Solution Manual for Systems Analysis and Design, 12th Edition, Scott Tilley
Solution Manual for Systems Analysis and Design, 12th Edition, Scott Tilley
Solution Manual for Systems Analysis and Design, 12th Edition, Scott Tilley
Solution Manual for Systems Analysis and Design, 12th Edition, Scott Tilley
1. Solution Manual for Systems Analysis and Design,
12th Edition, Scott Tilley download pdf
http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-systems-analysis-
and-design-12th-edition-scott-tilley/
Visit testbankbell.com today to download the complete set of
test banks or solution manuals!
2. We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit testbankbell.com
to discover even more!
Test Bank for Systems Analysis and Design, 12th Edition,
Scott Tilley
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-systems-analysis-and-
design-12th-edition-scott-tilley/
Test Bank for Systems Analysis and Design 11th Edition by
Tilley
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-systems-analysis-and-
design-11th-edition-by-tilley/
Solution Manual for Systems Analysis and Design 8th
Edition by Kendall
http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-systems-analysis-
and-design-8th-edition-by-kendall/
Test Bank for Nursing Assistant A Nursing Process Approach
Basics, 1st Edition: Hegner
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-nursing-assistant-a-
nursing-process-approach-basics-1st-edition-hegner/
3. Solution Manual for Mastering the World of Psychology 5th
Edition by Wood
http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-mastering-the-
world-of-psychology-5th-edition-by-wood/
Test Bank for Nutrition Science and Applications, 4th
Edition by Smolin
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-nutrition-science-and-
applications-4th-edition-by-smolin/
Solution Manual for Business Ethics: Ethical Decision
Making & Cases, 12th Edition
http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-business-ethics-
ethical-decision-making-cases-12th-edition/
Test Bank for International Business: Opportunities and
Challenges in a Flattening World, Version: 3.0, By: Mason
A. Carpenter, Sanjyot P. Dunung, ISBN: 9781453386842
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-international-business-
opportunities-and-challenges-in-a-flattening-world-version-3-0-by-
mason-a-carpenter-sanjyot-p-dunung-isbn-9781453386842/
Test Bank For Abnormal Psychology: Perspectives Plus
MySearchLab 5th Edition by David J.A. Dozois
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-abnormal-psychology-
perspectives-plus-mysearchlab-5th-edition-by-david-j-a-dozois/
4. Test Bank for Statistics for the Behavioral and Social
Sciences: A Brief Course, 6th Edition, Arthur Aron, Elliot
J. Coups, Elaine N. Aron
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-statistics-for-the-
behavioral-and-social-sciences-a-brief-course-6th-edition-arthur-aron-
elliot-j-coups-elaine-n-aron/
5. September 8, 2019
Chapter 1: Solution Manual for Systems Analysis and
Design, 12th Edition, Scott Tilley
6. 2
Download full chapter at:
https://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-
systems-analysis-and-design-12th-edition-scott-tilley/
9. 5
Systems Analysis and Design (12th
Ed)
End of Chapter Solutions
Notes:
This document contains all the solutions to the end-of-chapter questions for the 12th
edition. This includes any altered or added questions for the 11th edition of the book.
Page number references have been removed from the answers.
The 12th edition of the book contains only end of chapter exercises of three types:
questions, discussion topics, and projects. All other exercises that appeared at the end
of each chapter in previous editions, such as “Apply Your Knowledge” from the 10th
edition, have been removed from the body of the textbook.
10. 6
Chapter 2: Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design
Chapter 1 – Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design: Chapter 1 provides an
introduction to systems analysis and design by describing the role of information technology
in today’s dynamic business environment.
Questions
1. What is information technology and why is it important to society?
Information technology (IT) refers to the combination of hardware, software, and
services that people use to manage, communicate, and share information. More than ever,
business success depends on information technology. The headlines in Error! Reference
source not found. offer dramatic examples of how information technology issues such as
data privacy, mobile devices, and social media affects our society. We live in a world where
we can be traced, analyzed, and surveilled without our knowledge. This raises many
important questions, such as how to secure personal data while still providing useful
functionality and business value.
2. What are the five main components of an information system?
An information system has five key components, as shown in Error! Reference source
not found.: hardware, software, data, processes, and people.
3. Explain how ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft are disrupting traditional
taxicab business models.
Business today is being shaped by three major trends: rapidly increasing globalization,
technology integration for seamless information access across a wide variety of devices
such as laptops and smartphones, and the rapid growth of cloud-based computing and
software services. These trends are being driven by the immense power of the Internet.
Ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft are disrupting traditional taxicab business
models through disintermediation: connecting drivers directly to customers, bypassing
the traditional dispatch service. They are also disrupting the traditional limitation on who
can drive a taxicab (medallion owners) to allow anyone with a car and who wants to earn
some extra money to do so, all via mobile apps and cloud-based technology.
4. Describe the business profile of a home improvement store like Home Depot or Lowe’s
and how it is used.
A business profile is an overview of a company’s mission, functions, organization, products,
services, customers, suppliers, competitors, constraints, and future direction. Although
much of this information is readily available, a systems analyst usually needs to do
additional research and fact-finding to fill out missing or incomplete information. A
business profile is the starting point for the modeling process, and a systems analyst can
describe and simplify an information system by using a set of business models and business
process models. Students should be able to understand the business of home improvement
stores, supply the basic information, and fill in the details.
5. What are the seven types of information systems used in business?
The seven types of information systems used in business are: enterprise computing
systems, transaction processing systems, business support systems, knowledge
11. 7
management systems, user productivity systems, digital assistants, and systems
integration.
6. What types of information do the four organizational levels common to many
businesses need?
A typical organizational model identifies business functions and organizational levels, as
shown in Error! Reference source not found.. A systems analyst must understand the
company’s organizational model to recognize who is responsible for specific processes and
decisions and to be aware of what information is required by whom.
Top managers develop long-range plans, called strategic plans, which define the
company’s overall mission and goals. To plot a future course, top managers ask questions
such as “How much should the company invest in information technology?”, “How much
will Internet sales grow in the next five years?”, or “Should the company build new
factories or contract out production functions?” Top managers focus on the overall
business enterprise and use IT to set the company’s course and direction. To develop a
strategic plan, top managers also need information from outside the company, such as
economic forecasts, technology trends, competitive threats, and governmental issues.
Just below the top management level, most companies have a layer of middle managers
and knowledge workers. Middle managers provide direction, necessary resources, and
performance feedback to supervisors and team leaders. Because they focus on a somewhat
shorter time frame, middle managers need more detailed information than top managers
but somewhat less than supervisors who oversee day-to-day operations.
