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The Load Pull Method of RF and Microwave Power Amplifier Design 1St Edition John Sevic Download 2024 Full Chapter
The Load Pull Method of RF and Microwave Power Amplifier Design 1St Edition John Sevic Download 2024 Full Chapter
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This book is dedicated to the next generation of load-pull experts: may your
experiences be as enriching and rewarding.
vii
Contents
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xxi
Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Notation xxiii
Preface xxv
Foreword xxix
Biography xxxi
5.4.4 PAE and Signal Quality Extraction Under Constant Average Load
Power 109
5.4.5 Optimum Impedance Extraction with Bandwidth as a Constraint 110
5.4.6 Extension to Source-Pull 112
5.4.7 Extension to Harmonic and Base-Band Load-Pull 112
5.5 Closing Remarks 112
Index 145
xi
List of Figures
Figure 3.5 Voltage and current conventions that define the large-signal input
impedance of a transistor, at a specific frequency, usually the
fundamental. 53
Figure 3.6 Typical dynamic range curve for IM and ACPR measurements
illustrating noise-limited and linearity-limited boundaries. The
region between these two boundaries establishes the dynamic
range of IM and ACPR characterization. 55
Figure 3.7 Response to a two-tone stimulus illustrating a common definition
of video bandwidth (VBW) when the tone spacing yields 2∘ of
asymmetry in the third-order mixing products. Note that the
lower sideband leads in phase and the upper sideband lags in
phase with respect to the linear phase response shown. It is this
fact that produces intermodulation asymmetry, as described by
Sevic and Steer [4]. 56
Figure 3.8 Load-pull system configuration to evaluate ΔGT . 58
Figure 3.9 Typical ΔGT response for a well-calibrated sub-1 Ω high-power
2 GHz load-pull system with quarter-wave pre-matching [10]. 59
Figure 4.1 Canonical load-pull system defining independent variables from
which all measurement data are derived. DC conditions at the
drain (collector) and gate (base) form the basis of DC power for
efficiency calculations. For the present load-pull method that
transistor output impedance and its available power need not be
known nor defined. 64
Figure 4.2 Load power contours illustrating the maximum power
impedance, contour closure, and the impedance-state grid for
data acquisition. The large dashed concentric circle at the edge of
the Smith chart boundary is the maximum VSWR the tuner can
develop while the partial dashed circle near the top of the Smith
chart is the load stability circle at the load-pull frequency. 66
Figure 4.3 Three iterations of (a) load-pull and (b) source-pull contours
illustrating convergence to maximum power and gain. The first
iteration is based on Cripps estimate, shown as a square, also
illustrating the impedance states did not resolve power and gain
maxima, thus exhibiting open contours. Subsequent expansion of
the impedance states for both load-pull and source-pull enabled
power and gain maxima to be uniquely resolved. 67
Figure 4.4 Transducer gain versus load power for each of the three load-pull
iterations of Figure 4.3. As convergence is achieved for optimum
List of Figures xv
Figure 4.10 Illustration of regions requiring special attention during fixed load
power from another, with the gray annular ring representative of
high available loss and the second gray region the location of
relatively high impedances that can induce premature saturation
and subsequently lower power capability. 78
Figure 4.11 Contours of load power, PAE, and peak–average ratio. Note the
phenomena of multiple maxima, illustrating the need for fixed
peak–average ratio load-pull to be preceded by fixed available
source power load-pull to assist in identification of an appropriate
load power and PAE stationary point to perform fixed
peak–average ratio load-pull. The circular region in gray is
identified as the region for fixed peak–average ratio since it
encloses the load power and PAE stationary point and while
providing a locally unique solution. 80
Figure 4.12 Illustration of multiple contour intersections and their
interpretation. 81
Figure 4.13 Common impedance state distribution for harmonic load-pull
exploring optimum PAE. A usual distribution would be 36 or 72
states, yielding a phase step of 10∘ or 5∘ , respectively. The VSWR
for harmonic load-pull will usually be the maximum VSWR the
tuner is capable of producing, as shown by the vector. 84
Figure 4.14 PAE versus second harmonic phase for fixed available source
power (dashed line) and fixed load power (solid line). 84
Figure 4.15 Vector IM diagram illustrating how the baseband impedance
influences in-band linearity. Maximizing video bandwidth pushes
out any resonances of the bias network that expands the length of
the second-order IM vector, whereas optimization using baseband
