has outnumbered the years of a child, she is no further
advanced than a child, owing to what she has to get rid of. She is
overburdened with sensations that set her head on fire. Her solid, firm,
and gentle heart keeps her balanced, so long as there is no one playing
on it. That a fool should be doing so, is scarcely her fault."

Georgiana murmured to herself, "He is not a fool." She said, "I do see a
certain truth in what you say, dear Merthyr. But I have been disappointed
in her. I have taken her among my poor. She listens to their tales,
without sympathy. I took her into a sick-room. She stood by a dying bed
like a statue. Her remark when we came into the air was, 'Death seems
easy, if it were not so stifling!' Herself always! herself the centre of
what she sees and feels! And again, she has no active desire to do good
to any mortal thing. A passive wish that everybody should be happy, I
know she has. Few have not. She would give money if she had it. But this
is among the mysteries of Providence to me, that one no indifferent to
others should be gifted with so inexplicable a power of attraction."

Merthyr put this case to her: "Suppose you saw any of the poor souls you
wait on lying sick with fever, would it be just to describe the character
of one so situated as fretful, ungrateful, of rambling tongue, poor in
health, and generally of loose condition of mind?"

"There, again, is that foreign doctrine which exults in the meanest
triumphs by getting the thesis granted that we are animal--only animals!"
Georgiana burst out. You argue that at this season and at that season she
is helpless. If she is a human creature, must she not have a mind to
cover those conditions?"

"And a mind," Merthyr took her up, "specially experienced, armed, and
alert to be a safeguard to her at the most critical period of her life!
Oh, yes! Whether she 'must' have it is one thing; but no one can content
the value of such a jewel to any young person."

Georgiana stood silenced; and knew later that she had been silenced by a
fallacy. For, is youth the most critical period of life? Neither brother
nor sister, however, were talking absolutely for the argument. Beneath
this dialogue, the current in her mind pressed to elicit some avowal of
his personal feeling for the girl, toward whom Georgiana's disposition
was kindlier than her words might lead one to think. He, on the other
hand, talked with the distinct object of disguising his feelings un