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Manual
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Chapter 9
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
© 2014 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution 9-1
in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
There is really no one “best” method to segment a market. Firms choose from various
methods on the basis of the type of product/ service they offer and their goals for the
segmentation strategy. For instance, if the firm wants to identify its customers easily,
demographic or geographic segmentation likely will work best. But if it is trying to dig
deeper into why customers might buy its offering, then psychographic, geodemographic,
benefits, or behavioral segmentation (occasion and loyalty) work best. Typically, a
combination of several segmentation methods is most effective.
Describe how firms determine whether a segment is attractive and therefore worth
pursuing.
Marketers use several criteria to assess a segment’s attractiveness. First, the customer
should be identifiable—companies must know what types of people are in the market so
they can direct their efforts appropriately. Second, the market must be substantial enough
to be worth pursuing. If relatively few people appear in a segment, it is probably not cost-
effective to direct special marketing mix efforts toward them. Third, the market must be
reachable— the firm must be able to reach the segment through effective
communications and distribution. Fourth, the firm must be responsive to the needs of
customers in a segment. It must be able to deliver a product or service that the segment
will embrace. Finally, the segment must be profitable, both in the near term and over the
lifetime of the customer.
Firms use a targeting strategy after they have identified its segments. An undifferentiated
strategy uses no targeting at all and works only for products or services that most
consumers consider to be commodities. The difference between a differentiated and a
concentrated strategy is that the differentiated approach targets multiple segments,
whereas the concentrated targets only one. Larger firms with multiple product/service
offerings generally use a differentiated strategy; smaller firms or those with a limited
product/service offering often use a concentrated strategy. Firms that employ a
micromarketing or one-to-one marketing strategy tailor their product/service offering to
each customer—that is, it is custom made. In the past, micromarketing was reserved
primarily for artisans, tailors, or other craftspeople who would make items exactly as the
customer wanted. Recently, however, larger manufacturers and retailers have begun
experimenting with custom-made merchandise as well. Service providers, in contrast, are
largely accustomed to customizing their offering.
© 2014 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution 9-2
in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Positioning is the “P” in the STP (segmentation, targeting, and positioning) process. It
refers to how customers think about a product, service, or brand in the market relative to
competitors’ offerings. Firms position their products and services according to several
criteria. Some focus on their offering’s value—customers get a lot for what the product or
service costs. Others determine the most important attributes for customers and position
their offering on the basis of those attribute symbols can also be used for positioning,
though few products or services are associated with symbols that are compelling enough
to drive people to buy. Finally, one of the most common positioning methods relies on
the favorable comparison of the firm’s offering with the products or services marketed by
competitors. When developing a positioning strategy and a perceptual map, firms go
through six steps. First, they determine consumers’ perceptions and evaluations of the
product or service in relation to competitors. Second, they identify the market’s ideal
points and market sizes for those products or services. Third, they identify competitors’
positions. Fourth, they determine consumer preferences. Fifth, they select the position.
Finally, they monitor the positioning strategy.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Check Yourself: Several questions are offered for students to check their understanding
of core concepts. (PPT slide 9-16)
1. Value
2. Salient Attributes
3. Symbol
4. Competition
5. Positioning (PPT slide 9-29)
F. Positioning Steps (PPT slide 9-30)
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Check Yourself: Several questions are offered for students to check their understanding
of core concepts. (PPT slide 9-32)
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-2: Learning Objectives These are the learning objectives for this
chapter.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-5: Step 1: Establish Overall Strategy or Remind students that any strategy must be
Objectives consistent with the firm’s mission statement and
be based on the current assessments from
SWOT analyses
9-6: Step 2: Describe Segments Group activity: Divide the class into groups.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-8: Demographic Segmentation This web link is to the U.S. Census Bureau.
9-9: Google’s Project Glass Ask students What segments are Google
targeting with this ad?
YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU
9M4
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-11: VALS Framework Click on the VALS hyperlink and take the
survey as a class.