load-pull systematically seeks out an impedance antiparallel to
the vector sum of the other two mixing product vectors. (a) Phase
response deviation, (b) asymmetric intermodulation products, (c)
upper IM vector diagram, and (d) lower IM vector diagram. 86
Figure 4.16 Illustration of geometric-logical search method showing the
boundary where PAE and ACPR constraints are satisfied
simultaneously for fixed load power and fixed frequency. The
elliptical dashed lines are contours of constant Q, used later. 90
Figure 4.17 Illustration of the synthetic geometric-logical search method
showing three regions where PAE and ACPR constraints are
satisfied, representing low-band, mid-band, and high-band. The
tolerance band for each parameter must generally be smaller than
List of Figures xvii
Figure 5.8 Load-pull contours for a 38 dBm GSM-900 DUT illustrating its
optimum impedance trajectory and the optimum impedance state
at 36 dBm and 75% PAE. 106
Figure 5.9 Load-pull contours for a 26 dBm WCDMA DUT illustrating its
optimum impedance trajectory and the optimum impedance state
at 24 dBm and 44% PAE, with approximately −51 dBc
ACPR1. 107
Figure 5.10 Instantaneous transducer gain trajectories illustrating transducer
gain and gain compression displacement under constant available
source power versus iteration of available source power to fix
transducer gain and gain compression. 108
Figure 5.11 Load-pull contours for a 26 dBm WCDMA DUT, under constant
average load power load-pull, illustrating its optimum impedance
trajectory and the optimum impedance state at −50 dBc ACPR1
and 48% PAE. An increase of 1 dB in ACPR1 has yielded a
substantial 4% point improvement in PAE, from 44% to 48%, while
reducing the parameter space from three to two. 109
Figure 5.12 Expanded-scale graphical representation of high-band, mid-band,
and low-band optimal impedance trajectories, with each square
denoting the desired optimal impedance at its corresponding
frequency. Over frequency, the consolidated collection of
impedance states becomes the optimal impedance trajectory over
frequency, to be replicated by the matching network. In practice,
the collection of optimal impedance states resembles
Figure 4.17. 111
Figure 5.13 Extension of Figure 5.12 to illustrate the effect of narrow-band
frequency response using a constant-Q circle of Q = 1.5. Note that
the impedance states on the exterior of constant-Q circle require
proportionally higher matching network order or, identically, a
change in transistor power capability or technology. The optimal
impedance states fall within the capture range of a matching
network constrained by the Q = 1.5 circle, as illustrated. 111
Figure 5.14 Contours of constant average load power of 43 dBm for a 400 W
PEP LDMOS transistor illustrating ACLR1 and PAE contours
superimposed over Q = 1.5 and Q = 2.0 circles for bandwidth
analysis. 112
Figure 6.1 An N section matching network with overall impedance
transformation ratio T. The impedance transformation ratio of
each section is Tp . For the Butterworth matching network, Tp of
each section is identical, so that T = TpN . 117
List of Figures xix
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Maximum PEP and RMS power ratings by tuner frequency and
connector style, subject to the constraints listed in the text. 34
Table 3.1 Examples of ΔGT and resultant Δ𝜂 for various
applications [1]. 60
xxiii
Preface
When I was asked to build a handset power amplifier (PA) design group at Qual-
comm in San Diego, many years ago, it became evident that comprehensive treat-
ment of a systematic RF PA design process in a concise self-contained volume
was necessary. At the time, the most common design process was trial and error
using triple-stub tuners or, often times, with the ubiquitous roll of copper tape
and X-Acto knife. Automated load-pull was still a relatively new tool, suffering
from several limitations, including harmonic control, limited impedance range,
and linearity impairment. Indeed, first-generation automated load-pull was inca-
pable of creating the impedance necessary for a handset code division multiple
access (CDMA) PA. It was not entirely plausible that load-pull would evolve into
the universal standard of RF PA design that today it currently is, 20 years later.
Writing a book on load-pull for RF PA design thus posed somewhat of a risk, due
to its well-known limitations and skepticism by a technically adept audience, often
highly critical and guarded of new design methods. That load-pull has evolved into
the most popular method for systematic RF PA design is precise because all of the
early limitations of load-pull have been rigorously addressed in the intervening
time since Qualcomm. The timing is therefore right for the present volume, con-
taining in a single sitting comprehensive treatment of the load-pull method for RF
PA design.
