Once she discovered a book by Verreker. It was called Growth of the Village Community. Obeying a swift impulse, she took it out and went home with it. That evening she wrestled with the first chapter....
Her amazement that anybody could write such a thing was only equalled by her amazement that anybody could read it. It was to Scott in point of heaviness as a hydraulic press is to a pound weight.
It did not precisely raise her opinion of Verreker in the way that might have been expected. It amazed her, but it also made her think: “What’s the good of all this useless learning? It makes no difference to him. Nobody would know how clever he is to look at him. And yet he must have been studying these weird problems for years.” ...
She had no sympathy with the remorseless pursuit of knowledge. Her forte was the pursuit of experience.
CHAPTER XIV
HOPE ENTERS
§ 1
ARRIVED at Gifford Road one summer’s evening after a dusty journey on top of a crowded motor-bus, Catherine took pen and paper immediately (without taking off her hat) and wrote:
DEAR MR. VERREKER,
I am thinking of giving a pianoforte recital in one of the London concert halls. I should be very grateful for your advice and assistance in the matter. Will you do this for me?
Yours sincerely,