When they reached home again, they found uncle and aunt Pullet seated with Mrs Tulliver in the drawing-room and Stephen hurried away, asking leave to come again in the evening.

`Does it hurt you to hear the name mentioned, Maggie? If it does, I will not speak of him again. I know Tom will not see him if he can avoid it.

`Well, those are the right views, I think, said Lucy, gravely.

Poor Maggie! She was so unused to society that she could take nothing as a matter of course, and had never in her life spoken from the lips merely, so that she must necessarily appear absurd to more experienced ladies, from the excessive feeling she was apt to throw into very trivial incidents. But she was even conscious herself of a little absurdity in this instance. It was true, she had a theoretic objection to compliments and had once said impatiently to Philip that she didnt see why women were to be told with a simper that they were beautiful any more than old men were to be told that they were venerable: still, to be so irritated by a common practice in the case of a stranger like Mr Stephen Guest, and to care about his having spoken slightingly of her before he had seen her, was certainly unreasonable, and as soon as she was silent she began to be ashamed of herself. It did not occur to her that her irritation was due to the pleasanter emotion which had preceded it, just as when we are satisfied with a sense of glowing warmth an innocent drop of cold water may fall upon us as a sudden smart.

`Why, if she can remember to put the eyes very near together, and the corners of the mouth very far apart, the likeness can hardly fail to be striking in St Oggs.

`Ah, yes: but they carry on their manufactures in their own sitting-room where I dont intrude on them. I see you are not addicted to the fashionable vice of fancy-work, Miss Tulliver, said Stephen looking at Maggies plain hemming.

`O, Im so glad! said Lucy. `Then you wont mind his coming sometimes, and we can have much more music than we could without him. Im very fond of poor Philip, only I wish he were not so morbid about his deformity. I suppose it is his deformity that makes him so sad - and sometimes bitter. It is certainly very piteous to see his poor little crooked body and pale face among great strong people.

`But wont that mar the charming effect of my consistent shabbiness? said Maggie, seating herself submissively, while Lucy knelt again and unfastened the contemptible butterfly. `I wish my mother were of your opinion, for she was fretting last night because this is my best frock. Ive been saving my money to pay for some lessons: I shall never get a better situation without more accomplishments.

`Thank you; that will be a proof of respect.

`That is beautiful, said Maggie, who had let her work fall, and was listening with keen interest, `I never knew any one who did such things.

`No, there I cant agree with you, said Stephen shaking his head with sarcastic gravity.

First Impressions

`HE is very clever, Maggie, said Lucy. She was kneeling on a footstool at Maggies feet, after placing that dark lady in the large crimson velvet chair. `I feel sure you will like him. I hope you will. `I shall be very difficult to please, said Maggie, smiling, and holding up one of Lucys long curls, that the sunlight might shine through it. `A gentleman who thinks he is good enough for Lucy, must expect to be sharply criticised.

`But I shall put you under a discipline of pleasure that will make you lose that bad habit, said Lucy, sticking the black butterfly absently in her own collar, while her eyes met Maggies affectionately.

`I hope you perceive what a striking likeness you drew the day before yesterday, said Lucy, with a pretty laugh of triumph. She enjoyed her lovers confusion - the advantage was usually on his side.

Lucy, good and simple as she was, could not help blushing a little: she did not quite like that Stephen should know that - Maggie need not have mentioned it. Perhaps there was some pride in the confession: the pride of poverty that will not be ashamed of itself. But if Maggie had been the queen of coquettes she could hardly have invented a means of giving greater piquancy to her beauty in Stephens eyes: I am not sure that the quiet admission of plain sewing and poverty would have done alone, but assisted by the beauty, they made Maggie more unlike other women even than she had seemed at first.

`There is one pleasure, I know, Maggie, that your deepest dismalness will never resist, said Lucy, beginning to speak as soon as she entered the room. `That is music. And I mean you to have quite a riotous feast of it. I mean you to get up your playing again, which used to be so much better than mine when we were at Laceham.