The popularity of the load-pull method, to the exclusion of all others, is because
absolute performance is systematically, accurately, and rapidly appraised without
resorting to slow and uncertain trial and error or reliance on abstruse and
nonphysical mathematics. Because the load-pull method distinguishes between
management of nonlinearity versus analysis of nonlinearity, it transforms what
is essentially an intractable nonlinear mathematical problem into a series of
variable-impedance measurements followed by utilization of well-understood
linear network theory for matching network design. The uptake of the load-pull
method can also be attributed to its accessibility by a broad class of new electrical
engineers, most of who successfully design an RF PA on their first attempt.
xxvi Preface
…equations can only go so far. At some point, a little bit of hand-tuning with
a screwdriver becomes absolutely essential for successful RF PA design.
I wholeheartedly agree with Fred, and make no apologies about the absence of
complex and intractable mathematics and in its place deliberate emphasis on
empiricism and graphical methods. It is suspected the reader will agree with, and
appreciate, this approach.
The book is written to be accessible by practicing RF engineers with exposure
to intermediate distributed-parameter networks, intermediate analog circuits,
and introductory microwave semiconductor physics typically associated with
the BSEE or equivalent. The well-prepared reader will be comfortable with the
material in the Gonzales text on microwave amplifier design, particularly its
excellent treatment of Smith chart operations, and the Raab text on solid-state
radio engineering, while the advanced reader will be familiar the Maas text on
nonlinear microwave circuit design [2–4]. The two Cripps books on RF PA design
are highly complementary companions to the load-pull method of RF PA design
treated here, and it is recommended the reader be comfortable with each of
these texts [5, 6]. In addition to being suitable for the practicing RF PA engineer,
undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from the book, as will those
attending industry classes such as those offered by Besser and Associates. As
an RF engineer, I have benefited from Besser courses, and highly recommend
them.
Although the PA can be found in applications spanning high frequency (HF)
to sub-millimeter-wave, emphasis in the book is on applications for wireless com-
munication systems. The load-pull method of PA design presented is general and
can be applied to other bands or applications, though the bulk of the readership is
Preface xxvii
1 These templates were first made by the author in HP Microwave Design System, the precursor
to ADS, including the template for adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) harmonic-balance and
circuit-envelope simulation.
xxviii Preface
Many thanks are due to the Wiley staff, especially my Editor Brett Kurzman, for
their patience and support during the writing of this book.
References
refuge. For it was a refuge—the alternative being to march along blindly till
the next morning, which was, of course, equivalent to not being an
alternative at all—but how bleak a one! Gray shadows were descending on
it, cold winds were whirling round it, the grass was, naturally, dripping, and
scattered in and out among the furze bushes were the empty sardine and
other tins of happier sojourners. These last objects were explained by the
presence of a hop-field skirting one side of the common, a hop-field luckily
not yet in that state which attracts hop-pickers, or the common would hardly
have been a place to which gentlemen care to take their wives. On the
opposite side to the hop-field the ground fell away, and the tips of two hop-
kilns peered at us over the edge. In front of us, concealed by the furze and
other bushes of a prickly, clinging nature, lay the road, along which people
going home to houses, as Edelgard put it, were constantly hurrying. All
round, except on the hop-field side, we could see much farther than we
wanted to across a cheerless stretch of country. The three caravans were
drawn up in a row facing the watery sunset, because the wind chiefly came
from the east (though it also came from all round) and the backs of the vans
offered more resistance to its fury than any other side of them, there being
only one small wooden window in that portion of them which, being kept
carefully shut by us during the whole tour, would have been infinitely better
away.
I hope my hearers see the caravans: if not it seems to me I read in vain.
Square—or almost square—brown boxes on wheels, the door in front, with a
big aperture at the side of it shut at night by a wooden shutter and affording a
pleasant prospect (when there was one) by day, a much too good-sized
window on each side, the bald back with no relief of any sort unless the
larders can be regarded as such, for the little shutter window I have
mentioned became invisible when shut, and inside an impression (I never
use a word other than deliberately), an impression, then, I say, of snugness,
produced by the green carpet, the green arras lining to the walls, the green
eider-down quilts on the beds, the green portière dividing the main room
from the small portion in front which we used as a dressing room, the
flowered curtains, the row of gaily bound books on a shelf, and the polish of
the brass candle brackets that seemed to hit me every time I moved. What
became of this impression in the case of one reasonable man, too steady to
be blown hither and thither by passing gusts of enthusiasm, perhaps the
narrative will disclose.
