"You surely don't suggest," said Jevons, "that I've made you uglier?"
"You've made me stronger and cleverer and bigger—ever so much bigger than I was."
"Much better in every way," I said, "than your youngest sister here, hasn't he?"
"Poor little Norah! I didn't mean that—you beast—Furny!—Of course I didn't. Jimmy—what did I mean?"
He said nothing. But I heard an inarticulate murmur, and I saw that in the darkness his arm went round her and drew her closer.
And that, God forgive him, was his heaviest score up till now.
In two days he had absorbed the Canterbury atmosphere. He was in it. In it as I wasn't and couldn't be.
And the next day Canon and Mrs. Thesiger took him in hand by turns. The Canon showed him the town all over again all morning. And in the afternoon Mrs. Thesiger showed him the Cathedral all over again; and took him with her to the service. And all dinner-time Jevons was very pensive and subdued.
After dinner the Canon talked to Jevons about his novel. (He had retired into his library all afternoon in order to finish it.) He asked him why he had chosen an ugly subject when he might have found a beautiful one?
And Jevons was more pensive than ever. He said, "Well—that's a question—"