character and habits
entering into such a violent altercation with a person of Mrs.
Tracy's age and inferior rank in life. His temper was generally
good, and his manners peculiarly gentlemanlike; his conduct,
therefore, (however provoking she might have been,) appeared
to me unaccountable. I could not help wondering also, that he
should have associated on evidently intimate terms with that
lovely Alice, and yet had never mentioned her to any of us,
even in casual conversation. There had not been a word,
however, or a look, of his or of hers, that could, for an
instant, have allowed one to suppose that there had been
anything in their intercourse which either could have wished
to hide. As to her, I could as soon have suspected of impurity
the pearly drops that hung lightly on each twig of the
hawthorn bushes that we passed, as her young life of one evil
action, or her young mind of one evil thought. The deep blue
waters of the little lake that lay stretched at our feet, were
not more calm and more pure than her eyes; and in the marble
paleness of her fair brow--in the divine purity of her
child-like mouth--in the quiet innocence of her whole
demeanour, there was that which seemed to speak of

"Maiden meditation, fancy free."

We were going at a brisk pace alongside the water, and the
rapidity of our motion was an excuse for silence; but as we
turned away from the lake, and began ascending a steep
acclivity, which led to the moors we had yet to cross on our
way home, we were forced to slacken our pace; and as we did
so, I asked Henry in a half-joking manner, "Have you recovered
the passion you were in just now? Your forebodings seem to
have been fully realised."

"Thanks to you," he answered in a short dry manner.

"Come, come," I said, "do not visit upon me Mrs. Tracy's
disagreeableness. Indeed I think you are not as patient with
her as you ought to be, considering she is an old woman, and
was your nurse. You were speaking to her with inconceivable
violence."

"You overheard what I said to her?"

"Only a few words, and a dreadful oath."

"I was not aware that you were listening at the door. Had I
imagined that you had stationed yourself there, I should
certainly have been more guarded in my expressions."

I felt the colour rising into my cheeks, for the tone of his
voice had something in it still more insulting than his words;
but I answered carelessly, "It is a pity you did not think it
worth while