ng decided upon a
question to which she had paid no attention, "I don't see how to manage
it."

She stood looking at Denham, considering and hesitating, with her foot
upon the step. He guessed her difficulties; he knew in a second that she
had heard nothing; he knew everything that she felt.

"There's only one place to discuss things satisfactorily that I know
of," he said quickly; "that's Kew."

"Kew?"

"Kew," he repeated, with immense decision. He shut the door and gave her
address to the driver. She instantly was conveyed away from him, and her
cab joined the knotted stream of vehicles, each marked by a light, and
indistinguishable one from the other. He stood watching for a moment,
and then, as if swept by some fierce impulse, from the spot where they
had stood, he turned, crossed the road at a rapid pace, and disappeared.

He walked on upon the impetus of this last mood of almost supernatural
exaltation until he reached a narrow street, at this hour empty of
traffic and passengers. Here, whether it was the shops with their
shuttered windows, the smooth and silvered curve of the wood pavement,
or a natural ebb of feeling, his exaltation slowly oozed and deserted
him. He was now conscious of the loss that follows any revelation; he
had lost something in speaking to Katharine, for, after all, was
the Katharine whom he loved the same as the real Katharine? She had
transcended her entirely at moments; her skirt had blown, her feather
waved, her voice spoken; yes, but how terrible sometimes the pause
between the voice of one's dreams and the voice that comes from the
object of one's dreams! He felt a mixture of disgust and pity at the
figure cut by human beings when they try to carry out, in practice, what
they have the power to conceive. How small both he and Katharine had
appeared when they issued from the cloud of thought that enveloped them!
He recalled the small, inexpressive, commonplace words in which they had
tried to communicate with each other; he repeated them over to himself.
By repeating Katharine's words, he came in a few moments to such a
sense of her presence that he worshipped her more than ever. But she was
engaged to be married, he remembered with a start. The strength of his
feeling was revealed to him instantly, and he gave himself up to an
irresistible rage and sense of frustration. The image of Rodney came
before him with every circumstance of folly and indignity. That little
pink-cheeked dan