onfined within the proper
bounds; but to carry it into act, and waste one's life in wholly
unpractical--nay, in positively harmful--enterprise was a sad thing.
She had reasoned with him, but he showed himself so perverted in his
sense of the fitness of things that the task had to be abandoned as
hopeless. And yet the good lady liked him. She had hoped, and not so
long ago, that he might some day desire to stand in a nearer relation
to her than that of a friend, but herein again she felt that her wish
was growing futile. Paula indulged in hints with reference to her
cousin Annabel, and Mrs. Tyrrell began to fear that the strangely
educated girl might be the cause of Walter's extreme aberrations.

Egremont arrived early on the evening of the dinner. Only one guest had
preceded him. With Mrs. Tyrrell and Paula were Mr. Tyrrell and the son
of the house, Mr. John, the Jack Tyrrell of sundry convivial clubs in
town. Mr. Tyrrell senior was a high-coloured jovial gentleman of three
score, great in finance, practical to the backbone, yet with wit and
tact which put him at ease with all manner of men, even with social
reformers. These latter amused him vastly; he failed to see that the
world needed any reforming whatever, at all events beyond that which is
constitutionally provided for in the proceedings of the British
Parliament. He had great wealth; he fared sumptuously every day; things
shone to him in a rosy after-dinner light. Not a gross or a selfish
man, for he was as good-natured as he was contented, and gave very
freely of his substance; it was simply his part in the world to enjoy
the product of other men's labour and to set an example of glorious
self-satisfaction. Egremont, in certain moods, had tried to despise Mr.
Tyrrell, but he never quite succeeded. Nor indeed was the man
contemptible. Had you told him with frank conviction that you deemed
him a poor sort of phenomenon, he would have shaken the ceiling with
laughter and have admired you for your plain-speaking. For there was a
large and generous vigour about him, and adverse criticism could only
heighten his satisfaction in his own stability.

Something of the cold dignity in which she had taken refuge at
Ullswater was still to be remarked in Paula's manner as she received
Egremont. She held her charming head erect, and let her eyelids droop a
little, and the few words which she addressed to him were rather
absently spoken. With others, as they arrived, she was