defect is never, at the worst, disengageable, or other than matter for
appreciation--to come back to my claim for that felicity of the
dramatist's case that his synthetic "whole" IS his form, the only one we
have to do with. I like to profit in his company by the fact that if our
art has certainly, for the impression it produces, to defer to the rise
and fall, in the critical temperature, of the telltale mercury, it still
hasn't to reckon with the engraved thermometer-face.

HENRY JAMES.



THE AWKWARD AGE


BOOK FIRST

LADY JULIA

Save when it happened to rain Vanderbank always walked home, but he
usually took a hansom when the rain was moderate and adopted the
preference of the philosopher when it was heavy. On this occasion he
therefore recognised as the servant opened the door a congruity between
the weather and the "four-wheeler" that, in the empty street, under the
glazed radiance, waited and trickled and blackly glittered. The butler
mentioned it as on such a wild night the only thing they could get, and
Vanderbank, having replied that it was exactly what would do best,
prepared in the doorway to put up his umbrella and dash down to it. At
this moment he heard his name pronounced from behind and on turning
found himself joined by the elderly fellow guest with whom he had talked