Knowledge workers include systems analysts, programmers, accountants, researchers,
trainers, human resource specialists, and other professionals. Knowledge workers also use
business support systems, knowledge management systems, and user productivity
systems. Knowledge workers provide support for the organization’s basic functions. Just
as a military unit requires logistical support, a successful company needs knowledge
workers to carry out its mission.
Supervisors, often called team leaders, oversee operational employees and carry out
day-to-day functions. They coordinate operational tasks and people, make necessary
decisions, and ensure that the right tools, materials, and training are available. Like other
managers, supervisors and team leaders need decision support information, knowledge
management systems, and user productivity systems to carry out their responsibilities.
Operational employees include users who rely on transaction processing systems to
enter and receive data they need to perform their jobs. In many companies, operational
users also need information to handle tasks and make decisions that were assigned
previously to supervisors.
7. Compare three system development methods.
Many options exist for developing information systems, but the most popular alternatives
are structured analysis, which is a traditional method that still is widely used, object-
oriented (o-o) analysis, which is a more recent approach that many analysts prefer, and
agile methods, which include the latest trends in software development. Figure 1-17
provides an overview of the three methods.
8. Name the tools that enable the systems analyst to develop, manage, and maintain
large-scale information systems.
12. 8
All systems development methods must be supported by tools to enable the systems analyst
to develop, manage, and maintain large-scale information systems. These tools go by
various names, including application lifecycle management (ALM), also called product
lifecycle management (PLM); integrated development environments (IDE); and
computer-aided systems engineering (CASE), also called computer-aided software
engineering. CASE tools provide an overall framework for systems development and
support a wide variety of design methodologies, including structured analysis and object-
oriented analysis.
9. Summarize the seven main functions of the IT department.
The IT department develops and maintains information systems. The IT group provides
technical support, which includes seven main functions: application development, systems
support and security, user support, database administration, network administration,
web support, and quality assurance. These functions overlap considerably and often have
different names in different companies.
10. What are the roles and responsibilities of a systems analyst in a modern business?
A systems analyst investigates, analyzes, designs, develops, installs, evaluates, and
maintains a company’s information systems. To perform those tasks, a systems analyst
constantly interacts with users and managers within and outside the company. A systems
analyst helps develop IT systems that support business requirements. To succeed, analysts
often must act as translators. For example, when they describe business processes to
programmers, they must speak a language that programmers will understand clearly.
Typically, the analyst builds a series of models, diagrams, and decision tables and uses
other descriptive tools and techniques. Similarly, when communicating with managers,
the analyst often must translate complex technical issues into words and images that
nontechnical people can grasp. To do this, the analyst uses various presentation skills,
models, and communication methods.
Analysts are often the company’s best line of defense against an IT disaster—a system that
is technically sound but fails because it does not meet the needs of users and managers.
When this occurs, poor communication is usually to blame. For an analyst, the most
valuable skill is the ability to listen. An effective analyst will involve users in every step of
the development process and listen carefully to what they have to say. As the process
continues, the analyst will seek feedback and comments from the users. This input can
provide a valuable early warning system for projects that might other- wise go off the
track.
Discussion Topics
1. Some experts believe that the growth in e-commerce will cause states and local
governments to lose tax revenue, unless Internet transactions are subject to sales tax.
What is one argument that supports this view, and one that opposes it?
This issue has sparked strong differences of opinion among national and state leaders,
consumer advocacy groups, and trade associations whose members offer online sales and
services. Those who believe that Internet transactions should not be taxed often point to
other sales channels, such as mail order firms that conduct no physical operations within
a state or locality, and therefore do not collect sales tax. Should the Internet be treated
differently? Opponents of a tax-free Internet often cite the impact on local and state
government, and suggest that all channels should operate on a level playing field. You
13. 9
might ask your students to research and debate this issue. Also, you might follow this topic
as news occurs during the course.
2. When team members are geographically dispersed, communication becomes more
challenging. Explain how groupware can increase user productivity in this context.
Companies provide employees at all levels with technology that improves productivity.
User productivity systems include groupware, which enables users to share data,
collaborate on projects, and work in teams – irrespective of where they are physically
located. One popular groupware product is Slack, shown in Error! Reference source not
found.. Slack provides common app integration and unified communication channels for
distributed teams.
3. Under what circumstances should a systems analyst recommend an agile methodology
over structured development or object-oriented analysis?
Although most projects utilize one approach, it is not unusual for system developers to mix
and match methods to gain a better perspective. In addition to these three main
development methods, some organizations choose to develop their own in-house
approaches or use techniques offered by software suppliers, tool vendors, or consultants.
Many alternatives exist, and IT experts agree that no single development method is best
in all cases. An approach that works well for one project might have disadvantages or risks
in another situation. The important thing is to understand the various methods and the
strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
Although agile methods are becoming popular, analysts should recognize that these
approaches have advantages and disadvantages. By their nature, agile methods can allow
developers to be much more flexible and responsive but can be riskier than more
traditional methods. For example, without a detailed set of system requirements, certain
features requested by some users might not be consistent with the company’s larger game
plan.
Other potential disadvantages of agile methods can include weak documentation, blurred
lines of accountability, and too little emphasis on the larger business picture. Also, unless
properly implemented, a long series of iterations might actually add to project cost and
development time. The bottom line is that systems analysts should understand the pros
and cons of any approach before selecting a development method for a specific project.
4. Should the IT director report to the company president, or somewhere else? Does it
matter?
No clear organizational pattern exists. Perhaps the strongest case for having the IT
department report to the president is that information technology is a vital corporate
asset, and should not be “owned” by a particular department or function. IT can have a
huge impact on profitability, and deserves equal attention from the top executive.
However, not everyone agrees with this view, and many would argue that IT should report
to the chief financial officer, because financial functions require the most IT support. Also,
the operation of the IT department represents a large expense for most companies, and
the chief financial officer probably is in the best position to monitor and control this
expense.
5. Rapid advancements in areas such as machine learning and predictive analytics in data
science are affecting the daily operations of many IT departments. What should a
systems analyst do to stay current?
14. 10
The demand for systems analysts is expected to remain strong. Systems analysts need to
track trends in information technology because technological changes affect business
operations, career opportunities, and enterprise strategies. As depicted in Figure 1-31,
many of the developments related to big data are driving trends in information technology
– trends the system analyst must follow to stay current.