Meanwhile the confusion on the common was indescribable. I can even
now on calling it to mind only lift up hands of amazement. To get the three
horses out was in itself no easy task for persons unaccustomed to such work,
but to get the three tables out and try to unfold them and make them stand
straight on the uneven turf was much worse. All things in a caravan have
hinges and flaps, the idea being that they shall take up little room; but if they
take up little room they take up a great deal of time, and that first night when
there was not much of it these patent arrangements which made each chair
and table a separate problem added considerably to the prevailing chaos.
Having at length set them out on wet grass, table-cloths had to be extracted
from the depths of the yellow boxes in each caravan and spread upon them,
and immediately they blew away on to the furze bushes. Recaptured and
respread they immediately did it again. Mrs. Menzies-Legh, when I ventured
to say that I would not go and fetch them next time they did it, told me to
weigh them down with the knives and forks, but nobody knew where they
were, and their discovery having defied our united intelligences for an
immense amount of precious time was at last the result of the merest chance,
for who could have dreamed they were concealed among the bedding? As
for Edelgard, I completely lost control over her. She seemed to slip through
my fingers like water. She was everywhere, and yet nowhere. I do not know
what she did, but I know that she left me quite unaided, and I found myself
performing the most menial tasks, utterly unfit for an officer, such as
fetching cups and saucers and arranging spoons in rows. Nor, if I had not
witnessed it, would I ever have believed that the preparation of eggs and
coffee was so difficult. What could be more frugal than such a supper? Yet it
took the united efforts for nearly two hours of seven highly civilized and
intelligent beings to produce it. Edelgard said that that was why it did, but I
at once told her that to reason that the crude and the few are more capable
than the clever and the many was childish.
When, with immense labour and infinite conversation, this meagre fare
was at last placed upon the tables it was so late that we had to light our
lanterns in order to be able to see it; and my hearers who have never been
outside the sheltered homes of Storchwerder and know nothing about what
can happen to them when they do will have difficulty in picturing us
gathered round the tables in that gusty place, vainly endeavouring to hold
our wraps about us, our feet in wet grass and our heads in a stormy darkness.
The fitful flicker of the lanterns played over rapidly cooling eggs and grave
faces. It was indeed a bad beginning, enough to discourage the stoutest
holiday-maker. This was not a holiday: this was privation combined with
exposure. Frau von Eckthum was wholly silent. Even Mrs. Menzies-Legh,
although she tried to laugh, produced nothing but hollow sounds. Edelgard
only spoke once, and that was to say that the coffee was very bad and might
she make it unaided another time, a remark and a question received with a
gloomy assent. Menzies-Legh was by this time extremely anxious about the
girls, and though his wife still said they were naughty and would be scolded
it was with an ever-fainter conviction. The two young men sat with their
shoulders hunched up to their ears in total silence. No one, however, was
half so much deserving of sympathy as myself and Edelgard, who had been
travelling since the previous morning and more than anybody needed good
food and complete rest. But there were hardly enough scrambled eggs to go
round, most of them having been broken in the jolting up the lane on to the
common, and after the meal, instead of smoking a cigar in the comparative
quiet and actual dryness of one’s caravan, I found that everybody had to turn
to and—will it be believed?—wash up.
“No servants, you know—so free, isn’t it?” said Mrs. Menzies-Legh,
pressing a cloth into one of my hands and a fork into the other, and
indicating a saucepan of hot water with a meaning motion of her forefinger.
Well, I had to. My hearers must not judge me harshly. I am aware that it
was conduct unbecoming in an officer, but the circumstances were unusual.
Menzies-Legh and the young men were doing it too, and I was taken by
surprise. Edelgard, when she saw me thus employed, first started in
astonishment and then said she would do it for me.
“No, no, let him do it,” quickly interposed Mrs. Menzies-Legh, almost as
though she liked me to wash up in the same saucepan as herself.
But I will not dwell on the forks. We were still engaged in the amazingly
difficult and distasteful work of cleaning them when the rain suddenly
descended with renewed fury. This was too much. I slipped away from Mrs.
Menzies-Legh’s side into the darkness, whispered to Edelgard to follow, and
having found my caravan bade her climb in after me and bolt the door. What
became of the remaining forks I do not know—there are limits to that which
a man will do in order to have a clean one. Stealthily we undressed in the
dark so that our lighted windows might not betray us—“Let them each,” I
said to myself with grim humour, “suppose that we are engaged helping one
of the others”—and then, Edelgard having ascended into the upper berth and
I having crawled into the lower, we lay listening to the loud patter of the rain
on the roof so near our faces (especially Edelgard’s), and marvelled that it
should make a noise that could drown not only every sound outside but also
our voices when we, by shouting, endeavoured to speak.
