemed to come and go , split up , fuse , change their appearance slightly , and behave in the way inadequately apprehended people do behave on these occasions .  Marjorie very speedily found her disposition to take a detached and amused view of the entertainment in conflict with more urgent demands .  From the outset Mr. Magnet loomed upon her — he loomed nearer and nearer .  He turned his eye upon her as she came up to the wealthy expanse of Lady Petchworth 'spresence , like some sort of obsolescent iron-clad turning a dull-grey , respectful , loving searchlight upon a fugitive torpedo boat , and thereafter he seemed to her to be looking at her without intermission , relentlessly , and urging himself towards her .  She wished he would n't .  She had n't at all thought he would on this occasion .  At first she relied upon her natural powers of evasion , and the presence of a large company .  Then gradually it became apparent that Lady Petchworth and her mother , yes — and the party generally , and the gardens and the weather and the stars in their courses were of a mind to co-operate in giving opportunity for Mr. Magnet 'sunmistakable intentions .  And Marjorie with that instability of her sex which has been a theme for masculine humour in all ages , suddenly and with an extraordinary violence did n't want to make up her mind about Mr. Magnet .  She did n't want to accept him ; and as distinctly she did n't want to refuse him .  She did n't even want to be thought about as making up her mind about him — which was , so to speak , an enlargement of her previous indisposition .  She did n't even want to seem to avoid him , or to be thinking about him , or aware of his existence .  After the greeting of Lady Petchworth she had succeeded very clumsily in not seeing Mr. Magnet , and had addressed herself to Mr. Wintersloan , who was standing a little apart , looking under his hand , with one eye shut , at the view between the tree stems towards Buryhamstreet .  He told her that he thought he had found something " pooty " that had n't been done , and she did her best to share his artistic interests with a vivid sense of Mr. Magnet 'stentative incessant approach behind her .  He joined them , and she made a desperate attempt to entangle Mr. Wintersloan in a three-cornered talk in vain .  He turned away at the first possible opportunity , and left her to an embarrassed and eloquently silent tête-à-tête .  Mr. Magnet 'sprofessional wit had deserted him .  " It 'snice to see you again , " he said after an immense interval .  " Shall we go and look at the aviary ?  "  " I hate to see birds in cages , " said Marjorie , " and it 'sfrightfully jolly just here .  Do you think Mr. Wintersloan will paint this ?  He does paint , does n't he ?  "  " I know him best in black and white , " said Mr. Magnet .  Marjorie embarked on entirely insincere praises of Mr. Wintersloan 'smanner and personal effect ; Magnet replied tepidly , with an air of reserving himself to grapple with the first conversational opportunity .  " It 'sa splendid day for tennis , " said Marjorie .  " I think I shall play tennis all the afternoon .  "  " I do n't play well enough for this publicity .  "  " It 'sglorious exercise , " said Marjorie .  " Almost as good as dancing , " and she decided to stick to that resolution .  " I never lose a chance of tennis if I can help it .  "  She glanced round and detected a widening space between themselves and the next adjacent group .  " They 'relooking at the goldfish , " she said .  " Let us join them .  "  Everyone moved away as they came up to the little round pond , but then Marjorie had luck , and captured Prunella , and got her to hold hands and talk , until Fraulein Schmidt called the child away .  And then Marjorie forced Mr. Magnet to introduce her to Mr. Bunford Paradise .  She had a bright idea of sitting between Prunella and Mary at the lunch table , but a higher providence had assigned her to a seat at the end between Julia — or was it Kate ?  — and Mr. Magnet .  However , one of the undergraduates was opposite , and she saved herself from undertones by talking across to him boldly about Newnham , though she had n't an idea of his name or college .  From that she came to tennis .  To her inflamed imagination he behaved as if she was under a Taboo , but she was desperate , and had pledged him and his friend to a foursome before the meal was over .  " Do n't you play ?  " said the undergraduate to Mr. Magnet .  " Very little , " said Mr. Magnet .  " Very little — "  At the end of an hour she was conspicuously and publicly shepherded from the tennis court by Mrs. Pope .  " Other people want to play , " said her mother in a clear little undertone .  Mr. Magnet fielded her neatly as she came off the court .  " You play tennis like — a wild bird , " he said , taking possession of her .  Only Marjorie 'sentire freedom from Irish blood saved him from a vindictive repartee .  " Shall we go and look at the aviary ?  " said Mr. Magnet , reverting to a favourite idea of his , and then remembered she did not like to see caged birds .  " Perhaps we might see the Water Garden ?  " he said .  " The Water Garden is really very delightful indeed — anyhow .  You ought to see that .  "  On the spur of the moment , Marjorie could think of no objection to the Water Garden , and he led her off .  " I often think of that jolly walk we had last summer , " said Mr. Magnet , " and how you talked about your work at Oxbridge .  "  Marjorie fell into a sudden rapture of admiration for a butterfly .  Twice more was Mr. Magnet baffled , and then they came to the little pool of water lilies with its miniature cascade of escape at the head and source of the Water Garden .  " One of Lady Petchworth 'sgreat successes , " said Mr. Magnet .  " I suppose the lotus is like the water-lily , " said Marjorie , with no hope of staving off the inevitable — —  She stood very still by the little pool , and in spite of her pensive regard of the floating blossoms , stiffly and intensely aware of his relentless regard .  " Marjorie , " came his voice at last , strangely softened .  " There is something I want to say to you .  "  She made no reply .  " Ever since we met last summer — — "  A clear cold little resolution not to stand this , had established itself in Marjorie 'smind .  If she must decide , she would decide .  He had brought it upon himself .  " Marjorie , " said Mr. Magnet , " I love you .  "  She lifted a clear unhesitating eye to his face .  " I 'msorry , Mr. Magnet , " she said .  " I wanted to ask you to marry me , " he said .  " I 'msorry , Mr. Magnet , " she repeated .  They looked at one another .  She felt a sort of scared exultation at having done it ; her mother might say what she liked .  " I love you very much , " he said , at a loss .  " I 'msorry , " she repeated obstinately .  " I thought you cared for me a little .  "  She left that unanswered .  She had a curious feeling that there was no getting away from this splashing , babbling pool , that she was fixed there until Mr. Magnet chose to release her , and that he did n't mean to release her yet .  In which case she would go on refusing .  " I 'mdisappointed , " he said .  Marjorie could only think that she was sorry again , but as she had already said that three times , she remained awkwardly silent .  " Is it because — — " he began and stopped .  " It is n't because of anything .  Please let 'sgo back to the others , Mr. Magnet .  I 'msorry if I 'mdisappointing .  "  And by a great effort she turned about .  Mr. Magnet remained regarding her — I can only compare it to the searching preliminary gaze of an artistic photographer .  For a crucial minute in his life Marjorie hated him .  " I do n't understand , " he said at last .  Then with a sort of naturalness that ought to have touched her he said : " Is it possible , Marjorie — that I might hope ?  — that I have been inopportune ?  "  She answered at once with absolute conviction .  " I do n't think so , Mr. Magnet .  "  " I 'msorry , " he said , " to have bothered you .  "  " I 'msorry , " said Marjorie .  A long silence followed .  " I 'msorry too , " he said .  They said no more , but began to retrace their steps .  It was over .  Abruptly , Mr. Magnet 'sbearing had become despondent — conspicuously despondent .  " I had hoped , " he said , and sighed .  With a thrill of horror Marjorie perceived he meant to look rejected , let every one see he had been rejected — after encouragement .  What would they think ?  How would they look ?  What conceivably might they not say ?  Something of the importance of the thing she had done , became manifest to her .  She felt first intimations of regret .  They would all be watching , Mother , Daffy , Lady Petchworth .  She would reappear with this victim visibly suffering beside her .  What could she say to straighten his back and lift his chin ?  She could think of nothing .  Ahead at the end of the shaded path she could see the copious white form , the agitated fair wig and red sunshade of Lady Petchworth — —  Mrs. Pope 'seye was relentless ; nothing seemed hidden from it ; nothing indeed was hidden from it ; Mr. Magnet 'sback was diagrammatic .  Marjorie was a little flushed and bright-eyed , and professed herself eager , with an unnatural enthusiasm , to play golf-croquet .  It was eloquently significant that Mr. Magnet did not share her eagerness , declined to play , and yet when she had started with the Rev. Jopling Baynes as partner , stood regarding the game with a sort of tender melancholy from the shade of the big chestnut-tree .  Mrs. Pope joined him unobtrusively .  " You 'renot playing , Mr. Magnet , " she remarked .  " I 'ma looker-on , this time , " he said with a sigh .  " Marjorie 'swinning , I think , " said Mrs. Pope .  He made no answer for some seconds .  " She looks so charming in that blue dress , " he remarked at last , and sighed from the lowest deeps .  " That bird's-egg blue suits her , " said Mrs. Pope , ignoring the sigh .  " She 'sclever in her girlish way , she chooses all her own dresses , — colours , material , everything .  "  ( And also , though Mrs. Pope had not remarked it , she concealed her bills .  )  There came a still longer interval , which Mrs. Pope ended with the slightest of shivers .  She perceived Mr. Magnet was heavy for sympathy and ripe to confide .  " I think , " she said , " it 'sa little cool here .  Shall we walk to the Water Garden , and see if there are any white lilies ?  "  " There are , " said Mr. Magnet sorrowfully , " and they are very beautiful — quite beautiful .  "  He turned to the path along which he had so recently led Marjorie .  He glanced back as they went along between Lady Petchworth 'sherbaceous border and the poppy beds .  " She 'sso full of life , " he said , with a sigh in his voice .  Mrs. Pope knew she must keep silent .  " I asked her to marry me this afternoon , " Mr. Magnet blurted out .  " I could n't help it .  "  Mrs. Pope made her silence very impressive .  " I know I ought not to have done so without consulting you " — he went on lamely ; " I 'mvery much in love with her .  It 's— — It 'sdone no harm .  "  Mrs. Pope 'svoice was soft and low .  " I had no idea , Mr. Magnet ... .  You know she is very young .  Twenty .  A mother — — "  " I know , " said Magnet .  " I can quite understand .  But I 'vedone no harm .  She refused me .