`Do you reall九九藏书y think of that? said Lucy, her eyes brightening with a proud pleasure that made her neglect the argumentative interests of Anglicanism.

`But, Lucy, said Maggie, trying to arrest the prattling stream,...

`I shall not be satisfied until I can manage both oars, and row you and Lucy, she said, looking very bright as she stepped out of the boat. Maggie, we know, was apt to forget the thing she was doing, and she had chosen an inopportune moment for her remark: her foot slipped, but happily Mr Stephen Guest held her hand and kept her up with a firm grasp.

`Ah, I see how much penetration you have, said Stephen. `You have discovered already that I am talkative and impudent. Now superficial people never discern that - owing to my manner, I suppose.

`An alarming amount of devil there, was Stephens first thought. The second, when she had bent over her work was, `I wish she would look at me again. The next was, to answer:

`Stand up a moment, Maggie.

`O yes, of infinite use. I shall set you to work with scarlet wool tomorrow. But your sister is the most enviable person, continued Lucy, turning to Stephen, `to have the talent of modelling. She is doing a wondering bust of Dr Kenn entirely from memory.

`Yes, said Maggie, smiling, but not looking up; `so much fluency and self possession should not be wasted entirely on private occasions.

She flashed a slightly defiant look at him: it was clear to her that he had been drawing a satirical portrait of her beforehand. Lucy had said he was inclined to be satirical, and Maggie had mentally supplied the addition - `and rather conceited.

`O, I dont know, said Lucy, blushing pink over brow and neck. `It is a bad plan to raise expectation; you will perhaps be disappointed. But I have prepared a charming surprise for him; I shall have a glorious laugh against him. I shall not tell you what it is, though.

`O no - and not handsome - that is, not very, said Lucy, half-penitent at this uncharitable remark. `But he is - at least he is generally considered very handsome.

`This designing cousin of yours quite deceived me, Miss Tulliver, said Stephen, seating himself by Lucy and stooping to play with Minny - only looking at Maggie furtively. `She said you had light hair and blue eyes.

`Nonsense, aunty! said Lucy, patting her aunt Tullivers shoulder, `you dont understand those things. A painter would think Maggies complexion beautiful.

`Now, dont put on that sad look again, said Lucy, pinning the large brooch below Maggies fine throat. `Youre forgetting that youve left that dreary schoolroom behind you, and have no little girls clothes to mend.

`Ill call and beat him up tomorrow, said Stephen, `and bring him with me in the evening, shall I? My sisters will want to call on you, when I tell them your cousin is with you. I must have the field clear for them in the morning.

`That settles the question in the abstract, said Stephen, `but not from a parliamentary point of view. He has set the dissenters and the church people by the ears, and a rising senator like myself, of whose services the country is very much in need, will find it inconvenient when he puts up for the honour of representing St Oggs in parliament.

Lucy rose from her knees and went to a little distance, holding her pretty head on one side, as if she had been arranging Maggie for a portrait and wished to judge of the general effect.

`I know what a wild state of joy you used to be in when the glee-men came round, said Lucy, taking up her embroidery, `and we might have all those old glees that you used to love so, if I were certain that you dont feel exactly as Tom does about some things.

`O, never mind that, aunt, pray send us the dress, said Lucy. `I dont mean Maggie to have long sleeves, and I have abundance of black lace for trimming. Her arms will look beautiful.

`And pray bring with you the volume of Purcell that you took away, said Lucy. `I want Maggie to hear your best songs.

`Well, perhaps it is, said Maggie, resolutely clearing away the clouds from her face with a bright smile, and throwing herself backward in her chair. `Perhaps it comes from the school diet - watery rice-pudding spiced with Pinnock. Let us hope it will give way before my mothers custards and this charming Geoffrey Crayon.

`It is a mystery explained, dear, said Maggie, looking up quietly. `Plain sewing was the only thing I could get money by; so I was obliged to try and do it well.

`O quite, said Maggie, with mock gravity. `You would be liable to be swept out of the room with the cobwebs and carpet dust, and to find yourself under the grate, like Cinderella. Maynt I sit down now?

`Though you are unable to share that opinion?