9-12: 9-12 Geodemographic Segmentation Click on the Claritas link and conduct the “You
Are Where You Live” exercise with the zip
codes of the students’ hometowns.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-13: State Farm Not Insuring Mississippi Ask students when geographic segmentation is
not legal or ethical.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-17: Step 3: Evaluate Segment Marketers first must determine whether the
Attractiveness segment is worth pursuing, using several
descriptive criteria:
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-19: Substantial Just because a firm can find a market does not
necessarily mean it represents a good market.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-22: Profitable A hot segment today may not last long enough
to make it worth investment.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-26: Step 5: Identify and Develop Positioning strategies generally focus on either
Positioning Strategy how the product or service affects the consumer
or how it is better than competitors’ products
and services.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-27: Circles for a Successful Value Ask students – how is this positioning? They
Proposition should say salient attributes and competition.
9-28: Circles for a Successful Value Ask students – how is this positioning? They
Proposition should say salient attributes and competition.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
9-31: Perceptual Maps This perceptual map was created by the process
on the previous page.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Marketing Applications
1. What segmentation methods would you suggest for a small entrepreneur starting her
own business selling gourmet chocolates? Justify why you would recommend those
methods.
Students must think about the different benefits and trade-offs of the segmentation
methods. Descriptions of the different segments help firms better understand the
customer profiles in each segment. With this information, marketers can distinguish
customer similarities within a segment and dissimilarities across segments. The
entrepreneur might consider segmentation variables such as geography, income, life-
style, and convenience in her development of her target markets.
2. You have been asked to identify various segments in the market and then a potential
targeting strategy. Describe the segments for a pet supply store, and then justify the
best targeting strategy to use.
Students should be able to explain what each segmentation strategy is and its application.
With an undifferentiated segmentation strategy, the pet supply store would consider
everyone a potential user of the product. This is probably not the best segmentation
method for this type of store considering some people do not have pets.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Micromarketing occurs when a firm interacts on a one-on-one basis with many people to
create custom-made products or services. A firm could use micromarketing by
standardizing aspects of the products but leaving enough room for variability to tailor
the product to each customer’s needs. For example, a jeans manufacturer might pre-cut
fabric, then modify the pre-cut patterns to fit each customer who orders a pair of jeans.
Micromarketing increases customer satisfaction by specifically meeting the exact need or
want of the customer, which in turn increases the likelihood of customer loyalty and
repeat business.
4. You have been asked to evaluate the attractiveness of a group of identified potential
market segments. What criteria will you use to evaluate those segments? Why are
these appropriate criteria?
The third step in the segmentation process involves evaluating the attractiveness of
market segments. To undertake this evaluation, marketers first must determine whether
the segment is worth pursuing, using several descriptive criteria: is the segment
identifiable, substantial, reachable, responsive, and profitable.
If a firm can determine who appears in the market and thus design products or services
to meet their needs, the market segment is identifiable. If it can measure the size of the
segment and determine its worth, the market segment is substantial. If the firm can reach
the segment through persuasive communications and product distribution, it is reachable.
If customers in a market segment react positively to the firm’s offerings, the market
segment is considered responsive. Finally, if a market segment has sufficient size and the
potential for high adoption rates and repeat purchases with sufficient profit margins, it is
profitable. These criteria are appropriate because they apply to any market segment,
regardless of the product or service offered, and represent the key issues to address to
make the new product or service a lucrative opportunity.
At a different level than that in the previous question, students must suggest ways to
determine profitability.
The business owner should consider the following key factors: market growth (current
size, expected growth rate), market competitiveness (number of competitors, entry
barriers, product substitutes), and market access (ease of developing or accessing
distribution channels, brand familiarity). As far as the length of evaluation, it should be a
minimum of 12 months to ensure the owner knows what one year’s operations will entail.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
6. Think about the various energy drinks that you and your friends drink (e.g., Coca-
Cola, Pepsi, 7-Up, Gatorade, and Powerade).How do those various brands position
themselves in the market?
