"Do you think that Alan is in love with Felicia?" the girl asked at last.
"Appearances favour the supposition," replied Christopher.
"You once said he wasn"t capable of loving any woman."
"I know I did; but that didn"t in the least mean that he wasn"t capable of loving Miss Herbert."
"She is very attractive; even you like her better than you like me,"
Elisabeth remarked, looking at him through the very eyelashes about which he was thinking. "I wonder at it, but nevertheless you do."
"One never can explain these things. At least I never can, though you seem to possess strange gifts of divination. I remember that you once expounded to me that either affinity or infinity was at the root of these matters--I forget which."
"She is certainly good-looking," Elisabeth went on.
"She is; her dearest friend couldn"t deny that."
"And she has sweet manners."
"Distinctly sweet. She is the sort of girl that people call restful."
"And a lovely temper."
Christopher still refused to be drawn. "So I conclude. I have never ruffled it--nor tried to ruffle it--nor even desired to ruffle it."
"Do you like ruffling people"s tempers?"
"Some people"s tempers, extremely."
"What sort of people"s?"
"I don"t know. I never schedule people into "sorts," as you do. The people I care about can not be counted by "sorts": there is one made of each, and then the mould is broken."
"You do like Felicia better than me, don"t you?" Elisabeth asked, after a moment"s silence.
"So you say, and as you are a specialist in these matters I think it wise to take your statements on faith without attempting to dispute them."
"Chris, you are a goose!"
"I know that--far better than you do." And Christopher sighed.
"But I like you all the same."
"That is highly satisfactory."
"I believe I always liked you better than Alan," Elisabeth continued, "only his way of talking about things dazzled me somehow. But after a time I found out that he always said more than he meant, while you always mean more than you say."
"Oh! Tremaine isn"t half a bad fellow: his talk is, as you say, a little high-flown; but he takes himself in more than he takes in other people, and he really means well." Christopher could afford to be magnanimous toward Alan, now that Elisabeth was the reverse.
"I remember that day at Pembruge Castle, while he was talking to me about the troubles of the poor you were rowing Johnnie Stubbs about on the mere. That was just the difference between you and him."
"Oh! there wasn"t much in that," replied Christopher; "if you had been kind to me that day, and had let me talk to you, I am afraid that poor Johnnie Stubbs would have had to remain on dry land. I merely took the advice of the great man who said, "If you can not do what you like, do good." But I"d rather have done what I liked, all the same."
"That is just like you, Chris! You never own up to your good points."
"Yes, I do; but I don"t own up to my good points that exist solely in your imagination."
"You reckon up your virtues just as Cousin Maria reckons up her luggage on a journey; she always says she has so many packages, and so many that don"t count. And your virtues seem to be added up in the same style."
Christopher was too shy to enjoy talking about himself; nevertheless, he was immensely pleased when Elisabeth was pleased with him. "Let us wander back to our muttons," he said, "which, being interpreted, means Miss Herbert and Tremaine. What sort of people are the Herberts, by the way? Is Mrs. Herbert a lady?"
Elisabeth thought for a moment. "She is the sort of person who p.r.o.nounces the "t" in often."
"I know exactly; I believe "genteel" is the most correct adjective for that type. Is she good-looking?"
"Very; she was the pencil sketch for Felicia."
"About how old?"
"It is difficult to tell. She is one of the women who are sixty in the sun and thirty in the shade, like the thermometer in spring. I should think she is really an easy five-and-forty, accelerated by limited means and an exacting conscience. She is always bothering about sins and draughts and things of that kind. I believe she thinks that everything you do will either make your soul too hot or your body too cold."
"You are severe on the excellent lady."
"I try not to be, because I think she is really good in her way; but her religion is such a dreadfully fussy kind of religion it makes me angry.
It seems to caricature the whole thing. She appears to think that Christianity is a sort of menu of moral fancy-dishes, which one is bound to swallow in a certain prescribed order."
"Poor dear woman!"
"When people like Mrs. Herbert talk about religion," Elisabeth went on, "it is as bad as reducing the number of the fixed stars to pounds, shillings, and pence; just as it is when people talk about love who know nothing at all about it."
Christopher manfully repressed a smile. "Still, I have known quite intelligent persons do that. They make mistakes, I admit, but they don"t know that they do; and so their ignorance is of the brand which the poet describes as bliss."
"People who have never been in love should never talk about it,"
Elisabeth sagely remarked.
"But, on the other hand, those who have been, as a rule, can"t; so who is to conduct authorized conversations on this most interesting and instructive subject?"
"The people who have been through it, and so know all about it," replied Elisabeth.
"Allow me to point out that your wisdom for once is at fault. In the first place, I doubt if the man who is suffering from a specific disease is the suitable person to read a paper on the same before the College of Surgeons; and, in the second, I should say--for the sake of argument--that the man who has been through eternity and come out whole at the other end, knows as much about what eternity really means as--well, as you do. But tell me more about Mrs. Herbert and her peculiarities."
"She is always bothering about what she calls the "correct thing." She has no peace in her life on account of her anxiety as to the etiquette of this world and the next--first to know it and then to be guided by it. I am sure that she wishes that the Bible had been written on the principle of that dreadful little book called Don"t, which gives you a list of the solecisms you should avoid; she would have understood it so much better than the present system."
"But you would call Miss Herbert a lady, wouldn"t you?" Christopher asked.
"Oh, yes; a perfect lady. She is even well-bred when she talks about her love affairs; and if a woman is a lady when she talks about her love affairs, she will be a lady in any circ.u.mstances. It is the most crucial test out."
"Yes; I should have called Miss Herbert a perfect lady myself.""