Volume VII - Modernist Magazines Project

314 The Web of May aLe Mesurier no longer hated the man he had killed. A faint,hesitant sort of consideration, even of fellow-feeling for him, begangradually to edge its way in among his thoughts. He wouldsometimes try to put himself in Shergold's place; he would tryto reconstruct the past from Shergold's point of view.He found he could no longer persuade himself that Shergoldhad been conscious of the evil he had wrought. On the contrary,he recognised that the man had been honest according to his lights;that he had committed no crime against the accepted code. Hemight have acquired his influence over Lily, through no wish, noeffort of his own. He had been one of those showy characterswhom women always worship ; he had possessed that superficialglittering cleverness that always catches a woman's fancy, he hadtalked with the fluent self-assurance which always wins a woman'sapproval. Probably he had never realised how obnoxious hispresence at Rozaine was to Le Mesurier. He was sufficientlyproud to have withdrawn from a society where he was not wanted,but his self-conceit was too magnificent for him ever to imaginesuch a contingency possible. And then, no doubt, his sense ofconscious rectitude had rendered him particularly obtuse. Hadhe been playing the role of lover, a guilty conscience would havemade him more sensitive to Le Mesurier's uncordial attitude.Looking back upon it all now, Le Mesurier could almost pityhim for such blindness.One day, lying in a hollow of the cliff, hidden from, everyeye but that of cormorant or sea-gull, playing abstractedly with apebble which found itself under his fingers, he saw a yard awayfrom him a sharp-nosed, grey-coated mole running from one pointto another across the grass. He shot the pebble from his hand,,and