`Then my compliment ought to be eloquent, said Stephen, really not quite knowing

九-九-藏-书-网

what he said while Maggie looked at him, `seeing that the words were so far beneath the occasion.

`I will never pay you a compliment again, Miss Tulliver, said Stephen.

Lucy looked up from her work as she uttered the last sentence, and saw that there was a change in Maggies face.

Gentlemen, you are aware, are apt to impart these imprudent confidences to ladies concerning their unfavourable opinion of sister fair ones. That is why so many women have the advantage of knowing that they are secretly repulsive to men who have self-denyingly made ardent love to them. And hardly anything could be more distinctively characteristic of Lucy, than that she both implicitly believed what Stephen said and was determined that Maggie should not know it. But you, who have a higher logic than the verbal to guide you, have already foreseen, as the direct sequence to that unfavourable opinion of Stephens, that he walked down to the boathouse calculating, by the aid of a vivid imagination, that Maggie must give him her hand at least twice in consequence of this pleasant boating plan, and that a gentleman who wishes ladies to look at him is advantageously situated when he is rowing them in a boat. What then? Had he fallen in love with this surprising daughter of Mrs Tulliver at first sight? Certainly not - such passions are never heard of in real life. Besides, he was in love already, and half engaged to the dearest little creature in the world, and he was not a man to make a fool of himself in any way. But when one is five and twenty, one has not chalk-stones at ones finger ends that the touch of a handsome girl should be entirely indifferent. It was perfectly natural and safe to admire beauty and enjoy looking at it - at least under such circumstances as the present. And there was really something very interesting about this girl, with her poverty and troubles: it was gratifying to see the friendship between the two cousins. Generally, Stephen admitted, he was not found of women who had any peculiarity of character - but here the peculiarity seemed really of a superior kind: and provided one is not obliged to marry such women - why, they certainly make a variety in social intercourse.

`I would rather not be engaged: - When people are engaged, they begin to think of being married soon, said Lucy, too thoroughly preoccupied to notice Maggies joke, `and I should like everything to go on for a long while just as it is. Sometimes I am quite frightened lest Stephen should say that he has spoken to papa, and from something that fell from papa the other day, I feel sure he and Mr Guest are expecting that. And Stephens sisters are very civil to me now: at first, I think they didnt like his paying me attention; and that was natural. It does seem out of keeping that I should ever live in a great place like the Park House - such a little, insignificant thing as I am.

`O thank you, said Maggie, blushing with returning self-consciousness at this direct address, and taking up her work again.

`You have not hurt yourself at all, I hope? he said, bending to look in her face with anxiety. It was very charming to be taken care of in that kind graceful manner by some one taller and stronger than oneself. Maggie had never felt just in the same way before.

`Ive never been tried in that way, said Lucy. `Ive always been so happy. I dont know whether I could bear much trouble - I never had any but poor mammas death. You have been tried, Maggie; and Im sure you feel for other people quite as much as I do.

`O yes, pray bring him, said Lucy. `And you will like Maggie, shant you? she added, in a beseeching tone. `Isnt she a dear, noble-looking creature?

`Indeed, hes a great deal too good for me. And sometimes, when he is away, I almost think it cant really be, that he loves me. But I can never doubt it when he is with me - though I couldnt bear any one but you to know that I feel in that way, Maggie.

`O no, Mr Guest will be obliged to go out of the room again if he sees you in it. Pray make haste and put another on.

For one instant Stephen could not conceal his astonishment at the sight of this tall dark-eyed nymph with her jet- black coronet of hair, the next, Maggie felt herself, for the first time in her life, receiving the tribute of a very deep blush and a very deep bow from a person towards whom she herself was conscious of timidity. This new experience was very agreeable to her - so agreeable that it almost effaced her previous emotion about Philip. There was a new brightness in her eyes, and a very becoming flush on her cheek as she seated herself.

`Apropos! said Stephen, looking at his watch, `shall we go out for a row on the river now? The tide will suit for us to go the Tofton way, and we cwwｗ•９9ｌiｂ.nｅｔan walk back.

