If she
would be worthy, she must be straightforward!
Donal and she had never had any further talk, much as she would have
liked it, upon things poetic. As a matter of supposed duty--where
she had got the idea I do not know--certainly not from Miss
Carmichael, seeing she approved of little poetry but that of Young,
Cowper, Pollok, and James Montgomery--she had been reading the
Paradise Lost, and wished much to speak of it to Donal, but had not
the courage.
When Miss Carmichael came, she at once perceived a difference in
her, and it set her thinking. She was not one to do or say anything
without thinking over it first. She had such a thorough confidence
in her judgment, and such a pleasure in exercising it, that she
almost always rejected an impulse. Judgment was on the throne;
feeling under the footstool. There was something in Arctura's
carriage which reminded her of the only time when she had stood upon
her rank with her. This was once she made a remark disparaging a
favourite dog: for the animals Arctura could brave even her
spiritual nightmare: they were not under the wrath and curse like
men and women, therefore might be defended! She had on that occasion
shown so much offence that Miss Carmichael saw, if she was to keep
her influence over her, she must avoid rousing the phantom of rank
in defence of prejudice. She was now therefore careful--said next to
nothing, but watched her keenly, and not the less slyly that she
looked her straight in the face.
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