e
houses no longer spoke of miserably drawn-out decay, but took on rather
the warmth of live rock. The deepening shadows of that passage where the
little peaked creature had spat forth her fury made him shudder with the
mean and vicious passions they now veiled. Very soon, however, his
disgust died away. Looking back at Neptune Crescent, he knew there was
not one door in all that semicircle which did not putatively conceal
secrets like those of Number Fourteen. Like poisonous toadstools in
rankness and gloom, the worst of human nature must flourish here. It was
foolish to be disgusted; indeed, already a half-aroused curiosity had
taken its place, and Michael regretted that he had not stayed to hear
what more she would have said. How far she had been from appreciating
the motives that prompted his offer of money. Poppy's injustice began to
depress him. He felt, walking southward to Piccadilly, an acute sense of
her failure to be grateful from his point of view. It hurt him to find
sincerity so lightly regarded. Then he realized that it was her vanity
which had been touched. _Hell knows no fury like a woman scorned._ The
ability to apply such a famous generalization directly to himself gave
Michael a great satisfaction. It was strange to be so familiar with a
statement, and then suddenly like this to be staggered by its truth. He
experienced a sort of pride in linking himself on to one of the great
commonplaces of rhetoric. He need no longer feel misjudged, since Poppy
had played a universal part. In revulsion he felt sorry for her. He
hated to think how deeply her pride must have been wounded. He could not
expect her to esteem the reason which had made him refuse her. She could
have little comprehension of fastidiousness and still less could she
grasp the existence of an abstract morality that in its practical
expression must have seemed to her so insulting. That, however, did not
impugn the morality, nor did it invalidate the desire to befriend her.
Impulse had not really betrayed him: the mistake had been in his
tactlessness, in a lack of worldly knowledge. Moreover, Poppy was only
an incident, and until Lily was found he had no business to turn aside.
Nevertheless, he had learned something this evening; he had seen proved
in action a famous postulate of feminine nature, and the truth struck
him with a sharpness that no academic demonstration had ever had the
power to effect.

On the whole, Michael was rather pleased w