s a woman who
could put two and two together, knew or suspected Lush to be the
contriver of her interview with Lydia, and that this was the reason why
her first request was for his banishment. But the bent of a woman's
inferences on mixed subjects which excites mixed passions is not
determined by her capacity for simple addition; and here Grandcourt
lacked the only organ of thinking that could have saved him from
mistake--namely, some experience of the mixed passions concerned. He
had correctly divined one-half of Gwendolen's dread--all that related
to her personal pride, and her perception that his will must conquer
hers; but the remorseful half, even if he had known of her broken
promise, was as much out of his imagination as the other side of the
moon. What he believed her to feel about Lydia was solely a tongue-tied
jealousy, and what he believed Lydia to have written with the jewels
was the fact that she had once been used to wearing them, with other
amenities such as he imputed to the intercourse with jealous women. He
had the triumphant certainty that he could aggravate the jealousy and
yet smite it with a more absolute dumbness. His object was to engage
all his wife's egoism on the same side as his own, and in his
employment of Lush he did not intend an insult to her: she ought to
understand that he was the only possible envoy. Grandcourt's view of
things was considerably fenced in by his general sense, that what
suited him others must put up with. There is no escaping the fact that
want of sympathy condemns us to corresponding stupidity. Mephistopheles
thrown upon real life, and obliged to manage his own plots, would
inevitably make blunders.

One morning he went to Gwendolen in the boudoir beyond the back
drawing-room, hat and gloves in hand, and said with his best-tempered,
most persuasive drawl, standing before her and looking down on her as
she sat with a book on her lap--

"A--Gwendolen, there's some business about property to be explained. I
have told Lush to come and explain it to you. He knows all about these
things. I am going out. He can come up now. He's the only person who
can explain. I suppose you'll not mind."

"You know that I do mind," said Gwendolen, angrily, starting up. "I
shall not see him." She showed the intention to dart away to the door.
Grandcourt was before her, with his back toward it. He was prepared for
her anger, and showed none in return, saying, with the same sort of
remonst