"And you didn't really know anything of this when you saw her?" said
Sue more gently, as she rose.
"I did not. Considering all things, I don't think you ought to be
angry, darling!"
"I am not. But I shan't go to the Temperance Hotel!"
He laughed. "Never mind!" he said. "So that I am near you, I am
comparatively happy. It is more than this earthly wretch called Me
deserves--you spirit, you disembodied creature, you dear, sweet,
tantalizing phantom--hardly flesh at all; so that when I put my arms
round you I almost expect them to pass through you as through air!
Forgive me for being gross, as you call it! Remember that our
calling cousins when really strangers was a snare. The enmity of our
parents gave a piquancy to you in my eyes that was intenser even than
the novelty of ordinary new acquaintance."
"Say those pretty lines, then, from Shelley's 'Epipsychidion' as if
they meant me!" she solicited, slanting up closer to him as they
stood. "Don't you know them?"
"I know hardly any poetry," he replied mournfully.
"Don't you? These are some of them:
There was a Being whom my spirit oft
Met on its visioned wanderings far aloft.
* * * * * A seraph of Heaven, too gentle to be human,
Veiling beneath that radiant form of woman...
Oh it is too flattering, so I won't go on! But say it's me! Say
it's me!"
"It is you, dear; exactly like you!"
"Now I forgive you! And you shall kiss me just once there--not very
long." She put the tip of her finger gingerly to her cheek; and he
did as commanded. "You do care for me very much, don't you, in spite
of my not--you know?"
"Yes, sweet!" he said with a sigh; and bade her good-night.
VI
In returning to his native town of Shaston as schoolmaster Phillotson
had won the interest and awakened the memories of the inhabitants,
who, though they did not honour him for his miscellaneous aquirements
as he would have been honoured elsewhere, retained for him a sincere
regard. When, shortly after his arrival, he brought home a pretty
wife--awkwardly pretty for him, if he did not take care, they
said--they were glad to have her settle among them.
For some time after her flight from that home Sue's absence did not
excite comment. Her place as monitor in the school was taken by
another young woman within a few days of her vacating it, which
substitution also passed without remark, Sue's services having been
of a provisional nature only. When, however, a month had passed, and
Phillotson casually admitted to an acquaintance that he did not know
where his wife was staying, curiosity began to be aroused; till,
jumping to conclusions, people ventured to affirm that Sue had played
him false and run away from him. The schoolmaster's growing languor
and listlessness over his work gave countenance to the idea.