Projects
1. Contact three people at your school who use information systems. List their positions,
the information they need, the systems they use, and the business functions they
perform.
Students can perform this task as individuals or work in teams. It might be interesting to
compare and discuss the various ways in which the departments manage information.
2. Visit three websites to learn more about agile system development. Prepare a list of the
sites you visited and a summary of the results.
Many sites describe and discuss agile methods. Students should have no trouble finding
material on agile methods and spiral models and preparing a summary of the results.
Several sites are shown in the text, and a simple search will produce a list of many more.
3. Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is one of the leading methods used by
systems analysts to develop information systems. Cameo Systems Modeler is one of the
leading tools supporting MBSE. Research magazine articles and the web to learn more
about this tool’s capabilities. Identify three of its strengths in terms of improving the
quality of the finished product.
Cameo Systems Modeler is a well-known product with many sources of information about
the tool available to the students. To limit the scope of the investigation, have the students
focus on using the tool specifically to improve product quality.
4. Explore the Critical Thinking Community website at criticalthinking.org. Identify three
important topics currently being discussed, and describe your findings.
You might encourage students to explore beyond the suggested link and challenge them
to identify additional resources and issues. Also consider asking them to examine their
own approach to learning, and whether they would consider themselves to be critical
thinkers.
5. Compare the corporate culture of three leading IT companies and show how their
statement of values could attract (or repel) systems analysts from joining their
organization.
It would be insightful for examine a traditional company, such as IBM, which has an
established but dynamic corporate culture that has withstood the test of time. Newer
companies such as Facebook are also quite large, but their culture originates in a different
space than that of IBM. The culture of a Silicon Valley startup is different yet again, and
the type of employee they seek may have different professional goals – particularly if they
are at the start of their career.
Also includes: Warehouse Case Solutions
17. sitting as they always sat, clasped, motionless, the woman’s head on
the man’s breast, the faces grey-white like the road beyond the
shadows.
Laura, in that glance, half recognized their own maid, doubtfully,
as a goodwife eyes a changeling. She knew—her common sense told
her—that at ten o’clock Ellen would slip through a back door and
appear five minutes later, capped and decent and respectful, with a
tray and glasses in her hand, and no inexplicable glory on her
common face. But at this moment, she, Laura, the mistress, was
ignored: was not even seen. She knew that she might pass and
repass a dozen times and they would not stir. She was
inconsiderable, invisible, impalpable. She did not exist.
She went her way, humbly, filled with awe and wonder and
intolerable envy. What was this transmuting force, this holy spirit
that could draw a magic circle about a housemaid and a groom in
which to sit out their hour in a public way, inviolate, divine?... What
was it?... What did it mean?... What did it all mean?... And why
should she, Laura, feel herself ignorant, shut out, and desperately
lonely?... She was of all women fortunate.... She was alive.... She
was engaged to Justin.... But this new thing—what was it?... What
was it that he and she had not yet found—what gift of God that (as
she saw with sudden clearness) they could in no wise find, save
together?... Life and she herself and Justin had become, since the
morning, mysterious and mutually inexplicable.... Why was she
feeling so strangely?... Why had she to hurry past those enchanted
yokels as one proved negligible, incomplete, a half creature?... Why
was not Justin with her that she might carry herself as one justified,
oblivious of the world as the world of her?...
She came out into the broad road again and again the silence of
the wide fields surged in upon her, and her soul clung to her
terrified, like a wrecked sailor clinging to a spar.
She should have asked Justin to come with her.... If she had asked
he would have come.... It was only that it had not occurred to
him.... The stubbornness that would ask nothing, that would accept
18. nothing of him that was not spontaneous, was receiving its just
reward....
It was such a silence, such a loneliness of soul—so achingly
intensified by her consciousness of the two behind her in the
shadows, that she felt it like a leaden cope pressing her down,
crushing into shapelessness the pitiful resistance of her pride. If
Justin had come to her then, she could have besieged him like any
wanton for the dole of a kind look, of an arm about her shaken body.
She had come to a standstill in the middle of the road because she
could not bear any longer the sound of her own feet running after
her: and so waited, impotently, for the passing of a fellow creature
or her own mood. And presently, mercifully, the face of the night
changed to her. The loneliness faded from it like a veil withdrawn,
and with it the sense of isolation that had oppressed her faded too.
She was gradually aware of the universal alive-ness of the still world
about her. It was as if her late, bewildered thoughts had evolved
some ruthless one who stood beside her, thrusting a torch into the
secrets of the deep ditches and shuttered cottages and mist-veiled
fields, and, with a heavy hand upon her neck, bowed her forward to
peer at what the light revealed.
And she saw—saw the arcades and the galleries of the hedges
and how unbelievably full they were of living, mated things: saw the
warm round nests and in each a stir of bright eyes and perking
crests: saw the day-moths with their flattened wings, asleep upon
blanched blackberry leaves: saw the snuggled mice in the straw
stacks and hares couched in the standing corn and the friendly
horses drowsing shoulder to crupper: saw tramps sheltering in the
flowery chalk-pits and lovers under the stars: and beneath thatched
roofs men lying, pinned down by the sleep that comes of earthy
labour, and women kept awake by life awake in their bodies, and
little children dreaming, and old folk at their dying, and the dead
reviving eternally in the divine womb of earth.
She was held by her youth and her ignorance as in a narrow cell;
but through the bars of her imprisonment she stretched forth hands
19. in passionate greeting to these her kith and kin. She was
overwhelmed by a sense of alliance, of sisterhood: she felt herself
gathered in, embraced, merged in the endlessly faceted identity of
the universe. She was burningly happy. All knowledge sang in her
ears: all secrets lay bare and beautiful to her eyes. She understood
all things and forgot them, and remembered them, and forgot them
again, with the carelessness of illimitable possession.
Out of that timeless ecstasy she looked down upon her life lying
like a sloughed snake-skin at her feet: surveyed the length of it,
past, present, and future, with infinite wise amusement, thinking——
Here Laura went wrong.... This—how foolish! she did not do.... And
then, with a quickening and personalization of interest——She
should have told Justin—I must tell Justin....
But at that, as if the word ‘Justin’ were the signal for the inevitable
revulsion, she felt herself contracting, shuddering away again from
the universal life, crying in futile anger and despair: “All this—is too
big—is too big for me. This will kill me. I can’t hold it. I’m not God!”
