ew
moments by the strong sunshine and the clear air. It is probably the
sensation enjoyed for hours together by a dog basking in the sun, but
with most human beings it does not last long--the sun is soon too hot
for the head, or too bright for the eyes, or there is a draught, or the
flies disturb one. Man is not capable of as much physical enjoyment as
the other animals, though perhaps his enjoyment is keener during the
first moments. Then comes thought, restlessness, discontent, change,
effort, and progress, and the history of man's superiority is the
journal of his pain.

For a little while, Clare stood blinking in the sunshine, smitten into a
pleasant semi-consciousness by the strong nature around her. Then she
thought of Brook and the lady in white, and of all she had been a
witness of in the evening, and the colour of things changed a little,
and she turned away and went between the little white and red curtains
into her room again. Life was certainly not the same since she had heard
and seen what a man and a woman could say and be. There were certain new
impressions, where there had been no impression at all, but only a
maiden readiness to receive the beautiful. What had come was not
beautiful, by any means, and the thought of it darkened the air a
little, so that the day was not to be what it might have been. She
realised how she was affected, and grew impatient with herself. After
all, it would be the easiest thing in the world to avoid the man, even
if he stayed some time. Her mother was not much given to making
acquaintance with strangers.

And it would have been easy enough, if the man himself had taken the
same view. He, however, had watched the Bowrings on the preceding
evening, and had made up his mind that they were "human beings," as he
put it; that is to say, that they belonged to his own class, whereas
none of the people at the upper end of the table had any claim to be
counted with the social blessed. He was young, and though he knew how to
amuse himself alone, and had all manner of manly tastes and
inclinations, he preferred pleasant society to solitude, and his
experience told him that the society of the Bowrings would in all
probability be pleasant. He therefore determined that he would try to
know them at once, and the determination had already been formed in his
mind when he had run after Clare to give her the shawl she had dropped.

He got up rather late, and promptly marched out upon the ter