So do I! A
firm hold on reality--that's the best thing; I was not intellectual
enough for the life of thought, and I fell back on humanity--vastly
engrossing! I assure you, though you would hardly think it, that
even these simple people down here are most interesting: no two of
them alike. My old friends say to me sometimes that I must find
country people very dull, but I always say, 'No two of them alike!'
Of course I try to keep my intellectual tastes alive--they are only
tastes, of course, not faculties, like yours--but we read and talk
and ventilate our ideas, Maud and I; and when we are tired of
books, why I fall back on the great book of humanity. We don't
stagnate--at least I hope not--I have a horror of stagnation. I
said so to the Archdeacon the other day, and he said that there was
nothing stagnant about Windlow."
"No, I am quite sure there is not," said Howard politely.
"It's very good of you to say so, Howard," said Mr. Sandys
delightedly. "Really quite a compliment! And I assure you, you
don't know what a pleasure it is to have a talk like this with a
man like yourself, so well-read, so full of ideas. I envy Jack his
privileges. I do indeed. Now dear old Pembroke was not like that in
my days. There was no one I could talk to, as Jack tells me he
talks to you. A man like yourself is a vast improvement on the old
type of don, if I may say so. I'm very free, you see! And so you
think Jack might do well in commerce? Well, I quite approve.
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