She could go twice the pace!"
Blanca's answer, deferred for a few seconds, was:
"Hilary perhaps knows."
"Do you dislike her coming here?" asked Hilary.
"Not particularly. Why?"
"I thought from your tone you did."
"I don't dislike her coming here for that purpose."
"Does she come for any other?"
Cecilia, dropping her quick glance to her fork, said just a little
hastily: "Father is extraordinary, of course."
But the next three days Hilary was out in the afternoon when the little
model came.
This, then, was the other reason, on the morning of the first of May,
which made him not averse to go and visit Mrs. Hughs in Hound Street,
Kensington.
CHAPTER VI
FIRST PILGRIMAGE TO HOUND STREET
Hilary and his little bulldog entered Hound Street from its eastern
end. It was a grey street of three-storied houses, all in one style of
architecture. Nearly all their doors were open, and on the doorsteps
babes and children were enjoying Easter holidays. They sat in apathy,
varied by sudden little slaps and bursts of noise. Nearly all were
dirty; some had whole boots, some half boots, and two or three had none.
In the gutters more children were at play; their shrill tongues and
febrile movements gave Hilary the feeling that their "caste" exacted of
them a profession of this faith: "To-day we live; to-morrow--if there be
one--will be like to-day.
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