hiefly of the route they were following, of the changes in the London
traffic due to motor traction and of the charm and amenity of Richmond
Park. And it was only after they had arrived at Hampton Court and
dismissed the taxi and spent some time upon the borders, that they came
at last to a seat under a grove beside a long piece of water bearing
water lilies, and sat down and made a beginning with the Good Talk. Then
indeed she tried to gather together the heads of her perplexity and Mr.
Brumley did his best to do justice to confidence she reposed in him....

It wasn't at all the conversation he had dreamt of; it was halting, it
was inconclusive, it was full of a vague dissatisfaction.

The roots of this dissatisfaction lay perhaps more than anything else in
her inattention to him--how shall I say it?--as _Him_. Hints have been
conveyed to the reader already that for Mr. Brumley the universe was
largely a setting, a tangle, a maze, a quest enshrining at the heart of
it and adumbrating everywhere, a mystical Her, and his experience of
this world had pointed him very definitely to the conclusion that for
that large other half of mankind which is woman, the quality of things
was reciprocal and centred, for all the appearances and pretences of
other interests, in--Him. And he was disposed to believe that the other
things in life, not merely the pomp and glories but the faiths and
ambitions and devotions, were all demonstrably little more than posings
and dressings of this great duality. A large part of his own interests
and of the interests of the women he knew best, was the sustained and in
some cases recurrent discovery and elaboration of lights and glimpses of
Him or Her as the case might be, in various definite individuals; and it
was a surprise to him, it perplexed him to find that this lovely person,
so beautifully equipped for those mutual researches which constituted,
he felt, the heart of life, was yet completely in her manner unaware of
this primary sincerity and looking quite simply, as it were, over him
and through him at such things as the ethics of the baking,
confectionery and refreshment trade and the limits of individual
responsibility in these matters. The conclusion that she was
"unawakened" was inevitable.

The dream of "awakening" this Sleeping Beauty associated itself in a
logical sequence with his interpretations. I do not say that such
thoughts were clear in Mr. Brumley's mind, they were not, but in