4
It was by imperceptible degrees that Capes became
important in Ann Veronica's thoughts. But then he
began to take steps, and, at last, strides to something
more and more like predominance. She began by
being interested in his demonstrations and his biological
theory, then she was attracted by his character, and then,
in a manner, she fell in love with his mind.
One day they were at tea in the laboratory and a
discussion sprang up about the question of women's
suffrage. The movement was then in its earlier militant
phases, and one of the women only, Miss Garvice,
opposed it, though Ann Veronica was disposed to be
lukewarm. But a man's opposition always inclined
her to the suffrage side; she had a curious feeling of
loyalty in seeing the more aggressive women through.
Capes was irritatingly judicial in the matter, neither
absurdly against, in which case one might have smashed
him, or hopelessly undecided, but tepidly sceptical.
Miss Klegg and the youngest girl made a vigorous attack
on Miss Garvice, who had said she thought women lost
something infinitely precious by mingling in the
conflicts of life. The discussion wandered, and was
punctuated with bread and butter. Capes was inclined to
support Miss Klegg until Miss Garvice cornered him
by quoting him against himself, and citing a recent
paper in the Nineteenth Century, in which, following
Atkinson, he had made a vigorous and damaging attack
on Lester Ward's case for the primitive matriarchate
and the predominant importance of the female throughout
the animal kingdom.
Ann Veronica was not aware of this literary side
of her teacher; she had a little tinge of annoyance at
Miss Garvice's advantage. Afterwards she hunted
up the article in question, and it seemed to her quite
delightfully written and argued. Capes had the gift of
easy, unaffected writing, coupled with very clear and
logical thinking, and to follow his written thought gave
her the sensation of cutting things with a perfectly
new, perfectly sharp knife. She found herself anxious
to read more of him, and the next Wednesday she went
to the British Museum and hunted first among the
half-crown magazines for his essays and then through
various scientific quarterlies for his research papers.
The ordinary research paper, when it is not extravagant
theorizing, is apt to be rather sawdusty in texture,
and Ann Veronica was delighted to find the same easy
and confident luminosity that distinguished his work
for the general reader. She returned to these latter,
and at the back of her mind, as she looked them over
again, was a very distinct resolve to quote them after
the manner of Miss Garvice at the very first opportunity.
When she got home to her lodgings that evening she
reflected with something like surprise upon her half-day's employment, and decided that it showed nothing
more nor less than that Capes was a really very
interesting person indeed.
And then she fell into a musing about Capes. She
wondered why he was so distinctive, so unlike other
men, and it never occurred to her for some time that
this might be because she was falling in love with
him.