He had naturally
supposed that a girl would have been fenced round by illusions; but
it was not so. She had seen and observed and drawn her conclusions.
She thought very little of what one commonly called sins, and her
indignation seemed aroused by nothing but cruelty and treachery. It
became clear to Howard that Mr. Sandys and Mrs. Graves had been
very wise in the matter, and that Maud had not been brought up in
any silly ignorance of human frailty. Her religion was equally a
surprise to him. He had thought that a girl brought up as Maud had
been would be sure to hold a tissue of accepted beliefs which he
must be careful not to disturb. But here again she seemed to have
little but a few fine principles, set in a simple Christian
framework. They were talking about this one day, and Maud laughed
at something he said.
"You need not be so cautious," she said, "though I like you to be
cautious--you are afraid of hurting me; but you won't do that!
Cousin Anne taught me long ago that it was no use believing
anything unless you understood more or less where it was leading
you. It's no good pretending to know. Cousin Anne once said to me
that one had to choose between science and superstition. I don't
know anything about science, but I'm not superstitious."
"Yes," said Howard, "I see--I won't be fussy any more; I will just
speak as I think. You are wiser than the aged, child! You will have
to help me out. I am a mass of crusted prejudices, I find; but you
are melting them all away.
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