CHAPTER V
U NDER the impression that I had not closed my eyes all night I was
surprised to find when I opened them in the morning that I had. I must
have slept, and with some soundness; for there stood Edelgard, holding
back the curtain that concealed me when in bed from the gaze of any curious
should the caravan door happen to burst open, already fully dressed and
urging me to get up. It is true that I had been dreaming I was still between
Flushing and Queenboro’, so that in my sleep I was no doubt aware of the
heavings of the caravan while she dressed; for a caravan gives, so to speak,
to every movement of the body, and I can only hope that if any of you ever
go in one the other person in the bed above you may be a motionless sleeper.
Indeed, I discovered that after all it was not an advantage to occupy the
lower bed. While the rain was striking the roof with the deafening noise of
unlimited and large stones I heard nothing of Edelgard, though I felt every
time she moved. When, however, it left off, the creakings and crunchings of
her bed and bedding (removed only a few inches from my face) every time
she turned round were so alarming that disagreeable visions crossed my
mind of the bed, unable longer to sustain a weight greater perhaps than what
it was meant to carry, descending in toto in one of these paroxysms upon the
helpless form (my own) stretched beneath. Clearly if it did I should be very
much hurt, and would quite likely suffocate before assistance could be
procured. These visions, however, in spite of my strong impression of
unclosed eyes, must ultimately and mercifully have been drowned in sleep,
and my bed being very comfortable and I at the end of my forces after the
previous day when I did sleep I did it soundly and I also apparently did it
long; for the sun was coming through the open window accompanied by
appetizing smells of hot coffee when Edelgard roused me by the information
that breakfast was ready, and that as everybody seemed hungry if I did not
come soon I might as well not come at all.
She had put my clothes out, but had brought me no hot water because she
said the two sisters had told her it was too precious, what there was being
wanted for washing up. I inquired with some displeasure whether I, then,
were less important than forks, and to my surprise Edelgard replied that it
depended on whether they were silver; which was, of course, perilously near
repartee. She immediately on delivering this left the caravan, and as I could
not go to the door to call her back—as she no doubt recollected—I was left
to my cold water and to my surprise. For though I had often noticed a certain
talent she has in this direction (my hearers will remember instances) it had
not yet been brought to bear personally on me. Repartee is not amiss in the
right place, but the right place is never one’s husband. Indeed, on the whole I
think it is a dangerous addition to a woman, and best left alone. For is not
that which we admire in woman womanliness? And womanliness, as the
very sound of the word suggests, means nothing that is not round, and soft,
and pliable; the word as one turns it on one’s tongue has a smoothly liquid
sound as of sweet oil, or precious ointment, or balm, that very well expresses
our ideal. Sharp tongues, sharp wits—what are these but drawbacks and
blots on the picture?
Such (roughly) were my thoughts while I washed in very little and very
cold water, and putting on my clothes was glad to see that Edelgard had at
least brushed them. I had to pin the curtains carefully across the windows
because breakfast was going on just outside, and hurried heads kept passing
to and fro in search, no doubt, of important parts of the meal that had either
been forgotten or were nowhere to be found.
I confess I thought they might have waited with breakfast till I came. It is
possible that Frau von Eckthum was thinking so too; but as far as the others
were concerned I was dealing, I remembered, with members of the most
inconsiderate nation in Europe. And besides, I reflected, it was useless to
look for the courtesy we in Germany delight to pay to rank and standing
among people who had neither of these things themselves. For what was
Menzies-Legh? A man with much money (which is vulgar) and no title at
all. Neither in the army, nor in the navy, nor in the diplomatic service, not
even the younger son of a titled family, which in England, as perhaps my
hearers have heard with surprise, is a circumstance sometimes sufficient to
tear the title a man would have had in any other country from him and send
him forth a naked Mr. into the world—Menzies-Legh, I suppose, after the
fashion of our friend the fabled fox in a similar situation, saw no dignity in,
nor any reason why he should be polite to, noble foreign grapes. And his
wife’s original good German blood had become so thoroughly undermined
by the action of British microbes that I could no longer regard her as a
daughter of one of our oldest families; while as for the two young men, on
asking Menzies-Legh the previous evening over that damp and dreary supper
of insufficient eggs who they were, being forced to do so by his not having
as a German gentleman would have done given me every information at the
earliest opportunity of his own accord, with details as to income,
connections, etc., so that I would know the exact shade of cordiality my
behaviour toward them was to be tinged with—on asking Menzies-Legh, I
repeat, he merely told me that the one with the spectacles and the hollow
cheeks and the bull terrier was Browne, who was going into the Church, and
the other with the Pomeranian and the round, hairless face was Jellaby.
