t I first noticed a change in his
manner to his cousin's husband. He used to treat Jevons with a certain
superciliousness, and with as much amusement, as much perception of his
absurdity, as was possible for Charlie, who perceived so few things. Now
I was struck with the correct young man's deference to his host. It was
really as if it had at last dawned on Charlie that Jevons _was_ his host,
and that he had other claims to distinction as well. The more dreadful
Jimmy was, the more courteous Charlie showed himself to Jimmy. And this
in spite of the fact that Jevons had a way of treating Charlie as if he
didn't matter, as if for all recognizable purposes he wasn't there.

When I spoke of this to Norah, she said that Viola had told him that if
he couldn't be decent to Jimmy she wouldn't have him there.

Well, there he was, hanging about Viola from morning till night; he had
any amount of time on his hands now, and he spent most of it at
Amershott. He was there when we weren't sometimes, so that we couldn't
keep track of him. But his purposes ought to have been apparent to us. I
think it was partly because he was aware of them himself that he went out
of his way to be decent to Jimmy, almost as if he were sorry for him
beforehand.

For it was evident enough that Viola liked his being there, and liked to
have him hanging round her. There was nothing about him that shocked or
grated. I've no doubt he made himself entirely charming. His manners
could be as beautiful as any of the Thesigers' when he chose, and they
soothed her. I think she had ceased to feel them as a reproach to Jimmy.
She had given up _his_ manners, poor dear, long ago, as a bad job. It was
as if she had slaked her thirst for the unusual. Some secret and strong
revulsion had thrown her back on the people and the things that she had
been brought up amongst and that she had run away from. When Jimmy jarred
on her she turned to Charlie for relief. And, after all, as Norah said,
he was her cousin.

I don't think we either of us saw anything more in it than that. Without
some such reaction she must have surrendered to Amershott. She couldn't
defend Jevons against that showing up. She couldn't defend herself
against those revelations, she could only stand by and look on at his
enormity and shudder. Unless she had put her dear eyes out she must have
seen that in the country he was not only a bounder but a snob. And she
must have writhed in feeling that to see hi