uspicious inquiry like a reformed character who offers himself as your
butler or footman. Reformation, where a man can afford to do without
it, can hardly be other than genuine. Moreover, it was not certain on
any other showing hitherto, that Mr. Grandcourt had needed reformation
more than other young men in the ripe youth of five-and-thirty; and, at
any rate, the significance of what he had been must be determined by
what he actually was.

Mrs. Davilow, too, although she would not respond to her sister's
pregnant remark, could not be inwardly indifferent to an advent that
might promise a brilliant lot for Gwendolen. A little speculation on
"what may be" comes naturally, without encouragement--comes inevitably
in the form of images, when unknown persons are mentioned; and Mr.
Grandcourt's name raised in Mrs. Davilow's mind first of all the
picture of a handsome, accomplished, excellent young man whom she would
be satisfied with as a husband for her daughter; but then came the
further speculation--would Gwendolen be satisfied with him? There was
no knowing what would meet that girl's taste or touch her
affections--it might be something else than excellence; and thus the
image of the perfect suitor gave way before a fluctuating combination
of qualities that might be imagined to win Gwendolen's heart. In the
difficulty of arriving at the particular combination which would insure
that result, the mother even said to herself, "It would not signify
about her being in love, if she would only accept the right person."
For whatever marriage had been for herself, how could she the less
desire it for her daughter? The difference her own misfortunes made
was, that she never dared to dwell much to Gwendolen on the
desirableness of marriage, dreading an answer something like that of
the future Madame Roland, when her gentle mother urging the acceptance
of a suitor, said, "Tu seras heureuse, ma chere." "Oui, maman, comme
toi."

In relation to the problematic Mr. Grandcourt least of all would Mrs.
Davilow have willingly let fall a hint of the aerial castle-building
which she had the good taste to be ashamed of; for such a hint was
likely enough to give an adverse poise to Gwendolen's own thought, and
make her detest the desirable husband beforehand. Since that scene
after poor Rex's farewell visit, the mother had felt a new sense of
peril in touching the mystery of her child's feeling, and in rashly
determining what was her welfare: