“Don’t!” he begged. “Don’t wish anything so foolish. Intelligence is the greatest curse of the day. Few people possess it, it is true, but those few spend most of their time wishing they were fools.”
“Am I a fool?” she asked.
“Of course,” he answered. “All pretty and charming people are fools.”
“And Pauline?” she asked.
“Pauline, unfortunately, is amongst the cursed,” he answered.
“That, I suppose,” she remarked, “is what brings you so close together.”
“It is a bond of common suffering,” he declared. “By the bye, who is this ferocious-looking person?”
It was Saton who had suddenly turned the corner, and whose expression had certainly darkened for a moment as he came face to face with the two. He was correctly enough dressed in gray tweeds and thick walking boots, but somehow or other his sallow face and dark, plentiful hair, seemed to go oddly with his country clothes.
Rochester glanced at his companion, and he distinctly saw a little grimace. Saton would have passed on, for Rochester’s nod was of the slightest, but Lois insisted upon stopping.