rs under rock, unfathomable in limpidness. He could not think of
her without shooting at nature, and nature's very sweetest and subtlest,
for comparison. As to her sex, his active man's contempt of the
petticoated secret attractive to boys and graylings, made him believe
that in her he hunted the mind and the spirit: perchance a double mind, a
twilighted spirit; but not a mere woman. She bore no resemblance to the
bundle of women. Well, she was worth studying; she had ideas, and could
give ear to ideas. Furthermore, a couple of the members of his family
inclined to do her injustice. At least, they judged her harshly, owing,
he thought, to an inveterate opinion they held regarding Lord
Dannisburgh's obliquity in relation to women. He shared it, and did not
concur in, their verdict upon the woman implicated. That is to say,
knowing something of her now, he could see the possibility of her
innocence in the special charm that her mere sparkle of features and
speech, and her freshness would have for a man like his uncle. The
possibility pleaded strongly on her behalf, while the darker possibility
weighted by his uncle's reputation plucked at him from below.

She was delightful to hear, delightful to see; and her friends loved her
and had faith in her. So clever a woman might be too clever for her
friends! . . .

The circle he moved in hummed of women, prompting novices as well as
veterans to suspect that the multitude of them, and notably the fairest,
yet more the cleverest, concealed the serpent somewhere.

She certainly had not directed any of her arts upon him. Besides he was
half engaged. And that was a burning perplexity; not because of abstract
scruples touching the necessity for love in marriage. The young lady,
great heiress though she was, and willing, as she allowed him to assume;
graceful too, reputed a beauty; struck him cold. He fancied her
transparent, only Arctic. Her transparency displayed to him all the
common virtues, and a serene possession of the inestimable and eminent
one outweighing all; but charm, wit, ardour, intercommunicative
quickness, and kindling beauty, airy grace, were qualities that a man, it
seemed, had to look for in women spotted by a doubt of their having the
chief and priceless.

However, he was not absolutely plighted. Nor did it matter to him whether
this or that woman concealed the tail of the serpent and trail, excepting
the singular interest this woman managed to excite, and so d