Page 168 - of-human-bondage-

tour of South Germany. Philip was left a good deal to him-
self. Hayward sought his acquaintance; but Philip had an
unfortunate trait: from shyness or from some atavistic in-
heritance of the cave-dweller, he always disliked people
on first acquaintance; and it was not till he became used
to them that he got over his first impression. It made him
difficult of access. He received Hayward’s advances very
shyly, and when Hayward asked him one day to go for a
walk he accepted only because he could not think of a civil
excuse. He made his usual apology, angry with himself for
the flushing cheeks he could not control, and trying to carry
it off with a laugh.
‘I’m afraid I can’t walk very fast.’
‘Good heavens, I don’t walk for a wager. I prefer to stroll.
Don’t you remember the chapter in Marius where Pater
talks of the gentle exercise of walking as the best incentive
to conversation?’
Philip was a good listener; though he often thought of
clever things to say, it was seldom till after the opportunity
to say them had passed; but Hayward was communicative;
anyone more experienced than Philip might have thought
he liked to hear himself talk. His supercilious attitude im-
pressed Philip. He could not help admiring, and yet being
awed by, a man who faintly despised so many things which
Philip had looked upon as almost sacred. He cast down the
fetish of exercise, damning with the contemptuous word
pot-hunters all those who devoted themselves to its various
forms; and Philip did not realise that he was merely putting
up in its stead the other fetish of culture.

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