hinking,
Sophie, perhaps if they are not very deaf indeed, you know they might
get so used to the sound of one's voice as to hear it even when it
wasn't so much raised."

"Why, certainly!" assented Sophie; "to some kinds of voices, at any
rate; probably to a woman's more easily than to a man's. Is Mr. Bressant
very deaf, Neelie?"

Cornelia glanced quickly at her sister, but was reassured by the grave
composure of her aspect. Nevertheless, she was deeply engrossed in her
new dress as she made reply.

"Oh! no. Well, not so very; I can hardly tell, though, I've spoken to
him so little. He's rather quick at catching your meaning, sometimes, I
think."

"Do you think he's a man who would get married?"

"Oh! I don't believe he'll ever be married," said Cornelia, and blushed,
she scarce knew why. "No woman would marry him."

"Is he so disagreeable?"

Cornelia moved her shoulders in a little shudder. "Oh, not that exactly;
but he's so cold and bright and hard. And he isn't always that way,
either. There are times when he's so strange--so different! I don't
believe he understands himself then. There seems to be a wild fire in
him, that once in a while blazes up, and scorches and frightens him as
well as other people."

Sophie was perhaps more interested in this extravaganza of Cornelia's
than if she had known the incident upon which it was mainly founded;
but, on the other hand, it is possible that less exaggerated language
would not have given her so correct an idea of Bressant's character.
Cornelia--there being nothing else to especially occupy her
thoughts--had allowed them to run a good deal upon Bressant, and upon
what happened by the fountain in the garden: perhaps she had mingled the
real things and events with the fantasies of her dreams, and thus built
up an impression and theory in regard to the young man considerably more
picturesque than was warranted by the premises at her command. All this
would have been done involuntarily; and possibly Sophie's question
elicited the first conscious perception and statement of what Cornelia's
opinion had grown to be. But unconscious judgments are often more
accurate than deliberate ones because there is more of intuition about
them.

Be that as it may, from the moment Sophie imbibed the idea that there
was something strange, fierce, and ungovernable in Bressant's nature,
she felt her sympathy and interest moved and aroused. It was the
instinctive attraction of one stro