Market positioning involves a process of defining the marketing mix variables so that
target customers have a clear, distinctive, desirable understanding of what the product
does or represents in comparison with competing products. Positioning strategies focus
on either how the product or service affects the consumer or how it is better than
competitors’ products or services. Companies position their products using values,
salient attributes, and symbols. Students should discuss which of these tools the different
energy drinks use to differentiate themselves from competitors. For example, 5-hour
energy might use salient attributes, while Red Bull might use symbols.
This exercise challenges students to proceed through the entire segmentation /targeting
/positioning process described in the chapter.
For example, the new product is a self-propelled, robotic lawn mower, similar to the
robotic vacuum cleaner that is on the market today.
• Overall strategy: Segment the market into those consumers who own homes with
lawns and those who do not. Segment those with lawns into geodemographic markets
to identify the segments most likely to see value in such a new product. Focus
marketing efforts—most likely, television advertising, Internet banner ads, and
newspaper inserts—specifically on those segments.
• Characteristics of the target market: The target market includes middle- to upper-
middle-class households with no children and at least 20 square feet of lawn to mow.
• Attractiveness: These households likely can afford the product, do not have children
to mow the lawn as a chore, and possess enough lawn space to justify the purchase
for the sake of ease and convenience. This segment is easy to identify and is
significantly different from other segments.
• Positioning strategy: The product positioning should use both value (under $200) and
salient (self-propelled, does not need supervision, senses the boundaries of the lawn
automatically, and saves energy because it stops when it finishes mowing) attributes.
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in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
This exercise takes the examination of segmentation, targeting, and positioning one step
further to the actual implementation of the entire process of marketing materials.
A company like Pillsbury uses a variety of promotional materials to sell its products.
Three common types are newspaper coupon inserts, magazine advertisements, and its
Web site. According to these materials, the basic segmentation strategy Pillsbury uses
focuses on salient attributes; all the material tends to highlight product attributes (flavor,
quick baking time, convenient to make, enough for a family of four). As far as the target
market, it appears to be predominately cost-conscious women with children who have
limited time and budgets to make home-cooked meals for their family and are looking for
easy recipes and convenience.
9. You have been hired recently by a large bank in its credit card marketing division.
The bank has relationships with a large number of colleges and prints a wide variety
of credit cards featuring college logos, images, and the like. You have been asked to
oversee the implementation of a new program targeting the freshman class at the
schools with which the bank has a relationship. The bank has already purchased the
names and home addresses of the incoming freshman class. You have been told that
no credit checks will be required for these cards as long as the student is over 18
years of age. The bank plans a first day of school marketing blitz that includes free
hats, t-shirts, and book promotions, as well as free pizza, if the students simply fill out
an application. Do you think it is a good idea to target this program to these new
students?
What ethical issues might arise from the situation outlined, and to what degree do these
issues violate students’ own ethical standards? Using the ethical decision-making
framework discussed in Chapter Three, students should evaluate their opinion of the
practice of marketing credit cards to college freshmen and thus determine an appropriate
course of action.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
• “Have you thought broadly of any ethical issues associated with the decision to be
made?” I have thought broadly about the ethical issues and have concerns about
targeting a market segment of young consumers who lack jobs and are just learning
how to manage their own finances. Such targeting could breed a population of
students who run up credit card bills to the point that it affects their ability to buy a
car or house a few years down the line.
• “Have you involved as many possible people who might have a right to offer input
into or have actual involvement in making this decision and action plan?” At this
point, the students have no say in whether such marketing efforts should be on
campus, parents have had no chance to give input to a process that probably is
occurring without their knowledge, and the school administration has not been
consulted about whether this target population is appropriate.
• “Does this decision respect the rights and dignity of the stakeholders?” College
freshmen likely have little understanding of the potential pitfalls involved with
running up credit card debt they cannot pay for, and the parents of these students
might be the ones most adversely affected if they have to bail out their child,
incurring costs of which they were not even aware.
• “Does this decision produce the most good and the least harm to the relevant
stakeholders?” The college freshmen would be making important credit decisions
without full knowledge of the potential consequences, and their credit ratings could
be affected for life, ruining their chances of obtaining credit in the future for car and
home purchases.
• “Does this decision uphold relevant conventional moral rules?” It likely violates the
community’s standard for what is appropriate, because it targets young adults with
credit cards that they cannot afford.
• “Can you live with this decision alternative?” If the decision is to forgo such
marketing to college freshmen, then yes, I could live with that.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Quiz Yourself
1. NASCAR redirected its marketing efforts when a survey indicated that almost fifty
percent of race fans were female. This is an example of ______________
segmentation.
A. geographic
B. psychographic
C. demographic
D. benefits
E. behavioral
A. point of parity
B. strategic target
C. PRIZM cluster
D. ideal point
E. benefit centroid
An ideal point indicates where a particular market segment’s ideal product would lie on
a perceptual map.
Net Savvy
By looking at their own zip codes, students can get a feel for how accurate Claritas is and
discover any areas in which Claritas has missed the mark.
Answers will vary. A sample answer may be: Generally, people who live in my zip code
tend to be highly educated, affluent, ethnically mixed, liberal, and technologically savvy.
This description is accurate for the area I live in on the whole, but a segment of the
population that PRIZM seems to have missed are the elderly, who are numerous in my
area.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Responses will vary according to the results of each students’ VALS survey results. The
main dimensions of the VALS segmentation framework are consumer motivation and
consumer resources. Consumers are inspired by three motivations: (1) ideal, (2)
achievement, and (2) self-expression. Students should touch upon the basic framework of
the VALS survey in their response and address the validity of the survey.
1. Which types of segmentation strategies does Coca-Cola use to categorize the cola
beverage market?
2. Are these types effective in this market? Provide support for your answer.
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Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Student’s answers may vary. Coca-Cola has enjoyed tremendous success with its
segmentation strategy. However, some critics and shareholders worry that Coke-Zero
may cannibalize the Diet Coke market. Ask students to evaluate whether or not they
believe this to be true. Coca-Cola clearly would not benefit from an undifferentiated
strategy, nor could it manage a micro-marketing strategy. For Coca-Cola’s continued
success, a differentiated marketing strategy is the most strategically viable.
One of the most difficult concepts for students to understand is that of product
positioning. Instructors should emphasize that product position is based primarily on
competing brands in the marketplace and the consumer’s perception of the brand. The
perceptual map from the text (shown below) should be thoroughly reviewed with
students.
Students can learn this in a classroom setting where the instructor delegates one person in
the class to be the facilitator and then assigns the classroom with creating a class
perceptual map (food franchises can be used as an example). This can also take place in
groups with each group presenting their perceptual map to the class. Online Tip: This
exercise can be transferred to the online platform where groups are given the same tasks
then asked to post the groups’ results. An ensuing discussion board can then
compare/contrast the various perceptual maps.
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in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Remember to review the Newsletter for Instructors and its accompanied PowerPoint
presentation, which integrates examples and discussion from the newsletter. Each
newsletter contains over ten article abstracts on hot topics, plus a selection of current
commercials and videos for you to use with your class. The newsletter also includes a
guide that explains where the articles, commercials, and videos best fit in your Marketing
course.
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in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Van Husum, who was reading “The Mill on the Floss,” on the main
deck.
PART III
That night quite late Katya descended the stairs upon tiptoe.
She spoke in a very low voice:
“The little thing’s been talking, talking,” she said, “the quaintest
little thoughts. I’ve seen it coming for days now. Sometimes I’ve seen
her lips moving. She’s the most precise enunciation in the world.”
“I wired Ellida this afternoon,” Robert Grimshaw said.
“Then Ellida will be down here by the last train?” Katya
answered, and he commented: “We’ve only got an hour.”
“But little Kitty,” she was beginning.
“No, no,” he interrupted. “Nobody must be talked about but us.
Nobody must be talked about but us. I’m as glad as you or Ellida or
Paul could possibly be about Kitty, but now that I have got you alone
at last you’re bound to face the music.”
