corresponding restlessness to clash with his: notwithstanding her
native kindliness she was perhaps too coolly firm and self-sustained.
But she was one of those satisfactory creatures whose intercourse has
the charm of discovery; whose integrity of faculty and expression
begets a wish to know what they will say on all subjects or how they
will perform whatever they undertake; so that they end by raising not
only a continual expectation but a continual sense of fulfillment--the
systole and diastole of blissful companionship. In such cases the
outward presentment easily becomes what the image is to the worshipper.
It was not long before the two became aware that each was interesting
to the other; but the "how far" remained a matter of doubt. Klesmer did
not conceive that Miss Arrowpoint was likely to think of him as a
possible lover, and she was not accustomed to think of herself as
likely to stir more than a friendly regard, or to fear the expression
of more from any man who was not enamored of her fortune. Each was
content to suffer some unshared sense of denial for the sake of loving
the other's society a little too well; and under these conditions no
need had been felt to restrict Klesmer's visits for the last year
either in country or in town. He knew very well that if Miss Arrowpoint
had been poor he would have made ardent love to her instead of sending
a storm through the piano, or folding his arms and pouring out a
hyperbolical tirade about something as impersonal as the north pole;
and she was not less aware that if it had been possible for Klesmer to
wish for her hand she would have found overmastering reasons for giving
it to him. Here was the safety of full cups, which are as secure from
overflow as the half-empty, always supposing no disturbance. Naturally,
silent feeling had not remained at the same point any more than the
stealthly dial-hand, and in the present visit to Quetcham, Klesmer had
begun to think that he would not come again; while Catherine was more
sensitive to his frequent _brusquerie_, which she rather resented as a
needless effort to assert his footing of superior in every sense except
the conventional.

Meanwhile enters the expectant peer, Mr. Bult, an esteemed party man
who, rather neutral in private life, had strong opinions concerning the
districts of the Niger, was much at home also in Brazils, spoke with
decision of affairs in the South Seas, was studious of his
Parliamentary and itiner