Nevertheless, the greeting on her looks and lips was of a restrained
type, which perhaps was not unnatural. For true it was that Giles
Winterborne, well-attired and well-mannered as he was for a yeoman,
looked rough beside her. It had sometimes dimly occurred to him, in
his ruminating silence at Little Hintock, that external phenomena--such
as the lowness or height or color of a hat, the fold of a coat, the
make of a boot, or the chance attitude or occupation of a limb at the
instant of view--may have a great influence upon feminine opinion of a
man's worth--so frequently founded on non-essentials; but a certain
causticity of mental tone towards himself and the world in general had
prevented to-day, as always, any enthusiastic action on the strength of
that reflection; and her momentary instinct of reserve at first sight
of him was the penalty he paid for his laxness.
He gave away the tree to a by-stander, as soon as he could find one who
would accept the cumbersome gift, and the twain moved on towards the
inn at which he had put up. Marty made as if to step forward for the
pleasure of being recognized by Miss Melbury; but abruptly checking
herself, she glided behind a carrier's van, saying, dryly, "No; I baint
wanted there," and critically regarded Winterborne's companion.
It would have been very difficult to describe Grace Melbury with
precision, either now or at any time. Nay, from the highest point of
view, to precisely describe a human being, the focus of a universe--how
impossible! But, apart from transcendentalism, there never probably
lived a person who was in herself more completely a reductio ad
absurdum of attempts to appraise a woman, even externally, by items of
face and figure. Speaking generally, it may be said that she was
sometimes beautiful, at other times not beautiful, according to the
state of her health and spirits.
In simple corporeal presentment she was of a fair and clear complexion,
rather pale than pink, slim in build and elastic in movement. Her look
expressed a tendency to wait for others' thoughts before uttering her
own; possibly also to wait for others' deeds before her own doing. In
her small, delicate mouth, which had perhaps hardly settled down to its
matured curves, there was a gentleness that might hinder sufficient
self-assertion for her own good. She had well-formed eyebrows which,
had her portrait been painted, would probably have been done in Prout's
or Vandyke brown.
There was nothing remarkable in her dress just now, beyond a natural
fitness and a style that was recent for the streets of Sherton. But,
indeed, had it been the reverse, and quite striking, it would have
meant just as little. For there can be hardly anything less connected
with a woman's personality than drapery which she has neither designed,
manufactured, cut, sewed, or even seen, except by a glance of approval
when told that such and such a shape and color must be had because it
has been decided by others as imperative at that particular time.