Concerning Jellaby he said no more. Who and what he was except pure
Jellaby I would have been left to find out by degrees as best I could if I had
not pressed him further, and inquired whether Jellaby also were going into
the Church, and if not what was he going into?
Menzies-Legh replied—not with the lively and detailed interest a German
gentleman would have displayed talking about the personal affairs of a
friend, but with an appearance of being bored that very extraordinarily came
over him whenever I endeavoured to talk to him on topics of real interest,
and disappeared whenever he was either doing dull things such as marching,
or cleaning his caravan, or discussing tiresome trivialities with the others
such as some foolish poem lately appeared, or the best kind of kitchen
ranges to put into the cottages he was building for old women on his estates
—that Jellaby was not going into anything, being in already; and that what
he was in was the House of Commons, where he was not only a member of
the Labour Party but also a Socialist.
I need not say that I was considerably upset. Here I was going to live, as
the English say, cheek by jowl for a substantial period with a Socialist
member of Parliament, and it was even then plain to me that the caravan
mode of life encourages, if I may so express it, a degree of cheek by
jowlishness unsurpassed, nay, unattained, by any other with which I am
acquainted. To descend to allegory, and taking a Prussian officer of noble
family as the cheek, how terrible to him of all persons on God’s earth must
be a radical jowl. Since I am an officer and a gentleman it goes without
saying that I am also a Conservative. You cannot be one without the others,
at least not comfortably, in Germany. Like the three Graces, these other three
go also hand in hand. The King of Prussia is, I am certain, in his heart
passionately Conservative. So also I have every reason to believe is God
Almighty. And from the Conservative point of view (which is the only right
one) all Liberals are bad—bad, unworthy, and unfit; persons with whom one
would never dream of either dining or talking; persons dwelling in so low a
mental and moral depth that to dwell in one still lower seems almost
extravagantly impossible. Yet in that lower depth, moving about like those
blind monsters science tells us inhabit the everlasting darkness of the bottom
of the seas, beyond the reach of light, of air, and of every Christian decency,
dwells the Socialist. And who can be a more impartial critic than myself?
Excluded by my profession from any opinion or share in politics I am able to
look on with the undisturbed impartiality of the disinterested, and I see these
persons as a danger to my country, a danger to my King, and a danger (if I
had any) to my posterity. In consequence I was very cold to Jellaby when he
asked me to pass him something at supper—I think it was the salt. It is true
he is prevented by his nationality from riddling our Reichstag with his
poisonous theories (not a day would I have endured his company if he had
been a German) but the broad principle remained, and as I dressed I reflected
with much ruefulness that even as it was his presence was almost
compromising, and I could not but blame Frau von Eckthum for not having
informed me of its imminence beforehand.
And the other—the future pastor, Browne. A pastor is necessary and even
very well at a christening, a marriage, or an interment; but for mingling
purposes on common social ground—no. Sometimes at public dinners in
Storchwerder there has been one in the background, but he very properly
remained in it; and once or twice dining with our country neighbours their
pastor and his wife were present, and the pastor said grace and his wife said
nothing, and they felt they were not of our class, and if they had not felt it of
themselves they would very quickly have been made to feel it by others.
This is all as it should be: perfectly natural and proper; and it was equally
natural and proper that on finding I was required to do what the English call
hobnob with a future pastor I should object. I did object strongly. And
decided, while I dressed, that my attitude toward both Jellaby and Browne
should be of the chilliest coolness.
Now in this narrative nothing is to be hidden, for I desire it to be a real
and sincere human document, and I am the last man, having made a mistake,
to pass it over in silence. My friends shall see me as I am, with all my human
weaknesses and, I hope, some at least of my human strengths. Not that there
is anything to be ashamed of in the matter of him Menzies-Legh spoke
baldly of as Browne—rather should Menzies-Legh have been ashamed of
leading me through his uncommunicativeness into a natural error; for how
could I be supposed to realize that the singular nation places the Church as a