And so, with the roar in her ears of huge waters rushing into a deep
and narrow channel, was back in her body again, with but one word
of all the infinite wisdom that had been hers echoing in her memory
—the one word ‘Justin.’ She found herself repeating it over and over
again, unintelligently, like a lost child—“Justin. Where’s Justin? I
want Justin.”
And all the myriad voices of the life she had shared merged in one
to answer her, to answer with laughter that was like sunlight, with
laughter that was like tears, to answer her with the still small Voice
Itself—
“Find Justin then. Love Justin then. Am I not Justin also?”
She listened and was comforted: and going home, went to bed
and slept.
21. CHAPTER XXIV
As a friend and as a needlewoman, Coral was indefatigable.
Laura’s trousseau absorbed her and she ended, with the marked
approval of Mrs. Cloud and Aunt Adela, not only in converting the
roll of lawn into a pile of delectable garments, but in annexing the
quarter’s dress-money which Laura had intended spending on a
garden hat, a complete set of the poems of Mr. Alfred Noyes, and a
birthday present for the twins, who, installed in a counting-house
and chambers, and very much men about town, were nevertheless
desperately in need, Laura dear, (if any one wants to know, you
know) of basket-chairs and summer pants.
Laura, contemplating the silk and muslin for which Coral, in
conclave with Mrs. Cloud, had exchanged that elastic seven pounds
ten, did not know whether to be allured or incensed.
“It’s sweet of you, of course. They’re delicious. But such waste,
Coral! They’ll go out of fashion. I’m not going to be married
tomorrow!”
Coral rubbed her nose in that meditative way of hers that was
disastrous to her complexion.
“How long have you been engaged?”
“Oh, about a year.”
“A year! Why on earth don’t you get married?”
“It’s never been quite convenient. We were going to last spring,
but then the chance came to join that expedition——”
Coral interrupted her.
22. “Laura, tell me honestly—do you enjoy fiddling about over birds’
eggs?”
Laura flushed.
“Why, I know as much about them as Justin. He said so the other
day. If he were in doubt about a bird, I believe he’d listen to me. I’m
longer-sighted, you know. He would, honestly, if he hadn’t made up
his mind.”
“Is he ever wrong?” Coral’s voice was colourless.
“I’ve never known him wrong,” said Laura in all gravity. “Only, of
course, he sometimes changes his mind. And that’s what always
annoys me so, you know, that I never really know why he does. But
I suppose when one’s married——?”
“No,” said Coral thoughtfully. “No. Oh, of course, after a time you’ll
get to know what they’ll do always, but you never really know why
they do it.”
“That’s what makes it difficult,” Laura sighed.
“How—difficult?”
“Well, to keep in step, I mean. You see, he’ll think Carson a sort of
Cromwell for months, and I get hardened to the Daily Mail and read
up William and Mary so as to back him against Gran’papa, and then,
all of a sudden—well, he’s Home Rule at present. It makes it a little
difficult for me.”
Coral stared, with all the indifference of her class and her type to
that particular amusement of its men-folk.
“Oh, politics! I shouldn’t worry about politics. As if one had time
for an opinion about politics!”
Laura, with other blood in her veins, stared in her turn.
“But naturally I’ve an opinion! I’m not a fool! Only—” she began to
laugh—“I don’t let on.”
“Why?” But Coral looked as if she knew.
23. “Well, you see,” Laura warmed to her engrossing subject, “he says
he thinks that every one ought to stick to their own ideas and be
independent. But he always thinks (and you know, Gran’papa’s just
the same) that it’s amazing that the people who disagree with him
can be so intolerant and impervious to reason. So I always begin by
disagreeing and let him argue it out. And then I see his point and he
thinks how sensible I am. And if I know beforehand what he’s going
to say about a thing I say it quickly first. Then he nods at me, as if
anyhow he were always sure of me.”
“Well, of all the hypocrites——”
“It isn’t. Don’t you see?”
Coral looked at her kindly.
“Oh, in a way I suppose, it is—” Laura sighed. “But—but I don’t
believe it’s wrong. You see—Justin’s so straight-forward. If he’s in a
mood—well, he’s in a mood. He couldn’t suppress himself for the
sake of—oh, politeness or amusing people or being pleasant. He
wouldn’t know how to. But, my dear, if I started that—being myself
—it wouldn’t work. Suppose I were in a depressed mood one day
when Justin was cheerful and stuck to my mood instead of slipping
into his? Why, he wouldn’t know what was happening. He’d ask if I’d
got toothache. He’d be bored to death.”
Coral was looking interested.
“Considering the little fool you can be, you know something about
men. Where d’you get it from, Laura?”
“Birds’ eggs,” said Laura with a twinkle.
“Oho! Now I see! Well, fire ahead! ‘Justin would be bored.’ Not
that that would hurt him.”
“No, but, he’d go home. And if I were myself for a week he’d go
home for good. I’d lose him. And then I’d die.”
“You won’t keep it up when you’re married,” said Coral, with her
esoteric smile.
24. “I shall. Always and always and always. Every day till the last
minute of my life. What does it matter? I’m happy. But it’s all
nonsense to say that two plants can grow in one pot. It doesn’t
work. They haven’t room. But you can graft one on to the other as a
rule. I’m grafted on to Justin. Oh, I daresay I’d have been a showier
plant in a pot of my own; but it’s too late to ungraft me now. I’d
shrivel. I’m rooted in Justin.”
Coral, demolishing that theory of life, was Jael and her hammer in
one.
“That’s crazy. That doesn’t work. Suppose he died? What’s the use
of shuddering? He might. It’s not common sense to get so fond of
any one. It’s not fair to yourself.”
Laura smiled.
“You needn’t worry about me.”
“And—” Coral had an odd, fugitive air of resenting the happy light
in Laura’s eyes—“it’s not fair to him.”
The light faded. Laura began anxiously——
“Not fair? What do you mean—not fair?”
“Only that you’ll spoil him, if you haven’t already, you and Grannie
between you. And I’ll tell you another thing. Haven’t you found out
yet, you little fool, that a man doesn’t want to be loved? He wants to
do that himself. He’ll think all the world of you if you make him feel
like loving you; but he won’t say thank-you if you just love him.
Don’t tell me! I know men.”
“Oh—men!” said Laura disdainfully.
“Well, Justin’s not a cherub, is he? He’s not just a face and a boa.”
“I don’t think,” said Laura, with careful forbearance, “that perhaps
you quite understand Justin. He’s not quite ordinary, you know. He
wants a lot of understanding.”
“Oh, go along!” said Coral.
