Cambridge (England) -- Fiction; College teachers -- Fiction; English fiction -- 20th century; Marriage -- Fiction
Maud assented very eagerly and gratefully. They walked together to the
Library, and Mr. Sandys bolted in like a rabbit into its hole. Howard
was alone with her.
She was very different, he thought, from what she had seemed that first
night. She was alert, smiling, delighted with everything and everybody
about the place. "I think it is all simply enchanting!" she said; "only
it makes me long to go to Newnham. I think men do have a better time
than women; and, what is more, no one here seems to have anything
whatever to do!"
"That's only our unselfishness," said Howard. "We get no credit! Think
of all the piles of papers that are accumulating on my table. The other
day I entertained with all the virtue and self-sacrifice at my command
a party of working-men from the East end of London at luncheon in my
rooms, and took them round afterwards. They knew far more than I did
about the place, and I cut a very poor figure. At the end the
Secretary, meaning to be very kind to me, said that he was glad to have
seen a glimpse of the cultured life. 'It is very beautiful and
distinguished,' he added, 'but we of the democracy shall not allow it
to continue. It is always said that the Dons have nothing to do but to
read and sip their wine, and I am glad to see it all for myself. To
think of all these endowments being used like this! Not but what we are
very grateful to you for your kindness!'"
They strolled about. Cambridge is not a place that puts its
characteristic beauties in the forefront. Some of the most charming
things lurk unsuspected beyond dark entries and behind sombre walls.
They penetrated little mouldering courts; they looked into dim and
stately halls and chapels; they stood long on the bridge of Clare,
gazing at that incomparable front, with all the bowery gardens and
willow-shaded walks, like Camelot, beside the slow, terraced stream.
It was a tortured kind of delight for Howard to feel the girl beside
him; but she showed no wish to talk intimately or emotionally. She
asked many questions, and he could see that she drank in eagerly the
beauty of the place, understanding its charm in a moment. They went in
to see Monica, who was in a mood of dry equanimity, and rallied Howard
on the success of his visit to Windlow. "I hear you entered on the
scene like a fairy prince," she said, "and charmed an estate out of
Cousin Anne in the course of a few hours. Isn't he magnificent, Maud?
You mustn't think he is a typical Don: he is quite one of our brightest
flowers."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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