suffering, which thence, from his lack of sympathy, he took for one of
crossness.

"You know quite well," he answered roughly, "that you are always
worshipping some paragon or other--for a while, till you get tired of
her, and then throw her away for another!"

Hester was hurt and made no answer.

There was some apparent ground for the accusation. She was ready to
think extravagantly of any new acquaintances that pleased her. Frank and
true and generous, it was but natural she should read others by herself;
just as those in whom is meanness or guile cannot help attributing the
same to the simplest. Nor was the result unnatural either, namely, that,
when a brief intercourse had sufficed to reveal a nature on the common
level, it sufficed also to chill the feeling that had rushed to the
surface to welcome a friend, and send the new-found floating far away on
the swift ebb of disappointment. Any whom she treats thus, called her,
of course, fitful and changeable, whereas it was in truth the
unchangeableness of her ideal and her faithfulness to it that exposed
her to blame. She was so true, so much in earnest, and, although gentle,
had so little softness to drape the sterner outlines of her character
that she was looked upon with dislike by not a few of her acquaintance.

"That again comes of looking too high, and judging with precipitation,"
resumed Cornelius, urged from within to be unpleasant--and the rather
that she did not reply.

He was always ready to criticise, and it was so much the easier for him
that he had not the least bent towards self-criticism. For the latter