Page 237 - of-human-bondage-

were only three weeks more.
‘I can’t bear to think of that,’ she said. ‘It breaks my heart.
And then perhaps we shall never see one another again.’
‘If you cared for me at all, you wouldn’t be so unkind to
me,’ he whispered.
‘Oh, why can’t you be content to let it go on as it is? Men
are always the same. They’re never satisfied.’
And when he pressed her, she said:
‘But don’t you see it’s impossible. How can we here?’
He proposed all sorts of schemes, but she would not have
anything to do with them.
‘I daren’t take the risk. It would be too dreadful if your
aunt found out.’
A day or two later he had an idea which seemed bril-
liant.
‘Look here, if you had a headache on Sunday evening and
offered to stay at home and look after the house, Aunt Lou-
isa would go to church.’
Generally Mrs. Carey remained in on Sunday evening
in order to allow Mary Ann to go to church, but she would
welcome the opportunity of attending evensong.
Philip had not found it necessary to impart to his rela-
tions the change in his views on Christianity which had
occurred in Germany; they could not be expected to under-
stand; and it seemed less trouble to go to church quietly. But
he only went in the morning. He regarded this as a graceful
concession to the prejudices of society and his refusal to go
a second time as an adequate assertion of free thought.
When he made the suggestion, Miss Wilkinson did not

Of Human Bondage