an by not striving to attenuate the import
of the big and surcharged All: but her silence bore witness to his
penetrative knowledge. Dozens of amorous gentlemen, lovers, of
excellent substance, have before now prepared this peculiar dose for
themselves--the dose of the lady silent under a sort of pardoning grand
accusation; and they have had to drink it, and they have blinked
over the tonic draught with such power of taking a bracing as their
constitutions could summon. At no moment of their quaint mutual history
are the sexes to be seen standing more acutely divided. Well may
the lady be silent; her little sins are magnified to herself to the
proportion of the greatness of heart forgiving her; and that, with
his mysterious penetration and a throb of her conscience, holds her
tongue-tied. She does not imagine the effect of her silence upon the
magnanimous wretch. Some of these lovers, it has to be stated in sadness
for the good name of man, have not preserved an attitude that said so
nobly, 'Child, thou art human--thou art woman!' They have undone it and
gone to pieces with an injured lover's babble of persecuting inquiries
for confessions. Some, on the contrary, retaining the attitude, have
been unable to digest the tonic; they did not prepare their systems as
they did their dose, possibly thinking the latter a supererogatory heavy
thump on a trifle, the which was performed by them artfully for a means
of swallowing and getting that obnoxious trifle well down. These are
ever after love's dyspeptics. Very few indeed continue at heart in
harmony with their opening note to the silent fair, because in truth the
general anticipation is of her proclaiming, if not angelical innocence,
a softly reddened or blush-rose of it, where the little guiltiness lies
pathetic on its bed of white.

Alvan's robustness of temper, as a conqueror pleased with his capture,
could inspirit him to feel as he said it:

'I know all; what matters that to me?' Even her silence, extending the
'all' beyond limits, as it did to the over-knowing man, who could number
these indicative characteristics of the young woman: impulsive, without
will, readily able to lie: her silence worked no discord in him. He
would have remarked, that he was not looking out for a saint, but rather
for a sprightly comrade, perfectly feminine, thoroughly mastered, young,
graceful, comely, and a lady of station. Once in his good keeping, her
lord would answer for her. And this