He
will soon be free now, and will walk back with you. Pray come in and
rest; you look tired."
Mrs. Grey's words and manner, so perfectly guileless and natural, for
the moment quite confounded her enemy--her enemy, and yet an honest
enemy. Of the number of cruel things that are done in this world, how
many are done absolutely for conscience sake by people who deceive
themselves that they are acting from the noblest, purest motives--
carrying out all the Christian virtues, in short, only they do so, not in
themselves, but against other people. And from their list of
commandments they obliterate one--"Judge not, that ye be not judged
condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned."
But, for the time being, Miss Gascoigne was puzzled. Her stern
reproof, her patronizing pity, were alike disarmed. Her mountain
seemed crumbling to its original mole-hill. The heap of accusing
evidence which she had accumulated dwindled into the most ordinary
and commonplace facts at sight of Christian's innocent face and placid
mien. Nothing could be more unlike a woman who had ever
contemplated the ordinary "flirting" of society. As for any thing worse,
the idea was impossible to be entertained for a moment. It was simply
ridiculous.
Aunt Henrietta sat a good while talking, quite mildly for her, of
ordinary topics, before she attempted to broach the real object of her
visit.
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