25. “Oh, I’m going. I’m going through the woods with Justin. We fixed
it yesterday. Come too? It would do you good.”
But Coral only shrugged her shoulders with an air that Laura
thought ungracious. It had been an effort, though she liked her, to
ask Coral to join them. But she had been struck by a certain
dreariness in Coral’s pose, as she moved aimlessly across the room.
The room itself, as she looked at it, deepened the effect, for it was
curious how Coral, in spite of the well-trained housemaids, had
contrived to make her comfortable quarters appear squalid. Her
windows were more than shut, they insisted that they had never
been opened. Pink powder had been spilled: soiled blue ribbons, a
string of pearl beads, and the switch that did not match Coral’s hair
by daylight, hung, entangled, from a half-shut drawer. Coral had
been lying down when Laura came in, and the state of Mrs. Cloud’s
embroidered quilt would have moved even tolerant Mrs. Cloud. Her
book and her slippers had been flung across the room and the skirt
out of which she had stepped still lay, a pool of silk, upon the floor.
Yet she herself remained as neat as a hair-net and tight corsets
could make her. That, thought Laura, who was untidy in other
fashion, was what amazed one so in Coral. She was like a trim yacht
in a scummy harbour, incongruously yet indubitably anchored and at
home. The spectacle distressed Laura, too young to think it right to
let people be comfortable in their own way; but it distressed her still
more to think of Coral sitting there moping all the afternoon. She
was afraid she had talked too much—she had forgotten how near a
cry it was from Justin to John.... Poor Coral!... It wasn’t fair to tell of
blue skies to a blind man.... She couldn’t leave Coral to sit by herself
in that pig-sty and brood....
She turned back into the room.
“Look here, Coral—you’ve got to come out with us.”
“Wouldn’t Justin be pleased!” said Coral, without moving.
“Of course he would,” Laura lied stoutly.
Coral winked.
26. It is difficult to be a Samaritan when the object of your solicitude
winks at you; but Laura managed it.
“Where’s your hat?” she insisted. “It’ll do you good, a walk.”
“I know when I’m not wanted, thank-you,” said Coral, without
expression. But Laura thought she understood.
“If you mean—because of us——” She blushed faintly, stumbling
over her words, “There’s nothing—you needn’t—”
“Oh, I know that!” And again Carol’s instant comprehension of all
that Laura was not herself sure she meant, was disconcerting. “But
—” she hesitated; then, rapidly, not looking at Laura, “but Johnnie’s
brother hasn’t much use for Johnnie’s wife, if you want to know—
and he doesn’t care who knows it.”
“That’s not true,” Laura’s head went up. How dare Coral—Coral!—
criticize Justin?
“It’s perfectly true.” Coral eyed her steadily.
“You’ve no right to say such a beastly thing about him. I won’t
allow it.”
“All right, dearie. Have it your own way. But it’s true, and you
know it’s true, else you wouldn’t be so hopping mad.”
“Now listen to me, Coral,” Laura tried to be calm and forbearing.
“I’m not angry with you. I only want you to understand. You’re
unjust. You don’t know how good Justin is. It’s dreadful to accuse
him of—of——” she hesitated. Then she tried again. “Oh, surely,” she
protested, “you know his little ways by now.”
“Oh, I know ’em,” Coral laughed.
“Yes, but you’ve no right to laugh like that.” Then, disarmingly,
“Oh, I understand, of course. But Justin—he hasn’t the faintest idea
that he isn’t always nice to you. He’d be horrified. He’d be hurt.
Because I know he tries to be jolly to you in his own way.”
“Isn’t it kind of him?” said Coral.
27. Laura stamped.
“I won’t talk to you. You’re impossible. Just because he’s not a
man of words! You wait till you’re in a hole, that’s all, then you’ll
see.”
Coral turned on her fiercely.
“Well, I am in a hole. And I have seen.”
Laura stared. There were actually tears in Coral’s expressionless
eyes as she launched into passionate speech.
“Oh, Laura, Laura, it’s such a chance! Didn’t you hear him the
other night, talking about Willy—Mr. Wilbraham—as if they were
pals?”
“That funny little actor man? Oh, yes, he’s been here often. Justin
and he were at college together.”
“Willy!” Coral swept on unheeding. “I couldn’t believe my ears.
Willy! He runs half the shows in London. Why—why—you’re made if
he takes you. Think of it! To get into London! To get one’s chance!”
She began to walk up and down the room. “I—I can’t stick here, you
know. Grannie knows too. I’ve scared Brackenhurst already. And
there’s the child. Don’t I know what’ll happen? Can’t I see it
happening? Do you think I don’t hear you all, petting him and curing
his accent, and teaching him your ways? He’ll be correcting me in a
year or two—my own son! Oh, I know what’s good for him. Grannie
and Justin will send him to school. It’s his right. I shan’t stand in his
light. But I can’t sit here and watch it. Besides, I must act. I love it. I
love my job. It’s meat and drink to me. And Justin comes so superior
and talks at me in Johnnie’s voice, talks about settling me
comfortably. I don’t want his damned allowance!”
“Coral, Coral!” Laura caught at the working fingers.
“And I don’t want your pity either. I can run my own show. You—I
don’t know why I talk to you, you’re such a little fool.” Yet Coral let
herself be pulled down on to Laura’s knee. “But if you want to know,
28. I asked him—I did ask him—if he’d give me an introduction to
Wilbraham. I did ask him that. It wouldn’t have cost him a farthing.”
“But Justin didn’t refuse?”
“Oh, he didn’t refuse. But he made feel me what cheek he thought
it. I don’t ask him again. But oh, Laura, they’ve got a new show
coming on at the Fleur-de-Lys. I’ve heard from a pal—a dead secret
—no parts given yet. And there’s one that’s mine—absolutely! I
know it! My chance—if I could only get hold of Willy. But you know
what he is. Nobody can get near Willy without an introduction.”
Laura rose with decision.
“Justin didn’t understand. I’ll speak to him. Of course he’ll write to
Mr. Wilbraham. He’ll be only too glad.”
Coral clutched at her.
“You darling! Oh, you darling! Laura, if you worked that for me, I’d
——” She choked.
Her excitement was as pathetic as it was incomprehensible to
Laura. She laughed and said——
“When ought you to go?”
“At once. Grannie won’t mind. We’ve talked things out already,
Timmy and everything. If I went up this afternoon——”
“Oh, Coral! And miss the dinner-party next week?” A dinner-party,
even a dinner-party in honour of the new curate and the twins’
holiday, was an event to Laura.