Maggie did not fulfil Stephens hope by looking at him during the first quarter of an hour: her eyes were too full of the old banks that she knew so well. She felt lonely, cut off from Philip - the only person who had ever seemed to love her devotedly, as she had always longed to be loved. But presently the rhythmic movement of the oars attracted her, and she thought she should like to learn how to row. This roused her from her reverie, and she asked if she might take an oar. It appeared that she required much teaching, and she became ambitious; the exercise brought the warm blood into her cheeks, and made her inclined to take her lesson merrily.

`But people are not expected to be large in proportion to the houses they live in, like snails, said Maggie, laughingly. `Pray, are Mr Guests sisters giantesses?

`Let me introduce you to my cousin, Miss Tulliver, said Lucy, turning with wicked enjoyment towards Maggie, who now approached from the farther window. `This is Mr Stephen Guest.

`Now, Maggie! said Lucy, in a tone of remonstrance, `I dont believe a word of that. It is all a gloomy fancy - just because you are depressed by a dull, wearisome life.

`No, said uncle Pullet, who took intense interest in the ladies conversation, as he sucked his lozenges. `Though there was a song about the "Nutbrown Maid" too - I think she was crazy like - crazy Kate - but I cant justly remember.

`I say anything disrespectful of Dr Kenn? Heaven forbid!But I am not bound to respect a libellous bust of him. I think Kenn one of the finest fellows in the world. I dont care much about the tall candle-sticks he has put on the communion table, and I shouldnt like to spoil my temper by getting up to early prayers every morning. But hes the only man I ever knew personally who seems to me to have anything of the real apostle in him - a man who has eight hundred a year and is contented with deal furniture and boiled beef because he gives away two thirds of his income. That was a very fine thing of him - taking into his house that poor lad Grattan, who shot his mother by accident. He sacrifices more time than a less busy man could spare, to save the poor fellow from getting into a morbid state of mind about it. He takes the lad out with him constantly, I see.

Lucy was rather alarmed - she thought Stephen and Maggie were not going to like each other. She had always feared lest Maggie should appear too odd and clever to please that critical gentleman. `Why, dear Maggie, she interposed, `you have always pretended that you are too fond of being admired, and now, I think, you are angry because some one ventures to admire you.

`Yes, said Maggie. `It is with me as I used to think it would be with the poor uneasy white bear I saw at the show. I thought he must have got so stupid with the habit of turning backwards and forwards in that narrow space that he would keep doing it if they set him free. One gets a bad habit of being unhappy.

`Too tall, said Stephen, smiling down upon her, `and a little too fiery. She is not my type of woman, you know.

`Decidedly - whenever old Mr Leyburns public spirit and gout induce him to give way. My fathers heart is set on it; and gifts like mine, you know, - here Stephen drew himself up and rubbed his large white hands over his hair with playful self-admiration - `gifts like mine involve great responsibilities. Dont you think so, Miss Tulliver?

`She doesnt look at me when I talk of myself, he thought while his listeners were laughing. `I must try other subjects.

`O dear, dear! said Maggie, laughing but impatient, `I think that will be the end of my brown skin if it is always to be talked about so much.

Stephen was too well-bred not to seem unaware that the previous conversation could have been felt embarrassing, and at once began to talk of impersonal matters, asking Lucy if she knew when the bazaar was at length to take place, so that there might be some hope of seeing her rain the influence of her eyes on objects more grateful than those worsted flowers that were growing under her fingers.

`No, said Maggie, `I can do nothing more difficult or more elegant than shirt-making.

`But shes so much broader across the shoulders than I am - its very ill-convenient, said Mrs Pullet, `else she might wear that beautiful black brocade o mine without any alteration. And her arms are beyond everything, added Mrs Pullet, sorrowfully, as she lifted Maggies large round arm. `Shed never get my sleeves on.

`No, said Maggie, looking at him with her direct glance; `if we use common words on a great occasion, they are the more striking, because they are felt at once to have a particular meaning, like old banners or everyday clothes hung up in a sacred place.

