ard way of putting
thoughts that were worth listening to into terse, strong language, aided
the first favorable impression. She determined to make Mark like her;
and when she had a fancy of this kind, she was apt to carry it out
without much consideration for the comfort or convenience of the person
destined to the experiment. She had no deliberate intention of doing any
body any harm; but those innocent little whims and projects of
amusement do more mischief sometimes than the most systematic
machinations of devil-craft. Why, when you begin even to _write_ a
chapter, it is very difficult to say where it will end; when you begin
to talk it or act it, it is harder still to prophesy aright. A
character, or a sentence, or an idea, which looked quite insignificant
at first, assumes perfectly portentous dimensions and importance before
we have done with it; so that the alternate effect is nearly as
startling when realized as that produced by Alice's conjuration:

She crossed him thrice, that lady bold;
He rose beneath her hand,
The fairest knight on Scottish mould,
Her brother, Ethert Brand.

So while Cecil was drawing on Mark Waring to talk about his daily
life--sympathizing with him about his hard, distasteful work, and
pitying his loneliness, she never guessed how her words were being
branded, one by one, on the earnest, steadfast heart, that her own lofty
nature was not worthy to understand. In a week after their first meeting
she had drawn from him all the love he had to give; and men of Mark
Waring's mould can only find room for one love in a lifetime. Such
characters are exceptional, fortunately; for they are very impracticable
and difficult to get on with, and their antiquated notions are
perpetually contrasting and conflicting with the established prejudices
of polite and well-organized society--sometimes even checking the same
for an instant in its easy, conventional flow. They _won't_ see that of
all ways of spending time and thought, the most absurdly unprofitable is
to waste them on a memory. Yet--O mine excellent friend and cynical
preceptor! to whom, for sage instruction, I owe a debt of gratitude that
I never mean to repay--I beseech you, consort not too much with these
misguided men. They are not likely to infect you with their pestilent
doctrines and principles; but they may, in an unguarded moment, make you
do violence to your favorite maxim--_Nil admirari_.

With all his strong common sens