husband and, second,
of her close friend and quasi-sister our own admirable Aunt; with
Alexander's younger brother, above all, the odd, the eccentric, the
attaching Henry, for the stake, as it were, of the game. So for the
spectator did the figures distribute themselves; the three principal,
on the large stage--it became a field of such spreading interests--well
in front, and the accessory pair, all sympathy and zeal, prompt comment
and rich resonance, hovering in the background, responsive to any call
and on the spot at a sign: this most particularly true indeed of our
anything but detached Aunt, much less a passive recipient than a vessel
constantly brimming, and destined herself to become the outstanding
agent, almost the _dea ex machina_, in the last act of the story. Her
colleague of the earlier periods (though to that title she would scarce
have granted his right) I designate rather as our earnest cousin's
husband than as our kinsman even by courtesy; since he was "Mr." to his
own wife, for whom the dread of liberties taken in general included even
those that might have been allowed to herself: he had not in the least,
like the others in his case, married into the cousinship with us, and
this apparently rather by his defect than by ours. His christian name,
if certainly not for use, was scarce even for ornament--which consorted
with the felt limits roundabout him of aids to mention and with the fact
that no man could on his journey through life well have been less
eagerly designated or apostrophised. If there are persons as to whom the
"Mr." never comes up at all, so there are those as to whom it never
subsides; but some of them all keep it by the greatness and others,
oddly enough, by the smallness of their importance. The subject of my
present reference, as I think of him, nevertheless--by which I mean in
spite of his place in the latter group--greatly helps my documentation;
he must have been of so excellent and consistent a shade of nullity. To
that value, if value it be, there almost always attaches some question
of the degree and the position: with adjuncts, with a relation, the zero
may figure as a numeral--and the neglected zero is mostly, for that
matter, endowed with a consciousness and subject to irritation. For this
dim little gentleman, so perfectly a gentleman, no appeal and no
redress, from the beginning to the end of his career, were made or
entertained or projected; no question of how to treat him,