Manchurian Books

I've already sketched the little home behind the Wimblehurst chemist's
shop, the lodging near the Cobden statue, and the apartments in Gower
Street. Thence my aunt and uncle went into a flat in Redgauntlet
Mansions. There they lived when I married. It was a compact flat, with
very little for a woman to do in it In those days my aunt, I think,
used to find the time heavy upon her hands, and so she took to books and
reading, and after a time even to going to lectures in the afternoon.
I began to find unexpected books upon her table: sociological books,
travels, Shaw's plays. "Hullo!" I said, at the sight of some volume of
the latter.
"I'm keeping a mind, George," she explained.
"Eh?"
"Keeping a mind. Dogs I never cared for. It's been a toss-up between
setting up a mind and setting up a soul. It's jolly lucky for Him and
you it's a mind. I've joined the London Library, and I'm going in for
the Royal Institution and every blessed lecture that comes along next
winter. You'd better look out."...
And I remember her coming in late one evening with a note-book in her
hand.


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