George Meredith - Celt and Saxon. Complete

‘Oh, but I do. That’s how she looked when she was drawing on her gloves with good will to go out to meet him. You can’t see her there and not be sure she had a heart. She part smiles; she keeps her mouth shut, but there’s the dimple, and it means a thought, like a bubble bursting up from the heart in her breast. She’s tall. She carries herself like a great French lady, and nothing beats that. It’s the same colour, dark eyebrows and fair hair. And not thinking of her pride. She thinks of her walk, and the end of it, where he’s waiting. The eyes are not the same.’

‘The same?’ said Caroline.

‘As this.’ He tapped on the left side. She did not understand it at all.

‘The bit of work done in Vienna,’ said he.

She blushed. ‘Do you admire that so much?’

‘I do.’

‘We consider it not to be compared to this.’

‘Perhaps not. I like it better.’

‘But why do you like that better?’ said Caroline, deeming it his wilfulness.

Patrick put out a finger. ‘The eyes there don’t seem to say, “I’m yours to make a hero of you.” But look,’ he drew forth from under his waistcoat the miniature, ‘what don’t they say here! It’s a bright day for the Austrian capital that has her by the river Danube. Yours has a landscape; I’ve made acquaintance with the country, I caught the print of it on my ride yesterday; and those are your mountains. But mine has her all to herself while she’s thinking undisturbed in her boudoir. I have her and her thoughts; that’s next to her soul. I’ve an idea it ought to be given to Philip.’ He craned his head round to woo some shadow of assent to the daring suggestion. ‘Just to break the shock ‘twill be to my brother, Miss Adister. If I could hand him this, and say, “Keep it, for you’ll get nothing more of her; and that’s worth a kingdom.”’

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