“My dear, I can’t help it. If I’m to get the part I must be up in
town at once. I’d go to my pal’s for the night and get details—to
know how to dress up to the part. This won’t do.” She plucked at her
black skirt. Then anxiously, “Oh, but are you sure he’ll write?”
“Don’t you worry. You go and talk to Grannie.”
Laura’s security infected even Coral. She flung her arms about her
neck again.
29. “You dear! You dear! You utter dear!”
Laura laughed and left her.
When she came back she was radiant.
“What did I tell you? Of course he will! I told you so! I knew he
would! He said—why ever didn’t you tell him? He never took it in
that you really wanted it. He says he’ll write tonight. What did I tell
you? He says he’d better write privately to Mr. Wilbraham, instead of
just giving you a bearer note. He was perfectly sweet. I knew he
would be. Now will you own you’re wrong?”
Coral, in her gratitude, would have owned anything.
Laura ran on.
“Yes, and we can’t go out after all, because he’s just heard about
that cabinet. You know—the one he ordered for the new eggs. It
may arrive today, and he’s got to superintend them carrying it up if it
comes. I’m rather glad. The woods are sopping and I know I’ve a
cold coming on. So I’ll be able to see you off. Have you looked up
trains? Does Mrs. Cloud approve? You will let us know at once, won’t
you? Justin said he’d write most floriferously. I knew he’d be nice.
He didn’t expect the cabinet this week. He’s as excited as you are.”
Laura was excited herself—pardonably triumphant. It was a
solution for so much. The difficulties with Timothy—Mrs. Cloud—
(Coral, though she were fond of her, had been, she could guess, a
strain upon Mrs. Cloud) Justin’s own discomfort—Coral’s unrest—all
had been dispelled by Justin. Justin might have his ways, but
underneath those ways what a truly satisfactory Justin he was! She
could not help rubbing it in as she drove Coral to the station. She
hoped Coral was properly confounded—Coral, with her strictures and
criticisms and her knowledge of men.
She said good-bye to her with relief and regret and triumph. Her
cold was worse the next day, and on the next she was in bed. It was
the beginning of the week before she was about again. It was the
middle of the week before she found a letter on her breakfast plate.
30. She did not know the handwriting, but the deep lavender of the
paper and the cheap ink had a familiar look, were in affinity with the
lace blouses and the scent and the ear-rings to which she had grown
accustomed. She did not even glance at the signature, so sure was
she that the letter was from Coral.
I’ve got a job! Got it Tuesday, but I couldn’t write before—been
too rushed with clothes. I went to the Fleur-de-Lys first thing—but
no go. Wouldn’t look at me. Never got near any one, not even the
A.S.M., let alone Willy. It can’t be helped, but I am sick—because the
girl who’s got it, I heard today, is just my type. If I could have only
got at Willy! I know she can’t walk across a stage even—just an
elderly, academy flapper, because she was with me in a fit-up once.
But she’s a friend of the S.M.—’Nuff said! Well, dearie—the end of it
was I got so fed up doing the rounds—Whitney asked me if I’d walk
on—me! I could have slapped his face—and yet I wanted to howl—
I’ve got all soft among you dears—and then coming out I barged
bang into old Stevenson—you know I told you how Johnnie used to
kick up such a fuss about him—and my dear, he’s taking out a tour—
Africa—a year’s job at least, and possibly India and Australia
afterwards, and even America. Stock. And he’s offered me to share
leads with Phœbe Desborough! She’s a good sort—decent—I’ve
digged with her before now and—well, I’ve accepted it. The money’s
not much, but they provide the costumes and I know most of the
crowd, and Stevie and I have always been pals—in fact, I shouldn’t
be surprised——Stop it, Coral!
But it’s something settled anyway. That Wilbraham business did
for me—I’d counted so. You never know your luck, do you? I expect
Justin did what he could—but oh, if I’d only been able to see Willy!
We start Saturday—it’ll be an awful scramble. I suppose you and
Justin wouldn’t come and see me off? Don’t bring Tim. I’ve written
to Grannie. We talked things out, you know. And I know she won’t
set him against me. I know that, else I’d never let her have him. But
it’s best for him. I’m not quite a fool. The train leaves Victoria 2.15.
If Timmy misses me—but you’d better not bring him. Wish I could
31. have got the London job. Well—it’s done now. Justin will get up on
his hind legs and prance, but I can’t help it. Grannie won’t, anyway.
She’ll understand. She’s worth all the rest of you put together. That’s
why I let her have Timmy. You’ll look after Timmy?
Laura hurried on to the immense Coral Cloud sprawling across the
last page and smiled absently at a sudden memory of Coral
expatiating on the effectiveness of her stage name: “So catchy! The
Cherry-Pie Tooth-Paste people were after it once! wanted a signed
photo. Only Johnnie struck—the billy! It’s quite worth while! They
don’t pay cash, of course, but you get their creams for nothing.”
Justin had been wooden as he listened.
But her smile died away as she read the letter again. She could
not understand what had happened. It had been Coral’s business
and Coral’s alone to prove her capacity; but Justin had definitely
promised to write in such a way that the interview at least, would be
assured her. Justin was no tall talker. If he said he could do that
much, Laura knew that he could do it. Besides, she herself had more
than once met the elusive Mr. Wilbraham at the Priory ... a nice quiet
man.... She knew that he and Justin were friends.... Odd.... It was
certainly odd.... Had the letter miscarried? Because of course—of
course Justin had written.... There was no question of that....
She went puzzling up to the Priory to find that Mrs. Cloud had also
received a letter, carefully written and carefully spelled—poor Coral
at her grateful stilted best; but it was nearly all about Timothy.
There was no mention of the Fleur-de-Lys or Mr. Wilbraham.
They discussed the matter with beautifully concealed uneasiness.
“Well—” Laura began, and then most cheerfully, “oh well—”
Mrs. Cloud drummed with her fingers.
“After all, it’s her life,” Laura argued.
“Yes. Yes, of course. And she writes most sensibly about Timothy.”
32. “Oh, Coral’s very sensible,” said Laura eagerly. She was glad to
praise Coral, to be loyal and affectionate to Coral, in atonement for
the vague wrong that nobody had done Coral.
“Yes, she’s a dear, good girl!” Mrs. Cloud’s tone matched Laura’s.
“I wish—I wish she could have stayed in England—have kept in
touch—” And then, “I suppose—that part——?”
