ntrammelled and unshrunken from
that great encompassing host of material advantage? To a Bedouin like
Courtier, it was as though a subtle, but very terrible tragedy was all
the time being played before his eyes; and in, the very centre of this
tragedy was the girl who so greatly attracted him. Every night when he
retired to that lofty room, which smelt so good, and where, without
ostentation, everything was so perfectly ordered for his comfort, he
thought:

"My God, to-morrow I'll be off!"

But every morning when he met her at breakfast his thought was precisely
the same, and there were moments when he caught himself wondering: "Am I
falling under the spell of this existence--am I getting soft?" He
recognized as never before that the peculiar artificial 'hardness' of the
patrician was a brine or pickle, in which, with the instinct of
self-preservation they deliberately soaked themselves, to prevent the
decay of their overprotected fibre. He perceived it even in Barbara--a
sort of sentiment-proof overall, a species of mistrust of the emotional
or lyrical, a kind of contempt of sympathy and feeling. And every day he
was more and more tempted to lay rude hands on this garment; to see
whether he could not make her catch fire, and flare up with some emotion
or idea. In spite of her tantalizing, youthful self-possession, he saw
that she felt this longing in him, and now and then he caught a glimpse
of a streak of recklessness in her which lured him on:

And yet, when at last he was saying good-bye on the night before polling
day, he could not flatter himself that he had really struck any spark
from her. Certainly she gave him no chance, at that final interview, but
stood amongst the other women, calm and smiling, as if determined that he
should not again mock her with his ironical devotion.

He got up very early the next morning, intending to pass away unseen. In
the car put at his disposal; he found a small figure in a holland-frock,
leaning back against the cushions so that some sandalled toes pointed up
at the chauffeur's back. They belonged to little Ann, who in the course
of business had discovered the vehicle before the door. Her sudden little
voice under her sudden little nose, friendly but not too friendly, was
comforting to Courtier.

"Are you going? I can come as, far as the gate." "That is lucky."

"Yes. Is that all your luggage?"

"I'm afraid it is."

"Oh! It's quite a lot, really, isn't it?"