ling as they did, it would have been
better if they had swaggered less about a club that stood for British
Government; but I did not vote to withdraw the invitation. We can not,
after all, take notice of every idle word that drops from Latin or
Teutonic tongues; it isn't our way; but it was a liverish cold weather
on various accounts, and the public temper was short. I heard from Dora
oftener, Harris declared, than he did. She was spending the winter
with friends in Agra, and Armour, of course, was there too, living at
Laurie's Hotel, and painting, Dora assured me, with immense energy.
It was just the place for Armour, a sumptuous dynasty wrecked in white
marble and buried in desert sands for three hundred years; and I was
glad to hear that he was making the most of it. It was quite by the way,
but I had lent him the money to go there--somebody had to lend it to
him--and when he asked me to decide whether he should take his passage
for Marseilles or use it for this other purpose I could hardly hesitate,
believing in him, as I did, to urge him to paint a little more of India
before he went. I frankly despaired of his ever being able to pay his
way in Simla without Kauffer, but that was no reason why he should not
make a few more notes for further use at home, where I sometimes saw
for him, when his desultory and experimental days were over and some
definiteness and order had come into his work, a Bond Street exhibition.

I have not said all this time what I thought of Ingersoll Armour and
Dora Harris together, because their connection seemed too vague and
fantastic and impossible to hold for an instant before a steady gaze. I
have no wish to justify myself when I write that I preferred to keep my
eyes averted, enjoying perhaps just such a measure of vision as would
enter at a corner of them. This may or may not have been immoral under
the circumstances--the event did not prove it so--but for urgent private
reasons I could not be the person to destroy the idyll, if indeed its
destruction were possible, that flourished there in the corner of
my eye. Besides, had not I myself planted and watered it? But it was
foolish to expect other people, people who are forever on the lookout
for trousseaux and wedding-bells, and who considered these two as mere
man and maid, and had no sight of them as engaging young spirits in
happy conjunction--it was foolish to expect such people to show equal
consideration. Christmas was barely over