“Oh, I expect there were hundreds of applicants,” said Laura
hastily, refusing to remember Coral’s excitement—“A dead secret—
keeping it dark—you know what Willy is!”
“Most probably she wasn’t suitable,” said Mrs. Cloud.
“One never knows,” Laura was evasive. “Is Justin in? I haven’t
seen him since Coral left.”
Mrs. Cloud’s face brightened as the sky does when a cloud has slid
from the moon.
“I know. He’s wanted you. He’s been so busy. The new cabinet
came that same afternoon.”
“Oh!” said Laura slowly. “Oh—the cabinet came the same
afternoon.” And then—“I think I’ll go up to him.”
She went out of the room quietly, with none of her usual joyous
flurry. Mrs. Cloud did not watch her go. Indeed they had not once
met each other’s eyes as they talked together.
Justin’s room was full of cotton-wool, and disembowelled
cupboards, and drawers piled criss-cross on each other, and a Justin
so happily absorbed that Laura knew she should have laughed and
blessed him and settled down to help. But she could not. Even his
welcome did not warm her as she stood in the doorway and watched
him.
“Here you are! Good! I nearly came round for you yesterday. Now
look here—would you put——” He went into details.
She spoke through them.
“Justin—you did write that letter, didn’t you?”
33. “But then Bellew has cases with glass tops. What letter?”
“To Mr. Wilbraham. About Coral.”
“Oh! No—not yet. I don’t believe I have.”
“Justin! And you promised Coral.”
“Well—I did mean to. I’m going to. I’ll write tonight.”
“You needn’t,” said Laura without expression. “The part’s filled.”
“Oh, well! there’ll be another soon,” said Justin comfortably. “I’m
sorry. I really am sorry. But what with this arriving—isn’t it a beauty?
You haven’t half looked at it, Laura!—and getting things straight
again—I simply hadn’t time.”
“You hadn’t time!”
The contempt in her voice startled them both—stung like a whip;
but she hurt herself more than she hurt him. She had not realized
that it was possible to feel like that to Justin. She was frightened at
herself.
But Justin was annoyed. He did not feel guilty, he felt injured. He
was quite sure he hadn’t had time.
“Oh, shut up, Laura!” he adjured her, and then, with gathering
indignation—“Look here, you know—shut up!” and so retired into the
silence that awaits apologies.
But something was wrong with Laura that day. She too was silent,
with a difference in the quality of her silence that disturbed him.
Where he was dignified, she was ominous. Glancing across at her he
found her studying him and his occupation with an impersonal,
appraising air that altered her whole face: and she had grown white,
so white that he noticed it—that is to say, he thought to himself that
she was looking plain that morning. But when she did speak she was
outrageous—
“Justin! do you know—I think you’re almost selfish.”
34. That was the way, you see, that she talked to him when he was
up to his eyes in work!
“Oh?” said Justin, bearing with her. And then, in sudden heat
—“Because I forgot to write a letter!”
“Oh—you didn’t forget,” she said in her lowest voice.
“Oh?” said Justin again.
“You didn’t forget. You just put it off and put it off, because you
didn’t like the bother, because you didn’t like Coral.”
“Well, I don’t!” he flung at her. “She’d get on any one’s nerves.”
“Oh well, she won’t bother you any more. She’s going abroad.
Touring.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“My dear girl! it’s her own doing. We’ve offered her a home and
income. She need never see a theatre again.”
Laura looked at him in a sort of despair.
“What’s the use of saying that? Do you know what you’re saying?
‘Oh, Sunflower, I’ve such a nice cellar for you! If you’ll come and live
in it, you never need see the sun!’”
“You’re talking absolute nonsense,” said Justin austerely.
“I’m not. It’s you. You can no more put yourself in another
person’s place——You can no more imagine how Coral feels——”
He looked at her, on that, with something of the despair with
which she had looked at him.
“Look here, old girl,” he began, with heavy patience, “you mayn’t
believe me, but honestly, if I’d had any idea you were so keen on
Coral——”
“Coral? Coral? What do I care for Coral?” she asked him fiercely.
“But if you’re not upset about Coral,” demanded the logical sex,
“what’s all the row about? What’s the matter with you?”
35. She turned away from him because she felt her lips were
trembling.
“I don’t know,” she said weakly. “I don’t know.” And then—“I know
I’m very unhappy.”
She trailed away to the window, without a glance, without, I give
you my word, a glance at the new cabinet, though it half blocked
her way.
He did not know whether he should laugh or be bored by her
inexplicability. He was not in the habit of translating his sensations
into thoughts, but what he really wanted was that she should stop
talking and be smiling and interested in his interests, and be quick
about it, so that he might legitimately dispense with his quite
definite discomfort. Yet if, at that moment, she could have broken
down completely, letting her trouble and her anxious love for him
show itself in a storm of tears, I believe that she might have won
him. He would have recognized tears: he would have understood
tears: he would have done anything to comfort tears. Can’t you
foresee his horrified distress? She might have said all her say and he
would have listened. It was her chance, hers for the taking!
But she—she had learned so rigidly to repress herself in speech
and still more in manner, that she found herself at such a moment
not moved but frozen. She took it, with a sort of dreary triumph, as
a sign that she had at last attained self-mastery, Justin’s virtue—not
considering that a runaway engine and an engine that has jammed
are equally beyond the driver’s control. And so—governed as ever by
the Code, she told him that she was unhappy in the tone that she
would have told him that her new shoes were tight. Yet she never
dreamed that he took her flippancy at its face value—he—Justin—
whose Adamry, with the deadly injustice of pure worship, she had
endowed with omniscience. If Justin did not understand it was
because he did not choose: and he did not choose because her
emotion offended his inexorable taste. Thus, merciless to him as he
to her, she reasoned, and for the first time in her life was bitter
against him for the hardness of his heart. Yet, affected as she must
36. always be by his each unconscious change of tone, how could she
fail to respond when he laughed at this good joke of hers and,
without admitting that he should or should not have written to Coral,
put it to her, as a woman and a collector, that it was time to change
the subject.
“Unhappy? Rats! Come and help with the shelves. Coral can look
after herself. Besides, of course I’ll fix up something. Only leave me
alone, Laura! I’ve not done you any harm. Don’t worry so! I can look
after myself, can’t I?”
She looked at him with great doubtful eyes.
He laughed impatiently.
“Don’t be such a grandmother,” he insisted. “Leave me alone!”
She gave him a smile then, a half smile as doubtful as her eyes;
but she shook her head.
“I can’t,” said Laura.
