Anthony Hope

“ Lady Lexington beamed, her lord warmed himself happily. Miss Constantine was graciousness itself, Val basked and blossomed—and I wondered what the deuce had happened at Mrs. Something Simpson's flat in Westminster. (Her real name was Whitaker Simpson, and I believe Jane knew it quite well.)
Yes, she was monstrously friendly—distrust that in your mistress whether wooed or won. She would do everything for Val that afternoon, except be left alone with him. The Lexingtons went—you can hardly stop people going in their own house; Miss Boots and Mr. Sharpies, who were both there, went—to church. ”

“ But here, perhaps, I could not get thoroughly into the skin of the devotee: the god is not expected to be overwhelmed by his altars and his sacrifices—his divinityship is merely satisfied.
"Mr. Hare is behaving splendidly," Jane reported to me. She had a constant—apparently a daily—report of him from Lady Lexington, his unremitting champion. Indeed, the women were all on his side, and it was surprising how many of them seemed to know his position; I cannot help thinking that Val, in his turn, had succumbed to the temptations of sympathy. ”

“ True, I was placed, as a friend of the family, between Miss Boots, the Lexingtons' ex-governess, and Mr. Sharples, Lady Lexington's latest curate (she always has one in tow; some of the earlier ones are now in a fair way to achieve gaiters) , so that there was nothing very likely to distract my attention from the center of interest. But I should have watched them, anyhow. Who could be better to watch? Katharine, with her positive, incisive beauty (there was nothing of the elusive about her; some may prefer a touch of it) ”

“ Jane remarked, with much gratification. "I was at the Lexingtons' yesterday. She is queer."
I saw that Jane wanted me to ask questions, but I always prefer having gossip volunteered to me; it seems more dignified, and one very seldom loses anything in the end. So I just nodded, and relighted my pipe. Jane smiled scornfully. ”

“ I did not want to take sides in the matter, and had no intention of saying anything that Jane could quote either to Lady Lexington or to Miss Constantine herself.
"What is expected of her?" I asked carelessly, taking my pipe out of my mouth.
"Nobody exactly presses her,—well, there's nobody who has the right,—but of course she feels it herself," Jane explained. She knitted her brows and added, "It must be overwhelming." ”

“ Who wants a theory? We all know why."
"Oh, you do, do you?" My "exclusive information" seemed a good deal cheapened. "Has she told you, may I ask?"
"Not she; but she goes every afternoon, just after lunch, to Mrs. Something Simpson's—that's the man's aunt. She lives in a flat in Westminster, and he goes from his office to lunch at his aunt's every day, now."
While I had been musing, Jane had been getting at the facts.
"Val knows that?"
"Of course Lady Lexington told him. Let's have fair play, anyhow!" said Jane, rather hotly. ”

“ That it's failure, and that all the other girls will say so—failure in the one great opportunity of her life, in the one great thing that's expected of her; that it's final; that she must live all her life a failure among those who looked to her for a great success. ”

“ But I think she 'll say 'No', unless—well, unless you treat her as you want Val Hare to treat North Africa and primitive man. Apply your own rules, my friend. Reason in the right order!"
He smiled grimly. "Develop that a little," he requested, or, rather, ordered.
"It's not your feelings, or your traditions, or your surroundings, that count now. And it's not what you think she ought to feel, nor what she ought as a fact to feel, nor even what she's telling herself she ought to be brave enough and strong enough to feel. It's what she must feel, has been bred to feel, and in the end does feel. ”

“ Kirby took my arm. "The man is constitutionally incapable of thinking in the right order. It's always the same with him, I don't care whether it's an article about North Africa or that book of his about primitive man. He always—not occasionally, but always—starts with his conclusion and works backward to the premises. North Africa ought to be that shape—it is! ”

“ Perhaps I should say of non-essentials,—of things which a man might not have, and yet be intrinsically as good a man,—but, having which, he was, for all outside and foreign purposes, a man far more efficient. Val was, as I shall indicate in a moment, a bit of philosopher himself, so he could not with reason object to being thus philosophically considered. ”

“ I said.
"How clever you 're growing, Mr. Wynne! But just let him get out of the house. We must n't give it away."
A moment or two we stood in silence. Then she said: "You understand things. You shall have a note too—and a thousand hopes. And—good by!"
Not a suspicion of the meaning of this afternoon's scene crossed my mind, which facts proved me, I dare say, to be very stupid. But Val was hardly likely to see more clearly, and I can't altogether justify the play she made with the atlas and Assiniboia. As an exercise in irony, however, it had it's point. ”

“ I believe I had only a hazy idea of what might be done by a more sympathetic demeanor, a more ample acknowledgment of Miss Constantine's sacrifices—a notion that she might do the big thing if he made her think it the enormous thing, are n't girls even that sometimes? The sower of the seed is entitled to some credit for the crop ”

“ It's only a matter of time for that man to come a cropper. The first big affair he gets to handle, look out! I'm not prejudiced. He's a very good fellow, and I like him—besides being amused at him. But what I say is true. ”

“ Kirby; for her grimace was in answer to his smile, his smile the challenge that elicited her grimace. Yes, they were in communication. What about? I got no further than an impression that it was about Valentine Hare. I remembered the glances at dinner, and mentally corrected the little misapprehension which I have already acknowledged. But had the signals been going on all the evening? About Valentine Hare?
"I shall wait for news with great interest," I said to Lady Lexington. ”

“ That's all very well, but suppose he gets to the top of the tree, as the fellow will, and issues a Declaration of Independence? At least he 'll be Premier, and come over to a conference some day. Val will be Secretary for the Colonies, probably (unless he has come that cropper) . There's a situation for you! Well, I shall just leave town. I dare say I sha'n't be missed.
Lady Lexington carried it off well. She said that, from a strain of romance she had observed in the girl, the marriage was just what was to be expected of Katharine Constantine. ”