ble
that may or may not be in the case of a young man of spirit and
large means, nor to embark upon the discussion of the temptations and
opportunities of large cities. Several ladies, of various positions and
qualities, had reflected upon his manifest need of education. There was
in particular Mrs. Skelmersdale, a very pretty little widow with hazel
eyes, black hair, a mobile mouth, and a pathetic history, who talked of
old music to him and took him to a Dolmetsch concert in Clifford's Inn,
and expanded that common interest to a general participation in
his indefinite outlook. She advised him about his probable
politics--everybody did that--but when he broke through his usual
reserve and suggested views of his own, she was extraordinarily
sympathetic. She was so sympathetic and in such a caressing way that
she created a temporary belief in her understanding, and it was quite
imperceptibly that he was drawn into the discussion of modern ethical
problems. She herself was a rather stimulating instance of modern
ethical problems. She told him something of her own story, and then
their common topics narrowed down very abruptly. He found he could help
her in several ways. There is, unhappily, a disposition on the part of
many people, who ought to know better, to regard a role played by Joseph
during his earlier days in Egypt as a ridiculous one. This point of view
became very inopportunely dominant in Benham's mind when he was lunching
TETE A TETE with Mrs. Skelmersdale at her flat....

The ensuing intimacy was of an entirely concealed and respectable
nature, but a certain increased preoccupation in his manner set Lady
Marayne thinking. He had as a matter of fact been taken by surprise.

Still he perceived that it is no excuse for a man that he has been taken
by surprise. Surprises in one's own conduct ought not to happen. When
they do happen then an aristocrat ought to stick to what he had done. He
was now in a subtle and complicated relationship to Mrs. Skelmersdale,
a relationship in which her pride had become suddenly a matter of
tremendous importance. Once he had launched himself upon this affair, it
was clear to him that he owed it to her never to humiliate her. And to
go back upon himself now would be a tremendous humiliation for her. You
see, he had helped her a little financially. And she looked to him, she
wanted him....

She wasn't, he knew, altogether respectable. Indeed, poor dear, her
ethical problems, alrea