Only let
Frank come back, and he won't find me admire his book so very much! They
did the same sort of thing when I was a little girl, and could scarcely
sleep at night on account of it. And then they seemed to get a little
better, for a time, and fought with their enemies, instead of one
another, and made everybody wild about liberty, and citizens, and the
noble march of intellect, and the dignity of mankind, and the rights
of labour--when they wouldn't work a stroke themselves--and the black
superstition of believing anything, except what they chose to make a
fuss about themselves. And thousands of people, even in this country,
who have been brought up so much better, were foolish enough to think
it very grand indeed, especially the poets, and the ones that are too
young. But they ought to begin to get wiser now; even Frank will find it
hard to make another poem on them."
"How glad I am to hear you speak like that! I had no idea--at least I
did not understand--"
"That I had so much common-sense?" enquired Dolly, with a glance of
subtle yet humble reproach. "Oh yes, I have a great deal sometimes, I
can assure you. But I suppose one never does get credit for anything,
without claiming it."
"I am sure that you deserve credit for everything that can possibly
be imagined," Scudamore answered, scarcely knowing, with all his own
common-sense to help him, that he was talking nonsense. "Every time I
see you I find something I had never found before to--to wonder at--if
you can understand--and to admire, and to think about, and to--to be
astonished at.
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