That was a d９９lｉｂ.netelightful proposition to Maggie, for it was years since she had been on the river. When she was gone to put on her bonnet, Lucy lingered to give an order to the servant and took the opportunity of telling Stephen that Maggie had no objection to seeing Philip, so that it was a pity she had sent that note the day before yesterday. But she would write another tomorrow and invite him.

Maggie took up the `Sketch Book, which lay by her on the table.

Did Lucy intend to be present at the meeting of the Book Club next week? was the next question. Then followed the recommendation to choose Southeys Life of Cowper, unless she were inclined to be philosophical and startle the ladies of St Oggs by voting for one of the Bridgewater Treatises. Of course Lucy wished to know what these alarmingly learned books were, and as it is always pleasant to improve the minds of ladies by talking to them at ease on subjects of which they know nothing, Stephen became quite brilliant in an account of Bucklands Treatise, which he had just been reading. He was rewarded by seeing Maggie let her work fall and gradually get so absorbed in his wonderful geological story that she sat looking at him, leaning forward with crossed arms and with an entire absence of self-consciousness, as if he had been the snuffiest of old professors and she a downy-lipped alumnus. He was so fascinated by this clear, large gaze that at last he forgot to look away from it occasionally towards Lucy: but she, sweet child, was only rejoicing that Stephen was proving to Maggie how clever he was, and that they would certainly be good friends after all.

`I ought rather to have said, one particular thing. Because if you feel just as he does about that, we shall want our third voice. St Oggs is so miserably provided with musical gentlemen. There are really only Stephen and Philip Wakem who have any knowledge of music, so as to be able to sing a part.

Maggie gave a little sigh.

`I wish I could always err in the same way, said Stephen, `and find reality so much more beautiful than my preconceptions.

`Now you have proved yourself equal to the occasion, said Maggie, `and said what it was incumbent on you to say under the circumstances.

`O I think hes a perfect character! said Lucy, with pretty enthusiasm.

`You dear tiny thing, said Maggie, in one of her bursts of loving admiration, `you enjoy other peoples happiness so much, I believe you would do without any of your own. I wish I were like you.

`And one admires that sort of action in Kenn all the more, said Stephen, `because his manners in general are rather cold and severe. Theres nothing sugary and maudlin about him.

`And your plain sewing is so beautiful, Maggie, said Lucy, `that I think I shall beg a few specimens of you to show as fancy-work. Your exquisite sewing is quite a mystery to me - you used to dislike that sort of work so much in old days.

It was too late for Maggie to speak now: the drawing-room door was opening, and Minny was already growling in a small way, at the entrance of a tall gentleman, who went up to Lucy and took her hand with a half polite, half tender glance and tone of inquiry, which seemed to indicate that he was unconscious of any other presence.

`I will bring you the book, shall I, Miss Tulliver? said Stephen, when he found the stream of his recollections running rather shallow. `There are many illustrations in it that you will like to see.

`Some day next month, I believe, said Lucy. `But your sisters are doing more for it than I am: they are to have the largest stall.

`But I can knit, Lucy, Maggie went on, `if that will be of any use for your bazaar.

`No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference, said Maggie, flushing a little.

`Ah, there is the door-bell. That must be Stephen, Lucy went on, not noticing Maggies faint effort to speak. `One of the things I most admire in Stephen is, that he makes a greater friend of Philip than any one.

`Do I look fit to be seen with this little brooch? said Lucy, going to survey the effect in the chimney glass.

`Nay, it was you who said so, remonstrated Lucy. `I only refrained from destroying your confidence in your own second sight.

`May be, my dear, said Mrs Tulliver, submissively. `You know better than I do. Only when I was young a brown skin wasnt thought well on among respectable folks.

`Not at all, said Maggie, `I like too well to feel that I am admired, but compliments never make me feel that.

`No, Lucy, said Maggie, shaking her head slowly, `I dont enjoy their happiness as you do - else I should be more contented. I do feel for them when they are in trouble - I dont think I could ever bear to make any one unhappy - and yet, I often hate myself, because I get angry sometimes at the sight of ９9ｌib•ｎeｔhappy people. I think I get worse as I get older - more selfish. That seems very dreadful.

