you repeat to her, perhaps the better; and, at any
rate, there's nothing she doesn't already know. I
don't say it for her; I say it for you when I want
to reach my niece I know how to do it straight."
So Aunt Maud delivered herself as with homely
benevolence, in the simplest, but the clearest terms;
virtually conveying that, though a word to the wise
was, doubtless, in spite of the advantage, not always
enough, a word to the good could never fail to be.
The sense our young man read into her words was
that she liked him because he was good was really,
by her measure, good enough: good enough, that
is, to give up her niece for her and go his way in
peace. But was he good enough by his own
measure? He fairly wondered, while she more fully
expressed herself, if it might be his doom to prove
so. " She's the finest possible creature of course
you flatter yourself that you know it. But I know
it, quite as well as you possibly can by which I
mean a good deal better yet; and the tune to which
I'm ready to prove my faith compares favourably
enough, I think, with anything you can do. I don't
say it because she's my niece that's nothing to me:
I might have had fifty nieces, and I wouldn't have
brought one of them to this place if I hadn't found
her to my taste. I don't say I wouldn't have done
something else, but I wouldn't have put up with
her presence. Kate's presence, by good fortune,
I marked early; Kate's presence unluckily for you
is everything I could possibly wish; Kate's pres-

[[91]]

p090 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p091w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p092

v?