Page:The Climber (Benson).djvu/69

Rh "For instance" suggested Lucia.

"Well, just this. People think that their circumstances make them, that their circumstances bound them. I don't believe ihat is true. Brixham, so the Londoner might say, is provincial. That would be because he is provincial himself. But here am I coming to call, and find Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" on the piano and Omar Khayyám on the sofa, and you, Miss Grimson, who find magic in the air and in your roses, and romances in an express train."

Suddenly he recollected that he was seeing this girl for the first time, and caught and bottled up, so to speak, the natural instinct that dictated his last speech, and became conventional instead. Yet, perhaps, it was almost more natural for him to be conventional than to be natural. That is the case of many people.

"In fact, it is completely true," he said, "that we find in a place just what we bring to it."

Lucia observed the distinction between his former manner and this. He had brushed his hair and put on his coat again. She was wise enough to follow his lead, not wrench him back again. She got up laughing.

"So that if one feels dull or bored," she said, "one may know that there is a dull or boring person present, and make a very good guess as to who that person is. Do come and see my rose. Aunt Cathie said it was dying a month ago, which roused it. That is so natural, is it not? I am sure, when the family doctor tells me I am dying, I shall feel I must show him that he is mistaken. By the way, have you seen Maud Eddis again? She is my greatest friend."

This took the conversation back to Maud, and closely as Lucia had applied herself to it before, she listened even more intently now. Though at the moment of meeting her he had not recollected the connection in which he had seen her before, his memory of Maud was vivid.

"But there is a splendid example of what we were saying," he said. "I never knew anyone with so individual an atmosphere. Can you imagine living in the provinces would ever make her provincial, or living in town make her worldly?"

"Ah! that is interesting," said Lucia. "And what is her atmosphere?"

"Surely, you who know her so well must know. It is all kindliness: it is all serenity."