undiminished heads, in an age so proud of its short
way with false gods; and it would be funny if what
he should have got from Mrs. Lowder were to
prove, after all, but a small amount of copy. Yet
the great thing, really the dark thing, was that, even
while he thought of the quick column he might
add up, he felt it less easy to laugh at the heavy
horrors than to quail before them. He couldn't
describe and dismiss them collectively, call them
either Mid- Victorian or Early; not being at all sure
they were rangeable under one rubric. It was only
manifest they were splendid and were furthermore
conclusively British. They constituted an order and
they abounded in rare material precious woods,
metals, stuffs, stones. He had never dreamed of
anything so fringed and scalloped, so buttoned and
corded, drawn everywhere so tight, and curled
everywhere so thick. He had never dreamed of so
much gilt and glass, so much satin and plush, so
much rosewood and marble and malachite. But it
was, above all, the solid forms, the wasted finish,
the misguided cost, the general attestation of moral
ity and money, a good conscience and a big bal
ance. These things finally represented for him a
portentous negation of his own world of thought
of which, for that matter, in the presence of them,
he became as for the first time hopelessly aware.
They revealed it to him by their merciless difference.
His interview with Aunt Maud, none the less,
took by no means the turn he had expected. Pas-

[[88]]

p087 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p088w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p089

v?