understand each other
perfectly upon matters not understood by the rest of us, whereas they
sometimes betrayed a surprising ignorance in regard to each other's
affairs.

From the time when the professor arrived it was apparent that Hermione
did not like him; and that Cutter was aware of the fact. It had not
needed the young girl's own assurance to inform me of the antipathy she
felt for the man of science. He had seen her before, but Hermione had
suddenly grown into a young lady since his last visit, and the
consequence was that she was thrown far more often into the society of
the man she disliked than had been the case when she was still in the
schoolroom. John Carvel never liked governesses, and as soon as
practicable the last one had been discharged, so that Hermione was left
to the society of her mother and aunt and of such visitors as chanced to
be staying in the house. She was fond of her brother, but had seen
little of him, and stood rather in awe of his superior genius; for
Macaulay was a young man who possessed in a very high degree what we
call the advantages of modern education. She loved him and looked up to
him, but did not understand him in the least, because people who have a
great deal of heart do not easily comprehend the nature of people who
have little; and Macaulay Carvel's manner of talking about men, and even
nations, as though they were mere wooden pawns, or sets of pawns,
puzzled his sister's simpler views of humanity. Her mother did not
always interest her, either; she was devotedly attached to her, but Mrs.
Carvel, as she grew older, became more and more absolved in the strange
sort of inner religious life which she had created for herself as a kind
of stronghold in the midst of her surroundings, and when alone with her
daughter was apt to talk too much upon serious subjects. To a young and
beautiful girl, who felt herself entering the vestibule of the world in
the glow of a wondrous dawn, the somewhat mournful contemplation of the
spiritual future could not possibly have the charm such meditation
possessed for a woman in middle age, who had passed through the halls of
the palace of life without seeing many of its beauties, and who already,
in the dim distance, caught sight of the shadowy gate whereby we must
all descend from this world's sumptuous dwelling, to tread the silent
labyrinths of the unknown future.

Such society as Mrs. Carvel's was not good for Hermione. It is not good
for any