“But little Kitty?” Katya said. She said it, however, only for form’s
sake, for Robert Grimshaw’s gentle face was set in a soft inflexibility,
and his low tones she knew would hold her to the mark. She had to
face the music. In the half-darkness his large eyes perused her face,
dark, mournful and tender. The low, long farmhouse room with its
cheap varnished furniture was softened by the obscure light from the
fire over which he had been standing for a very long hour.
“Is it the same terms, then?” he asked slowly, and she
answered:
“Exactly the same.”
He looked down at the fire, resting his hand on the chimney-
piece. At last she said: “We might modify it a little;” and he moved his
face, his eyes searching the obscurity in which she stood, only one
of her hands catching the glow from the fire.
“I cannot modify anything,” he said. “There must be a marriage,
by what recognized rite you like, but—that.”
Her voice remained as level as his, expressing none of the
longing, the wistfulness, that were in her whole being.
“Nobody knew about mother,” she said. “Nobody seems to have
got to know now.”
“And you mean,” he said, “that now you consent to letting
nobody know it about you?”
“You did succeed,” she evaded him, “in concealing it about
mother. It was splendid of you! At the time I thought it wasn’t
possible. I don’t know how you managed it. I suppose nobody knows
about it but you and me and Ellida and Pauline.”
“You mean,” he pursued relentlessly, “you mean that now you
consent to letting nobody know it about you? Of course, besides us,
my solicitor knows—of your mother.”
“At the first shock,” she said, “I thought that the whole world
must know, and so I was determined that the whole world should
know that I hadn’t deserted her memory....” She paused for a wistful
moment, whilst inflexibly he reflected over the coals. “Have you,” she
said, “the slightest inkling of why she did it?”
He shook his head slowly; he sighed.
“Of course I couldn’t take you even on those terms—that
nobody knew,” he said, with his eyes still averted. Then he turned
upon her, swarthy, his face illumined with a red glow. The slow
mournfulness of their speeches, the warmth, the shadow, kept him
silent for a long time. “No,” he said at last, “there isn’t a trace of a
fact to be found. I’m as much in the dark as I was on that day when
we parted. I’m not as stunned, but I’m just as mystified.”
“Ah!” she said, “but what did you feel—then?”
“Did you ever realize,” he asked, “how the shock came to me?
You remember old Partington, with the grey beard? He asked me to
call on them. He sat on the opposite side of his table. He handed me
the copy of some notes your father had made for their instructions as
to his will. It was quite short. It ran: ‘You are to consider that my wife
and I were never married. I desire you to frame a will so phrased that
my entire estate, real and personal, should devolve upon my two
daughters, Ellida and Katharine, without revealing the fact that they
are illegitimate. This should not be difficult, since their mother’s
name, which they are legally entitled to bear, was the same as my
own, she having been my cousin.’” Grimshaw broke off his low
monologue to gaze again at her, when he once more returned his
eyes to the coals. “You understand,” he said, “what that meant to
me. It was handed to me without a word; and after a long time
Partington said: f You understand that you are your uncle’s heir-at-
law—nothing more.”
Katya whispered: “Poor old Toto!”
“You know how I honoured your father and mother,” he said.
“They were all the parents I ever knew. Well, you know all about
that.... And then I had to break the news to you.... Good God!”
He drew his hands down his face.
“Poor old Toto!” Katya said slowly again. “I remember.”
“And you won’t make any amends?” he asked.
“I’ll give you myself,” she said softly.
He answered: “No! no!” and then, wearily, “It’s no good.”
“Well, I did speak like a beast to you,” she said. “But think what
a shock it was to me—mother not dead a month, and father not four
days, and so suddenly—all that. I’ll tell you how I felt. I felt a loathing
for all men. I felt a recoiling from you—a recoiling, a shudder.”
“Oh, I know,” he said, and suddenly he began to plead: “Haven’t
you injured me enough? Haven’t I suffered enough? And why?—
why? For a mad whim. Isn’t it a mad whim? Or what? I can
understand you felt a recoil. But ...”
