e house like a troop of loyal sentinels. The absence of the constant
social interruptions that had been characteristic of the Rectory was an
added charm; his mother and sister, too, though heavily overshadowed by
grief, found the place peaceful and congenial; and the best joy of all
was the sweet and fragrant relation that sprung up among the three.
They were like the survivors of a wreck, whose former familiarity had
been converted suddenly into a deep and emotional loyalty, by the sad
experiences through which they had passed together. The relations had
before been affectionate, but in some ways superficial. Hugh to his
surprise found himself daily making discoveries about his mother and
sister, through the close relationship into which they were brought.
Unsuspected tastes and feelings revealed themselves, and he began to be
aware of a whole host of new interests that sprang up between them.
Sometimes, when a hedgerow is rooted up, one may notice how a whole
crop of unknown flowers, whose seeds had been buried deep in the soil,
suddenly emerge to conceal the bare scarred ditch. Hugh thought to
himself that the experiences through which they had passed had had this
effect of enlarging and extending sympathies which were there all the
time, and which had never had an opportunity of revealing themselves.
And thus, out of sorrow and wretchedness, there sprang to light a whole
range of new forces, a vision of new possibilities. It seemed to Hugh
that he was like a man who had passed by night through an unfamiliar
country, by unknown roads; that as the darkness had begun to glimmer to
dawn, the shapeless shadows of things about him had gradually taken
shape, and revealed themselves at last to be but the quiet trees with
their gentle tapestry of leaves, leaning over his way; and what had
been but a formless horror, became revealed as a company of friendly
living things that beckoned comfortably to his spirit, and grew into
purer colour as the dawn began to break from underground.

XIX

Women--The Feminine View--Society--Frank
Relations--Coldness--Sensitiveness

Hugh had always felt that he had very little comprehension of the
feminine temperament; he realised to the full how much more generous,
unselfish, high-minded, and sympathetic women were than men, their
perceptions of personalities more subtle, their intuitions more
delicate; in a difficult matter, a crisis involving the relations of
people, when it w