‘I asked:
‘ “Do you mean him to understand how matters are?”
‘ “I do,” said she; “but I leave the development to chance. There will be a scene. I neither invite it nor fear it—only, you must be present, for I am inexpressibly tired of facing him solus. I don’t like to see him in a rage; he then puts off all his fine proprieties and conventional disguises, and the real human being below is what you call ‘commun, plat, bas—vilain et un peu méchant.’ His ideas are not clean, Mr. Moore; they want scouring with soft soap and fuller’s earth. I think, if he could add his imagination to the contents of Mrs. Gill’s bucking-basket, and let her boil it in her copper with rain-water and bleaching- powder (I hope you think me a tolerable laundress), it would do him incalculable good.”
‘This morning, fancying I heard her descend somewhat early, I was down instantly. I had not been deceived: there she was, busy at work in the breakfast-parlour, of which the housemaid was completing the arrangement and dusting. She had risen betimes to finish some little keepsake she intended for Henry. I got only a cool reception, which I accepted till the girl was gone, taking my book to the window-seat very quietly. Even when we were alone, I was slow to disturb her. To sit with her in sight was happiness, and the proper happiness, for early morning—serene, incomplete, but progressive. Had I been obtrusive, I knew I should have encountered rebuff. “Not at home to suitors” was written on her brow; therefore I read on—stole, now and then, a look; watched her countenance soften and open, and she felt I respected her mood, and enjoyed the gentle content of the moment.
‘The distance between us shrank, and the light hoar-frost thawed insensibly. Ere an hour elapsed, I was at her side, watching her sew, gathering her sweet smiles and her merry words, which fell for me abundantly. We sat, as we had a right to sit, side by side: my arm rested on her chair; I was near enough to count the stitches of her work and to discern the eye of her needle. The door suddenly opened.
‘I believe, if I had just then started from her, she would have despised me. Thanks to the phlegm of my nature, I rarely start. When I am well-off, bien, comfortable, I am not soon stirred. Bien I was—très bien—consequently immutable. No muscle moved. I hardly looked to the door.
‘ “Good-morning, uncle,” said she, addressing that personage, who paused on the threshold in a state of petrifaction.
‘ “Have you been long downstairs, Miss Keeldar, and alone with Mr. Moore?”
‘ “Yes, a very long time. We both came down early —it was scarcely light.”
‘ “The proceeding is improper—”
‘ “It was at first. I was rather cross, and not civil; but you will perceive that we are now friends.”
‘ “I perceive more than you would wish me to perceive.”
‘ “Hardly, sir,” said I: “we have no disguises. Will you permit me to intimate that any further observations you have to make may as well be addressed to me? Henceforward, I stand between Miss Keeldar and all annoyance.”
‘ “You! What have you to do with Miss Keeldar?”
‘ “To protect, watch over, serve her.”
‘ “You, sir?—you, the tutor?”
‘ “Not one word of insult, sir,” interposed she; “not one syllable of disrespect to Mr. Moore in this house.”