The respectable portion of the male sex in England may be divided into two classes, according to its method and manner of complete immersion¹ in water. One class, the more clashing, dashes into a cold tub every morning. Another, the more cleanly, sedately² takes a warm bath every Saturday night. There can be no doubt that the former class lends tone and distinction to the country, but the latter is the nation's backbone³. Henry belonged to the Saturday-nighters, to the section which calls a bath a bath, not a tub, and which contrives⁴ to approach godliness without having to boast of it on frosty mornings.  
Henry performed the weekly rite⁵ in a zinc⁶ receptacle exactly circular, in his bedroom, because the house in Dawes Road had been built just before the craze for dashing had spread to such an extent among the lower middle-classes that no builder dared build a tenement⁸ without providing for it specially⁹; in brutal¹⁰ terms, the house in Dawes Road had no bathroom. The preparations for Henry's immersion were always complex and thorough. Early in the evening Sarah began by putting two kettles and the largest saucepan to boil on the range. Then she took an old blanket and spread it out upon the master's bedroom floor, and drew the bathing-machine from beneath the bed and coaxed¹¹ it, with considerable clangour, to the mathematical centre of the blanket. Then she filled ewers¹² with cold water and arranged them round the machine. Then Aunt Annie went upstairs to see that the old blanket was well and truly laid, not too near the bed and not too near the mirror of the wardrobe, and that the machine did indeed rest in the mathematical centre of the blanket. (As a fact, Aunt Annie's mathematics never agreed with Sarah's.) Then Mrs. Knight¹³ went upstairs to bear witness that the window was shut, and to decide the question of towels. Then Sarah went upstairs, panting, with the kettles and the large saucepan, two journeys being necessary; and Aunt Annie followed her in order to indicate to Sarah every step upon which Sarah had spilled boiling-water. Then Mrs. Knight moved the key of Henry's door from the inside to the outside; she was always afraid lest he might lock himself in and be seized with a sudden and fatal illness. Then the women dispersed¹⁴, and Aunt Annie came down to the dining-room, and in accents studiously calm (as though the preparation of Henry's bath was the merest nothing) announced:
 
'Henry dear, your bath is waiting.'
 
And Henry would disappear at once and begin by mixing his bath, out of the ewers, the kettles, and the saucepan, according to a recipe of which he alone had the secret. The hour would be about nine o'clock, or a little after. It was not his custom to appear again. He would put one kettle out on an old newspaper, specially placed to that end on the doormat in the passage, for the purposes of Sunday's breakfast; the rest of the various paraphernalia¹⁶ remained in his room till the following morning. He then slept the sleep of one who is aware of being the nation's backbone.
 
Now, he was just putting a toe or so into the zinc receptacle, in order to test the accuracy of his dispensing¹⁷ of the recipe, when he heard a sharp tap at the bedroom door.
 
'What is it?' he cried, withdrawing the toe.
 
'Henry!'
 
'Well?'
 
'Can I open the door an inch?' It was Aunt Annie's voice.
 
'Yes. What's the matter?'
 
'There's come a copy of Home and Beauty by the last post, and on the wrapper it says, "See page 16."'
 
'I suppose it contains that—thing?'
 
'That interview, you mean?'
 
'Yes, I suppose so.'
 
'Shall I open it?'
 
'If you like,' said Henry. 'Certainly, with pleasure.'
 
He stepped quietly and unconcernedly into the bath. He could hear the sharp ripping of paper.
 
'Oh yes!' came Aunt Annie's voice through the chink. 'And there's the portrait! Oh! and what a smudge across the nose! Henry, it doesn't make you look at all nice. You're too black. Oh, Henry! what do you think it's called? "Lions in their Lairs¹⁸. No. 19. Interview with the brilliant author of Love in Babylon." And you told us her name was Foster.'
 
'Whose name?' Henry demanded, reddening in the hot water.
 
'You know—that lady's name, the one that called.'
 
'So it is.'
 
'No, it isn't, dear. It's Flossie Brighteye. Oh, I beg pardon, Henry! I'm sure I beg pardon!'
 
Aunt Annie, in the excitement of discovering Miss Foster's real name, and ground withal for her original suspicion that the self-styled Miss Foster was no better than she ought to be, had leaned too heavily against the door, and thrust it wide open. She averted¹⁹ her eyes and drew it to in silence.
 
'Shall I show the paper to your mother at once?' she asked, after a fit pause.
 
'Yes, do,' said Henry.
 
'And then bring it up to you again for you to read in bed?'
 
'Oh,' replied Henry in the grand manner, 'I can read it to-morrow morning.
 
He said to himself that he was not going to get excited about a mere¹⁵ interview, though it was his first interview. During the past few days the world had apparently²⁰ wakened up to his existence. Even the men at the office had got wind of his achievement, and Sir George had been obliged to notice it. At Powells everyone pretended that this was the same old Henry Knight who arrived so punctually each day, and yet everyone knew secretly that it was not the same old Henry Knight. Everyone, including Henry, felt—and could not dismiss the feeling—that Henry was conferring a favour on the office by working as usual. There seemed to be something provisional, something unreal, something uncanny, in the continuance of his position there. And Sir George, when he demanded his services to take down letters in shorthand, had the air of saying apologetically: 'Of course, I know you're only here for fun; but, since you are here, we may as well carry out the joke in a practical manner.' Similar phenomena²¹ occurred at Dawes Road. Sarah's awe⁷ of Henry, always great, was enormously increased. His mother went about in a state of not being quite sure whether she had the right to be his mother, whether she was not taking a mean advantage of him in remaining his mother. Aunt Annie did not give herself away, but on her face might be read a continuous, proud, gentle surprise that Henry should eat as usual, drink as usual, talk simply as usual, and generally behave as though he was not one of the finest geniuses in England.
 
Further, Mr. Onions Winter had written to ask whether Henry was proceeding²² with a new book, and how pleased he was at the prospective²³ privilege of publishing it. Nine other publishers had written to inform him that they would esteem²⁴ it a favour if he would give them the refusal of his next work. Messrs. Antonio, the eminent²⁵ photographers of Regent Street, had written offering to take his portrait gratis²⁶, and asking him to deign²⁷ to fix an appointment for a séance. The ............