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164 you put it down it goes back into what it was before. And tempo is decidedly a part of character."

Charlie laughed.

"Then we might all of us have spared our pains in crossing each other's tempo out and substituting a different one," he said.

"Yes, that seems to be the conclusion. Not that we shall any of us cease continuing to do so. You see, character is destiny; that's what it comes to. Or you can call it the divinity—or something else—that shapes our ends; but divine or not, there is something in ourselves that shapes our ends, and that something is character. Dear me, I think I shall write a small book of table aphorisms. 'Character is destiny' shall be the first. Yes, 'Table Aphorisms by a Lady of Title.' That's the sort of thing which the serious-smart like nowadays. They think it is so clever, and they find they can all do it, which is very gratifying. Of course, they can when they are shown how. You only have to think of an idea, and then say it in as few words as possible."

"The serious-smart?" asked Charlie. "Is that the same as the New Set?"

"Of course; you belong to it. Edgar is delighted with me because he says I invented it, brought it together. He and Madge Heron were quarrelling about it the other day; she says I only precipitated it, which is probably much nearer the mark."

"How precipitated it?"

"Oh, don't you know how, if you drop some sort of clear solution into another clear solution, they both become cloudy or solid or something? Cloudy is more the word with the serious-smart; they are a little vague, and tend to confuse Moroni with Murillo."

"I don't," said Charlie stoutly. "I know nothing about either. You can't confuse two things if you are totally ignorant of both of them."

"No, you are rather refreshing. Oh, Charlie, isn't it a pity that I am made in such a way that I instantly begin not to care about anything very much as soon as I have got it? And the worst of it is that if it was then taken away from me, I should miss it. However, there is lots more to get, even with regard to the serious-smart; in fact, it has only just been born and baptized. No; when I come to think of it, Madge is wrong and Edgar is right. After all, I did invent it; it is just what I sketched out to him three years ago, in a small backyard at Brixham, with