Domestic fiction; Sisters -- Fiction; Women -- England -- Fiction
The man at No. 4, St. Luke's Square had comparatively small and narrow
feet, which gave him an advantage; and as he was endowed with a certain
vague general physical distinction he managed, despite the eternal
untidiness of his hair, to be eminent among the type. Assuredly the
frequent sight of him in her house flattered the pride of Constance's
eye, which rested on him almost always with pleasure. He had come into
the house with startling abruptness soon after Cyril left school and
was indentured to the head-designer at "Peel's," that classic
earthenware manufactory. The presence of a man in her abode
disconcerted Constance at the beginning; but she soon grew accustomed
to it, perceiving that a man would behave as a man, and must be
expected to do so. This man, in truth, did what he liked in all things.
Cyril having always been regarded by both his parents as enormous, one
would have anticipated a giant in the new man; but, queerly, he was
slim, and little above the average height. Neither in enormity nor in
many other particulars did he resemble the Cyril whom he had
supplanted. His gestures were lighter and quicker; he had nothing of
Cyril's ungainliness; he had not Cyril's limitless taste for sweets,
nor Cyril's terrific hatred of gloves, barbers, and soap. He was much
more dreamy than Cyril, and much busier. In fact, Constance only saw
him at meal-times. He was at Peel's in the day and at the School of Art
every night. He would dream during a meal, even; and, without actually
saying so, he gave the impression that he was the busiest man in
Bursley, wrapped in occupations and preoccupations as in a blanket--a
blanket which Constance had difficulty in penetrating.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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