he was not
more likely to turn to evil than to good. Clementina with all her
generosity could not help being doubtful of a woman who could make a
companion of such a man as Liftore--a man to whom every individual
particle of Clementina's nature seemed for itself to object. But she was
not yet past befriending.

Then she began to grow more _curious_ about Malcolm. She had already much
real knowledge of him, gathered both from himself and from Mr. Graham. As
to what went to make the man, she knew him, indeed, not thoroughly, but
well; and just therefore, she said to herself, there were some points in
his history and condition concerning which she had _curiosity_. The
principal of these was whether he might not be engaged to some young woman
in his own station of life. It was not merely possible, but was it likely
he could have escaped it? In the lower ranks of society men married
younger--they had no false aims to prevent them: that implied earlier
engagements. On the other hand, was it likely that in a fishing-village
there would be any choice of girls who could understand him when he talked
about Plato and the New Testament? If there were _one_, however, that
might be--_worse?_ Yes, _worse_: she accepted the word. Neither was it
absolutely necessary in a wife that she should understand more of her
husband than his heart. Many learned men had had mere housekeepers for
wives, and been satisfied--at least never complained. And what did she
know about the fishers, men or women? There were none at Wastbeach. For
anything she knew to the contrary, they might all be philosophers
together, and a fitting match for Malcolm might be far more easy to find
amongst them than in the society to which she herself belonged, where in
truth the philosophical element was rare enough. Then arose in her mind,
she could not have told how, the vision, half logical, half pictorial, of
a whole family of brave, believing, daring, saving fisherfolk, father,
mother, boys and girls, each sacrificing to the rest, each sacrificed to
by all, and all devoted to their neighbors. Grand it was and blissful, and
the borders of the great sea alone seemed fit place for such beings
amphibious of time and eternity. Their very toils and dangers were but
additional atmospheres to press their souls together. It was glorious!
Why had she been born an earl's daughter, never to look a danger in the
face, never to have a chance of a true life--that is, a grand, simple,