dered at this hour to what advantage he could turn
it; but the case grew less simple the longer he
waited. Decidedly there was something he hadn't
enough of. He stood as one fast.

His slow march to and fro seemed to give him
the very measure; as he paced and paced the dis
tance it became the desert of his poverty; at the
sight of which expanse moreover he could pretend
to himself as little as before that the desert looked
redeemable. Lancaster Gate looked rich that was
all the effect; which it was unthinkable that any
state of his own should ever remotely resemble. He
read more vividly, more critically, as has been
hinted, the appearances about him; and they did
nothing so much as make him wonder at his aes
thetic reaction. He hadn't known and in spite
of Kate's repeated reference to her own rebellions
of taste that he should " mind " so much how an
independent lady might decorate her house. It was
the language of the house itself that spoke to him,
writing out for him, with surpassing breadth and
freedom, the associations and conceptions, the
ideals and possibilities of the mistress. Never, he
flattered himself, had he seen anything so gregari
ously ugly operatively, ominously so cruel. He
was glad to have found this last name for the whole
character; " cruel " somehow played into the sub
ject for an article that his impression put straight
into his mind. He would write about the heavy
horrors that could still flourish, that lifted their

[[87]]

p086 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p087w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p088

v?