“Oh, stuff!” said Justin.
And then they began to discuss matters of importance.
38. CHAPTER XXV
Laura had wanted Justin to come with her to see the last of Coral.
She knew that Coral would expect it: she was of the class that could
be genuinely moved in public. But she knew also that Justin would
shiver at the idea of Coral’s farewells. She wished he did not have to
be considered: she wished he could laugh and say—“Oh, well, we
must go through with it, I suppose,” and provide himself with
chocolates and roses, and endure a farewell from his sister-in-law
that might or might not culminate in an embrace. She wished he
would be vulgar and human and uncritical for once. She wished——
Of course he would come if she asked him.... It would be a
nuisance, naturally, with the dinner-party in the evening, but they
could go up by one train and come back by the next, or start earlier
and have their lunch in town.... If she suggested lunch he would
surely come.... A man hates to be hurried, but with due time allowed
for the importances of life he would come?... He ought to come.
After Coral’s message he ought to come.... She would go up again to
the Priory that very afternoon to ask him....
She did. She went up to the Priory on Thursday, and again on
Friday for that express purpose, but she found when she tried that
she was not able to ask him. She could not get out the words. She
was afraid of his acquiescence, of his bored, impatient acquiescence
that was worse than a refusal. She was afraid—it gave her a shock
to realize that she was actually afraid of Justin.
She took the discovery up to town with her that Saturday, setting
it to the monody of the train.
39. “Afraid of Justin? Afraid of Justin?”
“Absurd! Absurd! Afraid of Justin?”
Coral, explicitly, and almost before they were in speaking distance,
explanatively out of mourning, did not soothe her. Coral must needs
interrupt embraces, and introductions to the company, and asides to
porters, and high-pitched laughter, and a rattle of news, to say—
“You’re no relation! Where’s my dear brother-in-law?”
“He was awfully sorry. He was kept at the last moment—quite
unexpectedly. He sent all sorts of messages,” said Laura successfully.
Then, because she was an amateur, she added the touch too much:
“He was sure you’d understand.”
Coral was appreciative.
“What a liar you are! You weren’t a week ago! What’s been
happening?” Then, with a scream of delight. “Don’t say—oh, my
dear, don’t say you’ve had a row with him!” She tucked her arm into
Laura’s and trotted her off down the platform. “Come on—come to
my compartment (to myself, of course—leading lady) and tell me all
about it.”
Laura, in her fright, was cruel—
“And Timothy sent messages too. Such a lot. He did so want to
come.”
“You might have brought him.” Coral stared in front of her.
“But you said—you said—” began Laura, distressed. But the clang
of trundled milk-cans drowned the answer. When they could hear
themselves again Coral had found her compartment, and, settling
herself and Laura in it, was giving her the private and professional
history of every member of the company at once till the carriage
doors began to slam and Laura had to jump out in a hurry.
Coral leant out of the window.
“Good-bye! You were a brick to come. Give my love to Grannie. I’ll
write from Gib, tell her. And tell Justin I quite understand.”
40. “What?”
Coral laughed.
“Oh, the message he didn’t send, and—” she raised her voice as
the train began to creak—“and the letter he didn’t write, for that
matter.”
Laura ran along, level with the moving window, scarlet, voluble.
“No, no! I wanted to tell you. I forgot, talking. It was a mistake. I
ought to have reminded him. He couldn’t help it. It was the eggs—
the new cases—it put it all out of his head. He was awfully sorry.”
She quickened her pace, panting, as the train drew away from her.
But Coral’s was a carrying voice.
“Take my tip, Laura—smash up his old eggs! Then you’ll have
some peace! Good-bye! Kiss Timmy! Good-bye! Good-bye!”
The train roared out of the station.
Laura, as she muddled her way back to her own platform and
settled herself for the slow return journey, had a half smile for Coral
and her characteristic farewell. She must tell Justin ... or better
not?... He was not likely to stand a joke about his collection.... He
wouldn’t see anything funny.... And yet there was something comical
in a grown man being so absorbed.... If he could only realize that ...
join in the joke against himself.... People would laugh with him then
... but as it was—she winced—people who didn’t understand laughed
at him. He made himself ridiculous....
She wriggled her shoulders uneasily.
“Of course,” she began, talking aloud to herself in her usual
fashion, “of course it’s only idiots like Coral and silly little
Brackenhurst—and Gran’papa’s always down on every one anyway—
but they do laugh. I wonder—I suppose I couldn’t tell Justin?” And
then bitterly—“As if he’d listen! I don’t count. Nothing counts with
Justin except the collection. Queer how men get wrapped up in a
toy! If I told him what they said—not that one cares a dandelion for
what they say—but if I told him——They’re always saying ‘Why
41. doesn’t he get a job?’ Pure envy, of course. But he’d only shrug his
shoulders. ‘They say. Let them say!’ Justin doesn’t care a bit about
people. Half the time he doesn’t know they’re there. And he walks
on all their corns—bless him! No wonder they get annoyed. Because
it is pure jealousy. Why shouldn’t he play? He’s got plenty of money.
Besides,” she laughed aloud tenderly as she sat all by herself in the
empty carriage and thought of him, “it’s so lovable. It’s like a child.
He’s awfully like Timothy——”
“Only a child,” she was frowning again, “a child grows out of its
toys. But a man—what’s one to do with a man? A man’s so horribly
careful of his toys. What’s one to do? One can’t sit still and let him
be laughed at. What’s one to do with Justin?”
The Brackenhurst hills shrugged their tapestried shoulders as she
stared at them through the jolting windows, saying to her—
“Heaven knows! We bore him and bred him, but—what is one to
do?”
“One must do something, you know,” she found herself arguing,
“because he’s not selfish. He’s only self-absorbed. He only wants
waking up.”
“Wake him up!” clanked the train, like a live thing. “Wake him up—
wake him up.”
She turned fretfully in her seat.
“How can one? What can one do with Justin? How can one get at
him? He’s never been unhappy, or poor, or ill. He doesn’t know what
anything means. What’s the use of being angry with him about
Coral? Besides—they’re all such little things. He’s never done
anything really wrong in his life.” And then, “I only wish he had. One
could talk to him, tackle him then. But if I did talk to him, what
could I say? It’s such little things. He’s like the man with one talent.
I always did think that man was in the right really: Lo, thou hast
thine own! Justin’s perfectly justified. It’s I who am the fool. Why
can’t I leave him alone?”
42. Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.
More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge
connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and
personal growth every day!
testbankbell.com