that all priests are hypocrites. What a little boat to be in on a stormy
sea, Bella! She appears to have no concern about it. Whether she adores
Wilfrid or not I do not pretend to guess. She snubs him--a thing he
would bear from nobody but her. I do believe he feels flattered by it.
He is chiefly attentive to Miss Ford, whom I like and do not like, and
like and do not like--but do like. She is utterly cold, and has not an
affection on earth. Sir T.--I have not a dictionary--calls her a fair
clictic, I think. (Let even Cornelia read hard, or woe to her in their
hours of privacy!--his vocabulary grows distressingly rich the more you
know him. I am not uneducated, but he introduces me to words that seem
monsters; I must pretend to know them intimately.) Well, whether a
clictic or not--and pray, burn this letter, lest I should not have the
word correct--she has the air of a pale young princess above any creature
I have seen in the world. I know it has struck Wilfred also; my darling
and I are ever twins in sentiment. He converses with Miss Ford a great
deal. Lady C. is peculiarly civil to Captain G. We scud along, and are
becalmed. 'Having no will of our own, we have no knowledge of contrary
winds,' as Mr. Powys says.--The word is 'eclictic,' I find. I ventured
on it, and it was repeated; and I heard that I had missed a syllable.
Ask C. to look it out--I mean, to tell me they mining on a little slip of
paper in your next. I would buy a pocket-dictionary at one of the ports,
but you are never alone. "Aesthetic," we know. Mr. Barrett used to be
of service for this sort of thing. I admit I am inferior to Mrs.
Bayruffle, who, if men talk difficult words in her presence, holds her
chin above the conversation, and seems to shame them. I love to learn--I
love the humility of learning. And there is something divine in the idea
of a teacher. I listen to Sir T. on Parliament and parties, and chide
myself if my interest flags. His algebra-puzzles, or Euclid-puzzles in
figures--sometimes about sheep-boys and sheep, and hurdles or geese, oxen
or anything--are delicious: he quite masters the conversation with them.