His entrance, indeed, requires explanation.
Feeling, as he said, a little "off colour," Stephen had not gone to
Richmond to play golf. He had spent the day instead in the company of
his pipe and those ancient coins, of which he had the best collection of
any man he had ever met. His thoughts had wandered from them, more
than he thought proper, to Hilary and that girl. He had felt from the
beginning that he was so much more the man to deal with an affair like
this than poor old Hilary. When, therefore, Thyme put her head into
his study and said, "Father, Mrs. Tallents Smallpeace!" he had first
thought, 'That busybody!' and then, 'I wonder--perhaps I'd better go and
see if I can get anything out of her.'
In considering Stephen's attitude towards a woman so firmly embedded in
the various social movements of the day, it must be remembered that he
represented that large class of men who, unhappily too cultivated to
put aside, like Mr. Purcey, all blue subjects, or deny the need for
movements to make them less blue, still could not move, for fear of
being out of order. He was also temperamentally distrustful of anything
too feminine; and Mrs. Tallents Smallpeace was undoubtedly extremely
feminine. Her merit, in his eyes, consisted of her attachment to
Societies. So long as mankind worked through Societies, Stephen, who
knew the power of rules and minute books, did not despair of too little
progress being made.
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