He was not the ravening lion of fiction--so rarely, if ever, to
be met with in real life--going about seeking whom he might devour. He
had absolutely no designs on Beatrice's affections, any more than she
had on his, and he had forgotten that first fell prescience of evil to
come. Once or twice, it is true, qualms of doubt did cross his mind in
the earlier days of their intimacy. But he put them by as absurd. He
was no believer in the tender helplessness of full-grown women, his
experience having been that they are amply capable--and, for the most
part, more than capable--of looking after themselves. It seemed to him
a thing ridiculous that such a person as Beatrice, who was competent to
form opinions and a judgment upon all the important questions of life,
should be treated as a child, and that he should remove himself from
Bryngelly lest her young affections should become entangled. He felt
sure that they would never be entrapped in any direction whatsoever
without her full consent.
Then he ceased to think about the matter at all. Indeed, the mere
idea of such a thing involved a supposition that would only have been
acceptable to a conceited man--namely, that there was a possibility of
this young lady's falling in love with him.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222