 sat alone in the great dim church - still
less was it the first of his giving himself up, so far as conditions permitted,
to its beneficent action on his nerves. He had been to Notre Dame with Waymarsh,
he had been there with Miss Gostrey, he had been there with Chad Newsome, and
had found the place, even in company, such a refuge from the obsession of his
problem that, with renewed pressure from that source, he had not unnaturally
recurred to a remedy meeting the case, for the moment, so indirectly, no doubt,
but so relievingly. He was conscious enough that it was only for the moment, but
good moments - if he could call them good - still had their value for a man who
by this time struck himself as living almost disgracefully from hand to mouth.
Having so well learnt the way, he had lately made the pilgrimage more than once
by himself - had quite stolen off, taking an unnoticed chance and making no
point of speaking of the adventure when restored to his friends.
    His great friend, for that matter, was still absent, as well as remarkably
silent; even at the end of three weeks Miss Gostrey hadn't come back. She wrote
to him from Mentone, admitting that he must judge her grossly inconsequent -
perhaps in fact for the time odiously faithless; but asking for patience, for a
deferred sentence, throwing herself in short on his generosity. For her too, she
could assure him, life was complicated - more complicated than he could have
guessed; she had moreover made certain of him - certain of not wholly missing
him on her return - before her disappearance. If furthermore she didn't burden
him with letters it was frankly because of her sense of the other great commerce
he had to carry on. He himself, at the end of a fortnight, had written twice, to
show how his generosity could be trusted; but he reminded himself in each case
of Mrs. Newsome's epistolary manner at the times when Mrs. Newsome kept off
delicate ground. He sank his problem, he talked of Waymarsh and Miss Barrace, of
little Bilham and the set over the river, with whom he had again had tea, and he
was easy, for convenience, about Chad and Madame de Vionnet and Jeanne. He
admitted that he continued to see them, he was decidedly so confirmed a haunter
of Chad's premises and that young man's practical intimacy with them was so
undeniably great; but he had his reason for not attempting to render for Miss
Gostrey's benefit the impression