“Oh, I don’t feel it now,” she said; “you know.”
“Ah yes,” he answered; “but I didn’t know till to-day, till just now
when you raised your arms. And all these years you haven’t let me
know.”
“How did you know?” she asked. “How did you know that I felt
it? But, of course, you understand me even when I don’t speak.”
“It’s heaven,” he said, “to know that you’ve grown out of it. It has
been hell to bear the thought....”
“Oh, my dear! ...” she said.
“Such loneliness,” he said. “Do you know,” he continued
suddenly, “I came back from Athens? I’m supposed to be a strong-
minded man—I suppose I am a strong-minded man—but I turned
back the moment I reached Greece because I couldn’t bear—I could
not bear the thought that you might still shudder at my touch. Now I
know you don’t, and ...”
“Ellida will be here soon,” Katya said. “Can’t you hear her train
coming down the valley ... there...? And I want to tell you what I’ve
found out about mother. I’ve found it out, I’ve made it out,
remembering what she said from day to day. I’ll tell you what it was
—it was trustfulness. I remember it now. It was the mainspring of her
life. I think I know how the very idea came into her mind. I’ve got it
down to little details. I’ve been inquiring even about the Orthodox
priests there were in England at the time. There wasn’t a single one!
One had just died suddenly, and there did not come a successor for
six months. And mother was there. And when she was a young
thing, mother, I know, had a supreme contempt—a bitter contempt—
for all English ideas. She got over it. When we children were born
she became the gentlest being. You know, that was what she always
was to me—she was a being, not a woman. When she came into the
room she spread soothing around her. I might be in paroxysms of
temper, but it died out when she opened the door. It’s so strong upon
me that I hardly remember what she looked like. I can’t remember
her any more than I can conceive of the looks of a saint. A saint!—
well, she was that. She had been hot-tempered, she had been
contemptuous. She became what you remember after we were born.
You may say she got religion.”
Katya, her eyes full of light, paused; she began again with less
of exultation.
“I dare say,” she said, “she began to live with father without the
rites of the Church because there was no Church she acknowledged
to administer them; but later, she didn’t want them remember how
she always told us, ‘Trust each other, trust each other; then you will
become perfectly to be trusted.’ And again, she would never let us
make promises one to another. Don’t you remember? She always
said to us: ‘Say that you will do a thing. Never promise—never. Your
word must be your bond.’ You remember?”
Grimshaw slowly nodded his head. “I remember.”
“So that I am certain,” she said, “that that was why she never
married father. I think she regarded marriage—the formality, the
vows—as a desecration. Don’t you see, she wanted to be my
father’s chattel, and to trust him absolutely—to trust, to trust! Isn’t
that the perfect relationship?”
Grimshaw said: “Yes, I dare say that is the explanation. But ...”
“But it makes no difference to you?” she pleaded. In the
distance she heard the faint grind of wheels.
“No,” he said, “not even if no one else knew it. I’m very tired; I’m
very lonely. I want you so; I want you with all my heart. But not that—
not that.”
“Not ever?” she said.
“No,” he answered; “I’ll play with my cards on the table. If I grow
very tired—very, very tired—if I cannot hold out any longer, well, I
may consent—to your living with me as your mother lived with your
father. But”—and he stood up briskly—“I’ll tell you this: you’ve
strengthened me—you’ve strengthened me in my motive. If you had
shuddered at me as you did on that day years ago, I think I should
have given in by now. But you didn’t any longer. You’ve come to me;
you raised your arms to me. Don’t you see how it has strengthened
me? I’m not alone any more; I’m not the motherless boy that I was....
Yes, it’s heaven.”
Her hands fell by her side. The sound of wheels filled the room,
and ceased.
“If I’d repulsed you, you’d have given in?” she said.
The door fell violently back, and from the black and radiant
figure of Ellida came the triumphant cry: “Kitty’s spoken! Kitty’s
spoken! You’ve not deceived me!”
II
IV