ll at your disposal. Let me go down to
this house whose name I forget instead of you."

"Aunt Juley"--she jumped up and kissed her--"I must, must go to Howards
End myself. You don't exactly understand, though I can never thank you
properly for offering."

"I do understand," retorted Mrs. Munt, with immense confidence. "I go
down in no spirit of interference, but to make inquiries. Inquiries are
necessary. Now, I am going to be rude. You would say the wrong thing; to
a certainty you would. In your anxiety for Helen's happiness you would
offend the whole of these Wilcoxes by asking one of your impetuous
questions--not that one minds offending them."

"I shall ask no questions. I have it in Helen's writing that she and
a man are in love. There is no question to ask as long as she keeps to
that. All the rest isn't worth a straw. A long engagement if you like,
but inquiries, questions, plans, lines of action--no, Aunt Juley, no."

Away she hurried, not beautiful, not supremely brilliant, but filled
with something that took the place of both qualities--something best
described as a profound vivacity, a continual and sincere response to
all that she encountered in her path through life.

"If Helen had written the same to me about a shop assistant or a
penniless clerk--"

"Dear Margaret, do come into the library and shut the door. Your good
maids are dusting the banisters."

"--or if she had wanted to marry the man who calls for Carter Paterson,
I should have said the same." Then, with one of those turns that
convinced her aunt that she was not mad really, and convinced observers
of another type that she was not a barren theorist, she added: "Though
in the case of Carter Paterson I should want it to be a very long
engagement indeed, I must say."

"I should think so," said Mrs. Munt; "and, indeed, I can scarcely
follow you. Now, just imagine if you said anything of that sort to the
Wilcoxes. I understand it, but most good people would think you mad.
Imagine how disconcerting for Helen! What is wanted is a person who will
go slowly, slowly in this business, and see how things are and where
they are likely to lead to."

Margaret was down on this.

"But you implied just now that the engagement must be broken off."

"I think probably it must; but slowly."

"Can you break an engagement off slowly?" Her eyes lit up. "What's an
engagement made of, do you suppose? I think it's made of some hard stuff
that may snap, but ca