I like people to
like me; I don't want to direct them; only one can overdo trying to
make people like one, and I feel I have overdone it. I ought to
have gone to work in a different way."
"Well, I have put my foot in it again," said Jack; "it's awful to
think that I have been lecturing one of the Dons about his duty. I
shall be trying to brighten up their lives next. The mischief is
that I don't think I do want people to like me. I am not
affectionate. I only want things to go smoothly."
They drew near to the Manor, and Jack said, "I promised Cousin Anne
I would go in to tea. She has designs on me, that woman! She
doesn't approve of me; she says the sharpest things in her quiet
way; one hardly knows she has done it, and then when one thinks of
it afterwards, one finds she has drawn blood. I am cross, I think!
There seems to be rather a set at me just now; she makes me feel as
if I were in bed, being nursed and slapped."
"Well," said Howard, "I shall leave you to her mercies. I shall go
on to the Vicarage, and say good-bye. I shan't see them again this
time. You don't mind, I hope? I will try not to use my influence."
"You can't help it!" said Jack with a grimace. "No, do go. You will
touch them up a bit. I am not appreciated there just now."
Howard walked on up to the Vicarage. He was rather disturbed by
Jack's remarks; it put him, he thought, in an odious light. Was he
really so priggish and Jesuitical? That was the one danger of the
life of the Don which he hoped he had successfully avoided.
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