gs are commonly
understood.

II

That's just half my tale--the extraordinary way it was hindered. This
was the fault of a series of accidents; but the accidents continued
for years and became, for me and for others, a subject of hilarity with
either party. They were droll enough at first; then they grew rather
a bore. The odd thing was that both parties were amenable: it wasn't a
case of their being indifferent, much less of their being indisposed. It
was one of the caprices of chance, aided I suppose by some opposition of
their interests and habits. His were centred in his office, his eternal
inspectorship, which left him small leisure, constantly calling him
away and making him break engagements. He liked society, but he found it
everywhere and took it at a run. I never knew at a given moment where he
was, and there were times when for months together I never saw him. She
was on her side practically suburban: she lived at Richmond and never
went "out." She was a woman of distinction, but not of fashion,
and felt, as people said, her situation. Decidedly proud and rather
whimsical she lived her life as she had planned it. There were things
one could do with her, but one couldn't make her come to one's parties.
One went indeed a little more than seemed quite convenient to hers,
which consisted of her cousin, a cup of tea and the view. The tea was
good; but the view was familiar, though perhaps not, like the cousin--a
disagreeable old maid who had been of the group at the museum and with
whom she now lived--offensively so. This connection with an inferior
relative, which had partly an economical motive--she proclaimed her
companion a marvellous manager--was one of the little perversities we
had to forgive her. Another was her estimate of the proprieties created
by her rupture with her husband. That was extreme--many persons called
it even morbid. She made no advances; she cultivated scruples; she
suspected, or I should perhaps rather say she remembered slights: she
was one of the few women I have known whom that particular predicament
had rendered modest rather than bold. Dear thing! she had some delicacy.
Especially marked were the limits she had set to possible attentions
from men: it was always her thought that her husband was waiting to
pounce on her. She discouraged if she didn't forbid the visits of male
persons not senile: she said she could never be too careful.

When I first mentioned to her that I had