`You would have laughed to see me playing the little girls tunes over and over to them, when I took them to practice, said Maggie, `just for the sake of fingering the dear keys again. But I dont know whether I could play anything more difficult now than "Begone, dull care"!

`I suppose all phrases of mere compliment have their turn to be true. A man is occasionally grateful when he says "thank you." Its rather hard upon him that he must use the same words with which all the world declines a disagreeable invitation - dont you think so, Miss Tulliver?

`Now, that is very wicked of you, said Lucy, looking rather hurt. `I didnt think you would speak disrespectfully of Dr Kenn.

`Oh, then, if I disapprove of him, you can give him up, since you are not engaged, said Maggie with playful gravity.

`Now, what fault can you point out in him?

`Yes, now you may, said Lucy, laughing. Then, with an air of serious reflection, unfastening her large jet brooch, `But you must change brooches, Maggie; that little butterfly looks silly on you.

`I cant think what witchery it is in you, Maggie, that makes you look best in shabby clothes; though you really must have a new dress now. But do you know, last night I was trying to fancy you in a handsome fashionable dress, and do what I would, that old limp merino would come back as the only right thing for you. I wonder if Marie Antoinette looked all the grander when her gown was darned at the elbows. Now, if I were to put anything shabby on, I should be quite unnoticeable - I should be a mere rag.

`What is your pleasure now? said Maggie, smiling languidly, as she rose from her chair, and looked down on her slight, a?rial cousin, whose figure was quite subordinate to her faultless drapery of silk and crape.

Aunt Pullet, under the certainty that Maggie would be invited to go out with Lucy, probably to Park House, was much shocked at the shabbiness of her clothes, which, when witnessed by the higher society of St Oggs, would be a discredit to the family that demanded a strong and prompt remedy; and the consultation as to what would be most suitable to this end from among the superfluities of Mrs Pullets wardrobe, was one that Lucy as well as Mrs Tulliver entered into with some zeal. Maggie must really have an evening dress as soon as possible, and she was about the same height as aunt Pullet.

`I should have thought there was nothing you might be more certain of, said Maggie, smiling.

`Maggies arms are a pretty shape, said Mrs Tulliver. `Theyre like mine used to be; only mine was never brown: I wish shed had our family skin.

Lucy kept her contemplative attitude a moment or two in silence, and then said,

`No, no, Lucy interposed. `I must forbid your plunging Maggie in books. I shall never get her away from them. And I want her to have delicious do-nothing days, filled with boating and chatting and riding and driving: that is the holiday she needs.

Lucy hurried out of the room, but Maggie did not take the opportunity of opening her book: she let it fall on her knees, while her eyes wandered to the window where she could see the sunshine falling on the rich clumps of spring flowers and on the long hedge of laurels - and beyond, the silvery breadth of the dear old Floss that at this distance seemed to be sleeping in a morning holiday. The sweet fresh garden scent came through the open window, and the birds were busy flitting and alighting, gurgling and singing. Yet Maggies eyes began to fill with tears. The sight of the old scenes had made the rush of memories so painful that even yesterday she had only been able to rejoice in her mothers restored comfort and Toms brotherly friendliness as we rejoice in good news of friends at a distance rather than in the presence of a happiness which we share. Memory and imagination urged upon her a sense of privation too keen to let her taste what was offered in the transient present: her future, she thought, was likely to be worse than her past, for after her years of contented renunciation, she had slipped back into desire and longing: she found joyless days of distasteful occupation harder and harder - she found the image of the intense and varied life she yearned for and despaired of, becoming more and more importunate. The sound of the opening door roused her, and hastily wiping away her tears, she began to turn over the leaves of her book.

`I dont feel at all as Tom does on that subject, said Maggie, rising and going to the window as if she wanted to see more of the landscape. `Ive always liked Philip Wakem ever since I was a little girl and saw him at Lorton. He was so good when Tom hurt his foot.

`Hes an Anglican.