Part 34 (2/2)
HUXLEY: ”Ah! There you rather havethe position of his chair, as if to engage Bowen in a tete-a-tete, he said:
”My dear Bowen, Gordon was the most remarkable man I ever met I know him well; he was sincere and disinterested, quite incapable of saying anything he did not think You will hardly believe me, but one day he said in tones of passionate conviction that, if he were to walk round the corner of the street and have his brains shot out, he would only be transferred to a wider sphere of government”
BOWEN: ”Would the absence of brains have been of any help to hiood humour was restored and I only had ti was ruined by Jowett taking us across the quad to hear moderate music in the hideous Balliol hall Of all the Master's women friends, I infinitely preferred Mrs T H Green, John Addington Sy the rare women who have all the qualities which in moments of disillusion I deny to them
I spent my last week-end at Balliol when Jowett's health appeared to have couests had gone, I went as usual into his study to talk to hi his death-bed letter had amused but distressed him; and on my arrival he pressed me to tell him what it was he had written that had offended me I told him I was not offended, only hurt He asked iven hiave Lord Grey [Footnote: Viscount Grey of Fallodon] when he asked her the saarden at Fallodon on the occasion of her first countryhouse visit:
”The one touches your vanity and the other your heart”
I do not knohat I said, but I told him I was quite unoffended and without touchiness, but that his letter had all the faults of a schoolmaster and a cleric in it and not the love of a friend He listened to ret
On the Monday , and on which we had our last conversation, I had ood conversations by talking too ue and let the Master for once make the first move I had not hadsilences and had often defended hie; but it was tiot into the room and he had shut the door, I absently selected the only co and quelling silence followed the lighting of ht out a few stage directions--”here business with handkerchief, etc”--and adjusted the buckles on ered a paper-knife and odds and ends on the table near me The oppressive silence continued I strolled to the book-shelves and, under cover of a copy of ”Country Conversations,” peeped at the Master He appeared to be quite unaware ofback the book
So had switched hiht
At last, breaking the silence with considerable impatience, I said:
”Really, Master, there is very little excuse for your silence!
Surely you have so to tell me; you have had an experience since we talked to each other that I have never had: you have been near Death”
JOWETT (not in any way put out): ”I felt no rapture, no bliss”
(Suddenly looking atmy hand) ”My dear child, you y say”
CHAPTER III
FAST AND FURIOUS HUNTING IN LEICESTERshi+RE--COUNTRY HOUSE PARTY AND A NEW ADMIRER--FRIENDshi+P WITH LORD AND LADY MANNERS
My friendshi+p with Lord and Lady Manners, [Footnote: Avon Tyrrell, Christchurch, Hants Lady Manners was a Miss Fane] of Avon Tyrrell, probablythat had happened in it
Riding hat I knew and cared h Leicestershi+re I had hunted in Cheshi+re, where you killed three foxes a day and found yourself either clattering aes and crowds; I knew the stiff plough and fine horses of Yorkshi+re and the rotten grass in the Bicester; I had struggled over the large fences and small enclosures of the Grafton and been a heroine in the select fields and large becks with the Burton; and the Beaufort had seen the dawn of ht the Hon Crasher before me and opened a vista on my future of all that was fast, furious and fashi+onable
When I was told that I was going to sit next to the Master of the Quorn at dinner, my excitement knew no bounds
Gordon Cunard--whose brother Bache owned the fa hi the invitation I had refused, as I hardly knew our hostess--the pretty Mrs Farnharam from my new admirer--one of the best ed my mind In consequence of this decision a double event took place I fell in love with Peter Flower--a brother of the late Lord Battersea--and foroodness to lorious youth