A VALIANT IGNORANCE
A
VALIANT IGNORANCE
A Novel
BY
MARY ANGELA DICKENS
AUTHOR OF "CROSS CURRENTS," "A MERE CYPHER," ETC.
"Thy gold is brass!"
PRINCE HOHENSTIEL SCHWANGAU
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. II.
London
MACMILLAN & CO.
AND NEW YORK
A VALIANT IGNORANCE
CHAPTER I
The oppressive autumn weather continued for the next week and more, but the atmosphere in the house at Chelsea gradually cleared; at least, the electrical disturbances which had, as a matter of fact, culminated in
Julian's departure for the club, subsided. As the days went on, Julian gradually recovered his spirits. His temper, which had given way so suddenly and completely under the strain put upon it by the unprecedented thwarting to which he had been subjected, recovered its careless easiness. The injured expression of moodiness disappeared wholly from his face, and his manner resumed its buoyancy.
Nevertheless, the life of the present autumn was by no means the life of the past spring. Partly, of course, the different framework was responsible; life, especially at this particular moment, when winter society was as yet hardly formed, consisted by no means wholly of a social existence. It was, in fact, distinctly "slack" and heavy on social lines as compared with the high pressure of the season; and the introduction into the routine of life of a certain number of hours of regular work on Julian's part--th…