XIIIIt was all very well to join them, but speaking to them provedquite as much as ever an effort beyond my strength—offered,in close quarters, difficulties as insurmountable as before. Thissituation continued a month, and with new aggravations andparticular notes, the note above all, sharper and sharper, of thesmall ironic consciousness on the part of my pupils. It was not, Iam as sure today as I was sure then, my mere infernal imagination:it was absolutely traceable that they were aware of my predicamentand that this strange relation made, in a manner, for a long time,the air in which we moved. I don’t mean that they had theirtongues in their cheeks or did anything vulgar, for that was notone of their dangers: I do mean, on the other hand, that theelement of the unnamed and untouched bec
