Of This Time, of That Place
Lionel Trilling
IT
WAS A FINE
September day. By noon
it
would be summer again
but now it was true autumn with a touch of chill in the air. As
Joseph Howe stood on the porch of the house in which he lodged,
ready to leave for his first class of the year, he thought with
pleasure of the long indoor days that were coming. It was a
moment when he could feel glad of his profession.
On the lawn the peach tree was still in fruit and young Hilda
Aiken was taking a picture of it. She held the camera tight against
her chest. She wanted the sun behind her· but she did not want
her own long morning shadow in the foreground. She raised
the
camera but that did not help, and she lowered it but that made
things worse. She twisted her body to the left, then to the right.
In the end she had to step out of the direct line of the sun. At
last she snapped the shutter and wound the film with intense care.
Howe, watching her from the porch, waited for her to
finish
and called good morning. She turned, startled, and almost sul–
lenly lowered her glance. In the year Howe had lived at the
Aikens', Hilda had accepted him as one of her family, but since
his absence of the summer she had grown shy. Then suddenly she
lifted her head and smiled at him, and the humorous smile con·
firmed his pleasure in the day. She picked up her bookbag and
set off for school.
The handsome houses on the streets to the college were not
yet fully awake but they looked very friendly. Howe went by the
Bradby house where he would be a guest this evening at the first
dinner-party of the year. When he had gone the length of the
picket fence, the whitest in town, he turned back. Along the path
there was a fine row of asters and he went through the gate and
picked one for his buttonhole. The Bradbys would be pleased
if they happened to see him invading their lawn and the knowledge
of this made him even more comfortable.
He reached the campus as the hour was striking. The students
were hurrying to their classes. He himself was in no hurry.
Ht
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