ever fail of some response.
Though he saw his fellows leashed with a heavy chain of ignorance,
stupidity, passion, and weakness, yet he divined in life some
inscrutable principle of honour and justice; some unreckonable essence
of virtue too intimate to understand; some fumbling aspiration toward
decency, some brave generosity of spirit, some cheerful fidelity to
Beauty. He could not see how, in a world so obviously vast and uncouth
beyond computation, they could find a puny, tidy, assumptive, scheduled
worship so satisfying. But perhaps, since all Beauty was so staggering,
it was better they should cherish it in small formal minims. Perhaps
in this whole matter there was some lovely symbolism that he did not
understand.

The soft brightness was already lifting into upper air, a mingled tissue
of shadows lay along the valley. In the magical clarity of the evening
light he suddenly felt (as one often does, by unaccountable planetary
instinct) that there was a new moon. Turning, he saw it, a silver
snipping daintily afloat; and not far away, an early star. He had found
no creed in the prayer-book that accounted for the stars. Here at
the bottom of an ocean of sky, we look aloft and see them
thick-speckled--mere barnacles, perhaps, on the keel of some greater
ship of space. He remembered how at home there had been a certain
burning twinkle that peeped through the screen of the dogwood tree.
As he moved on his porch, it seemed to flit to and fro, appearing and
vanishing. He was often uncertain whether it was a firefly a few yards
away, or a star the other side of Time. Possibly Truth was like that.

There was a light swift rustle behind him, and Miss Airedale appeared.

"Hullo!" she said. "I wondered where you were. Is this how you spend
your afternoons, all alone?"

Stars, creeds, cosmologies, promptly receded into remote perspective
and had to shift for themselves. It was true that Gissing had somewhat
avoided her lately, for he feared her fascination. He wished nothing
else to interfere with his search for what he had not yet found.
Postpone the female problem to the last, was his theory: not because
it was insoluble, but because the solution might prove to be less
interesting than the problem itself. But side by side with her, she was
irresistible. A skittish brightness shone in her eyes.

"Great news!" she exclaimed. "I've persuaded Papa to take us all down to
Atlantic City for a couple of days."

"Wonderful!" c