er seen, that the fascinations of her manner, and her grace of movement
and gesture, exercised a sway that was almost magic; that in quickness
to apprehend and readiness to reply, she scarcely had an equal; and that
whether she smiled, or looked pensive, or listened, or spoke, there was
an absorbing charm about her that made one forget all else around her,
and unable to see any but her; and yet, with all this consciousness, he
recognised no trait about her so thoroughly attractive as that she admired
_him_.

Let me not be misunderstood. This same sentiment can be at times something
very different from a mere egotism--not that I mean to say it was such in
the present case. Cecil Walpole fully represented the order he belonged to,
and was a most well-looking, well-dressed, and well-bred young gentleman,
only suggesting the reflection that, to live amongst such a class pure and
undiluted, would be little better than a life passed in the midst of French
communism.

I have said that, after his fashion, he was 'in love' with her, and so,
after his fashion, he wanted to say that he was going away, and to tell her
not to be utterly disconsolate till he came back again. 'I can imagine,'
thought he, 'how I made her life here, how, in developing the features that
attract _me_, I made her a very different creature to herself.'

It was not at all unpleasant to him to think that the people who should
surround her were so unlike himself. 'The barbarians,' as he courteously
called them to himself, 'will be very hard to endure. Nor am I very sorry
for it, only she must catch nothing of their traits in accommodating
herself to their habits. On that I must strongly insist. Whether it be by
singing their silly ballads--that four-note melody they call "Irish music,"
or through mere imitation, she has already caught a slight accent of the
country. She must get rid of this. She will have to divest herself of all
her "Kilgobbinries" ere I present her to my friends in town.' Apart from
these disparagements, she could, as he expressed it, 'hold her own,' and
people take a very narrow view of the social dealings of the world, who
fail to see how much occasion a woman has for the exercise of tact and
temper and discretion and ready-wittedness and generosity in all the
well-bred intercourse of life. Just as Walpole had arrived at that stage of
reflection to recognise that she was exactly the woman to suit him and push
his fortunes with the world,