an animal, nor any notion of the
necessity for doing so! He had good reason to laugh when his sisters
talked of her. It was not a pleasant note which came from the gallant
cornet then. But, in the meadows, or kindly conducting Emilia's horse,
he yielded pretty music. Emilia wore Arabella's riding-habit, Adela's
hat, and Cornelia's gloves. Politic as the ladies of Brookfield were,
they were full of natural kindness; and Wilfrid, albeit a diplomatist,
was not yet mature enough to control and guide a very sentimental heart.
There was an element of dim imagination in all the family: and it was
this that consciously elevated them over the world in prospect, and made
them unconsciously subject to what I must call the spell of the poetic
power.

Wilfrid in his soul wished that Emilia should date from the day she had
entered Brookfield. But at times it seemed to him that a knowledge of
her antecedents might relieve him from his ridiculous perplexity of
feeling. Besides though her voice struck emotion, she herself was
unimpressionable. "Cold by nature," he said; looking at the unkindled
fire. She shook hands like a boy. If her fingers were touched and
retained, they continued to be fingers for as long as you pleased.
Murmurs and whispers passed by her like the breeze. She appeared also
to have no enthusiasm for her Art, so that not even there could Wilfrid
find common ground. Italy, however, he discovered to be the subject that
made her light up. Of Italy he would speak frequently, and with much
simulated fervour.

"Mr. Pericles is going to take me there," said Emilia. "He told me to
keep it secret. I have no secrets from my friends. I am to learn in the
academy at Milan."

"Would you not rather let me take you?"

"Not quite." She shook her head. "No; because you do not understand
music as he does. And are you as rich? I cost a great deal of money
even for eating alone. But you will be glad when you hear me when I come
back. Do you hear that nightingale? It must be a nightingale."

She listened. "What things he makes us feel!"

Bending her head, she walked on silently. Wilfrid, he knew not why, had
got a sudden hunger for all the days of her life. He caught her hand
and, drawing her to a garden seat, said: "Come; now tell me all about
yourself before I knew you. Do you mind?"

"I'll tell you anything you want to hear," said Emilia.

He enjoined her to begin from the beginning.

"Everything about myself?" she asked.