re spiritual chase so soon,--it made him too happy.
Sometimes, indeed, when he had thus caught his emotion, it caught him
in return, and for a few moments made him almost unhappy. This he liked
best of all; he nursed the delicious pain, knowing that it would die
out soon enough, there was no need of hurrying it to a close. At least,
there had never been need for such solicitude before.

Except for his genius for keeping his own counsel, every acquaintance of
Malbone's would have divined the meaning of these reveries. As it
was, he was called whimsical and sentimental, but he was a man of
sufficiently assured position to have whims of his own, and could even
treat himself to an emotion or so, if he saw fit. Besides, he talked
well to anybody on anything, and was admitted to exhibit, for a man of
literary tastes, a good deal of sense. If he had engaged himself to
a handsome schoolmistress, it was his fancy, and he could afford it.
Moreover she was well connected, and had an air. And what more natural
than that he should stand at the club-window and watch, when his young
half-sister (that was to be) drove by with John Lambert? So every
afternoon he saw them pass in a vehicle of lofty description, with two
wretched appendages in dark blue broadcloth, who sat with their backs
turned to their masters, kept their arms folded, and nearly rolled off
at every corner. Hope would have dreaded the close neighborhood of those
Irish ears; she would rather have ridden even in an omnibus, could she
and Philip have taken all the seats. But then Hope seldom cared to drive
on the Avenue at all, except as a means of reaching the ocean, whereas
with most people it appears the appointed means to escape from that
spectacle. And as for the footmen, there was nothing in the conversation
worth their hearing or repeating; and their presence was a relief
to Emilia, for who knew but Mr. Lambert himself might end in growing
sentimental?

Yet she did not find him always equally tedious. Their drives had some
variety. For instance, he sometimes gave her some lovely present before
they set forth, and she could feel that, if his lips did not yield
diamonds and rubies, his pockets did. Sometimes he conversed about
money and investments, which she rather liked; this was his strong and
commanding point; he explained things quite clearly, and they found,
with mutual surprise, that she also had a shrewd little brain for
those matters, if she would but take t