, and be married and out of the way, for one thing
because she knew that Maxwell could never be assimilated to her
circumstance, and she should have no rest till she was assimilated to
his. When it came to the dinners and lunches, which the Hilary kinship
and friendship made in honor of her engagement, she found that Maxwell
actually thought she could make excuse of his work to go without him,
and she had to be painfully explicit before she could persuade him that
this would not do at all. He was not timid about meeting her friends, as
he might very well have been; but, in comparison with his work, he
apparently held them of little moment, and at last he yielded to her
wishes rather than her reasons. He made no pretence of liking those
people, but he gave them no more offence than might have been expected.
Among the Hilary cousins there were several clever women, who enjoyed
the quality of Maxwell's somewhat cold, sarcastic humor, and there were
several men who recognized his ability, though none of them liked him
any better than he liked them. He had a way of regarding them all at
first as of no interest, and then, if something kindled his imagination
from them, of showing a sudden technical curiosity, which made the
ladies, at least, feel as if he were dealing with them as so much
material. They professed to think that it was only a question of time
when they should all reappear in dramatic form, unless Louise should
detect them in the manuscript before they were put upon the stage and
forbid his using them. If it were to be done before marriage they were
not sure that she would do it, or could do it, for it was plain to be
seen that she was perfectly infatuated with him. The faults they found
in him were those of manner mostly, and they perceived that these were
such as passion might forgive to his other qualities. There were some
who said that they envied her for being so much in love with him, but
these were not many; and some did not find him good-looking, or see what
could have taken her with him.

Maxwell showed himself ignorant of the observances in every way, and if
Louise had not rather loved him the more for what he made her suffer
because of them, she must certainly have given him up at times. He had
never, to her thinking, known how to put a note properly on paper; his
letters were perfectly fascinating, but they lacked a final charm in
being often written on one side of half-sheets, and numbered in the
up