The Egoist by George Meredith
page 69 of 777 (08%)
page 69 of 777 (08%)
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scholars by postponements of the ceremony and a prolongation of a
father's worries. "Oh, the common meaning, papa," she said, seeing how it was with him. "Ah!" said he, nodding and blinking gradually back to a state of composure, glad to be appeased on any terms; for mutability is but another name for the sex, and it is the enemy of the scholar. She suggested that two weeks of Patterne would offer plenty of time to inspect the empty houses of the district, and should be sufficient, considering the claims of friends, and the necessity of going the round of London shops. "Two or three weeks," he agreed, hurriedly, by way of compromise with that fearful prospect. CHAPTER VII THE BETROTHED During the drive from Upton to Patterne, Miss Middleton hoped, she partly believed, that there was to be a change in Sir Willoughby's manner of courtship. He had been so different a wooer. She remembered with some half-conscious desperation of fervour what she had thought of him at his first approaches, and in accepting him. Had she seen him with the eyes of the world, thinking they were her own? That look of his, the look of "indignant contentment", had then been a most noble |
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