devoted to George. He is in love with her, but she really loves him."
"So she ought. He is making a great sacrifice for her, and, as I constantly tell him, one he will regret to his dying day."
"On the contrary, he is only sacrificing his own pride and yours to--himself. He is considering only himself. He is marrying only to please himself, not--" Anne hesitated--"not to please Janet."
"Now you are talking nonsense."
"Yes, I think I am. It felt like sense, but by the time I had put it into words, it turned into nonsense. The little things you notice in Janet's dress and manner can be mitigated, if she is willing to learn."
"She won't be," said Mrs. Trefusis, with decision. "Because she is stupid. She will be offended directly she is spoken to. All stupid people are. Now come, Anne! Don't try and make black white. It doesn't help matters. You must admit the girl is stupid."
Anne's gentle, limpid eyes looked deprecatingly into the elder woman's hard, miserable ones.
"I am afraid she is," she said at last, and she coloured painfully.
"And obstinate."
"Are not stupid people always obstinate?"
"No," said Mrs. Trefusis. "I am obstinate, but no one could call me stupid."
"It does not prevent stupid people being always obstinate, because obstinate people are not always stupid."
"You think me very obstinate, Anne?" There were tears in the stern old eyes.
"I think, dear, you have got to give way, and as you must, I want you to do it with a good grace, before you estrange George from you, and before that un-suspecting girl has found out that you loathe the marriage."
"If she were not as dense as a rhinoceros she would see that now."
"How fortunate, in that case, that she is dense. It gives you a better chance with her. Make her like you. You can, you know. She is worth liking."
"All my life," said Mrs. Trefusis, "be they who they may, I have hated stupid people."
"Oh! no. That is an hallucination. You don't hate George."
Mrs. Trefusis shot a lightning glance at her companion, and then smiled grimly. "You are the only person who would dare to say such a thing to me."
"Besides," continued Anne meditatively, "is it so certain that Janet is stupid? She appears so because she is unformed, ignorant, and because she has never reflected, or been thrown with educated people. She has not come to herself. She will never learn anything by imagination or perception, for she seems quite devoid of them. But I think she might learn by trouble or happiness, or both. She can feel. Strong feeling would be the turning-point with her, if she has sufficient ability to take advantage of it. Perhaps she has not, and happiness or trouble may leave her as they found her. But she gives me the impression that she might alter considerably if she were once thoroughly aroused."
"I can't rouse her. I was not sent into the world to rouse pretty horse breakers."
If Anne was doubtful as to what Mrs. Trefusis had been sent into this imperfect world for, she did not show it.
"I don't want you to rouse her. All I want is that you should be kind to her." Anne took Mrs. Trefusis's ringed, claw-like hand between both hers. "I do want that very much."
"Well," said Mrs. Trefusis, blinking her eyes, "I won't say I won't try. You can always get round me, Anne. Oh! my dear, dear child, if it might only have been you. But of course, just because I had set my heart upon it, I was not to have it. That has been my life from first to last. If I might only have had you. You think me a cross, bitter old woman, and so I am: God knows I have had enough to make me so. But I should not have been so to you."
"You never are so to me. But you see my affections are--is not that the correct expression?--engaged."
"But you are not."
"No. I am as free as air. That is where the difficulty comes in."
"Where is the creature now?'
"In Paris. The World chronicles his movements. That is why I take in the World. If he had been in London this week, I should not--be here at this moment."
"I suppose he is enormously run after?"
"Oh yes! By others as well as by me; by tons of others younger and better looking than I am."
"Now, Anne, I am absolutely certain that you have never run a yard after him."
"I have never appeared to do so," said Anne, with her faint, enigmatical smile. "The proprieties have been observed. At least by me they have. But I have covered a good deal of ground, nevertheless."
"I don't know what he is made of."
"Well, he is made of money for one thing, and I have
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