But like all youthful impressions it is very sincere and
true while it lasts. I don't know whether one gets anything more real
when one gets older."
With an insincerity he could not account for, he now felt inclined to
defend his previous sentiment, although all the while conscious of a
certain charm in his companion's graceful skepticism. He had in his
truthfulness and independence hitherto always been quite free from that
feeble admiration of cynicism which attacks the intellectually weak and
immature, and his present predilection may have been due more to her
charming personality. She was not at all like his sisters; she had
none of Clementina's cold abstraction, and none of Euphemia's sharp
and demonstrative effusiveness. And in his secret consciousness of her
flattering foreknowledge of him, with her assurance that before they had
ever met he had unwittingly influenced her, he began to feel more at his
ease. His fair companion also, in the equally secret knowledge she had
acquired of his history, felt as secure as if she had been formally
introduced. Nobody could find fault with her for showing civility to
the ostensible son of her host; it was not necessary that she should
be aware of their family differences. There was a charm too in their
enforced isolation, in what was the exceptional solitude of the little
hotel that day, and the seclusion of their table by the window of the
dining-room, which gave a charming domesticity to their repast.
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