Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III THE GODS DISPOSE In the interview with her mother, next on the list of the day's doings, Violet failed. It is barely worth while stating that she failed to such as already know Lady Ashwin, but circumstances, as well as character, were against her. The gods, one might say, were against Violet: for dealing with Lady Ashwin brought one near to the immortals unconsciously,—which is not an exclusively flattering comparison for such as can imagine the task of meeting an Olympian in argument. Yet Violet was in fault as well; for one undoubted reason of her failure was that she went too fast. She did her best not to hurry her mother, for she knew the danger; she interrupted her own careful array of facts constantly, to remark on passing and indifferent things, and answer inconsequent and insignificant diversions. It was like—most oddly like—her interview with Lisette in several ways; though Lisette, even at'her most maddening, never quite failed to be childish, " caline," or at least amusing. Lady Ashwin by force of familiarity had long ceased to amuse her daughter. Further than this, the last incident of the day, taking Violet when she was least prepared, had upset her. In one stroke, to lose her jewels and refrain from all effort to recover them were conditions equally against her nature to bear serenely. She was moved: and the results of emotion on the Ashwins was to string up and concentrate their faculties at fever- pitoh. Her words came too rapidly, and her reasoning was far too close. It would have taken her mother a week of leisurely study really to take in her points in logical sequence. To take in the generous emotions behind the argument, she blankly refused to do. Eveleen could shuther will like an iron dike against such warm tides of feeling when she wished. She h...