A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



I was alive. I must have blushed a little, and 

 said apologetically and religiously, &quot; I was prais 

 ing God while I was at my best.&quot; 



&quot; That s easy,&quot; she replied, &quot; you can t help it. 

 It s a good deal more of a job to praise Him at 

 your worst,&quot; and then she blushed as if she had 

 unwittingly come down to my level of saying 

 things and swished off to the kitchen, actually 

 going through that narrow door, I thought, as if 

 it were a circus hoop. 



I find a &quot;mem.&quot; in my note-book which must 

 have been made about that time. It reads like 

 this, &quot; When one finds a woman as God made 

 her and not as man refashioned her, is she not 

 apt to be a handmaiden ? &quot; 



I believe some vague chivalrous notion crept 

 into my mind of rescuing her. There was no 

 programme about it. I only said to myself, it 

 is a great shame to have those infinite possibili 

 ties grow up gnarled and sinewy. It makes one 

 feel like putting on armour and hunting round 

 for a lance, to see them peeping out of castle 

 windows into a world unrealized. 



Charlie did not take my view of Griselle. A 

 child naturally lacks aesthetic appreciation. In 

 a moment of confidence I ventured to remark 

 to him that I was glad he admired the young 

 woman, for I considered her a very estimable 

 person, and he informed me that he had con 

 structed a rather contemptuous opinion of her. 

 In the first place she couldn t climb a tree, and 

 then she did not see any fun in making mud 



76 



