All this failed to detract from his initial
dislike of young Polder. There was a lack of breeding in the manner in
which he sat in his chair, thrust forward on its edge, in his arrogant
proclamation of ability, success. James Polder was anxious, he realized,
to impress him, Howat Penny, with the fact that he was not negligible.
Such things were utterly unimportant to him. He was unable to justify,
or even explain to himself, his standards of judgment. They were not
founded on admirable conduct, on achievement, what was known as solid
worth; but on vague accents, intuitive attitudes of mind visible in a
hundred trivial, even absurd, signs. The "right things" were more
indispensable to him than the sublimest attributes.
On the following morning Mariana, Eliza and Polder disappeared in his
car--it seemed that the latter was an accomplished mechanic in addition
to his other qualities--and Howat Penny faced the disagreeable
possibilities of the near future. Mariana would, he knew, meet this
fellow promiscuously if necessary. As she had indicated, it was
impossible to conceive of him in Charlotte Jannan's house. The latter
was a rigidly correct woman. She would, too, and properly, be nasty if
she learned that such meetings had taken place at Shadrach.
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