At the same time the exploration of Maud's mind and
thought was an entire surprise to him--there was so much she did
not know, so many things in the world, which he took for granted,
of which she had never heard; and yet in many ways he discovered
that she knew and perceived far more than he did. Her judgment of
people was penetrating and incisive, and was formed quite
instinctively, without any apparent reason; she had, too, a
charming gift of humour, and her affection for her own circle did
not in the least prevent her from perceiving their absurdities. She
was not all loyalty and devotion, nor did she pretend to be
interested in things for which she did not care. There were many
conventions, which Howard for the first time discovered that he
himself unconsciously held, which Maud did not think in the least
important. Howard began to see that he himself had really been a
somewhat conventional person, with a respect for success and
position and dignity and influence. He saw that his own chief
motive had been never to do anything disagreeable or unreasonable
or original or decisive; he began to see that his unconscious aim
had been to fit himself without self-assertion into his circle, and
to make himself unobtrusively necessary to people. Maud had no
touch of this in her nature at all; her only ambition seemed to be
to be loved, which was accompanied by what seemed to Howard a
marvellous incapacity for being shocked by anything; she was wholly
innocent and ingenuous, but yet he found to his surprise that she
knew something of the dark corners of life, and the moral problems
of village life were a matter of course to her.
Pages:
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223