“Say what you think of it quite frankly. I shan’t be offended,” he said.
“It is a beautiful face,” she answered.
“Well, what else?”
“Nothing else,” said Olivia in desperation. “Mrs. Brander may have every great quality that ever adorned a woman; but her face, like nearly all very beautiful ones, I think, is just beautiful and nothing else.”
“Don’t you see any feeling, imagination, passion?”
“No—o, indeed I can’t.”
“Well, that’s all right, because she hasn’t any.”
Olivia listened rather awkwardly, for Mr. Brander had unconsciously let a little feeling, a little bitterness sound in the tones of his own voice.
“Do you see great common sense, shrewdness, and a splendid faculty for perceiving where the greatest advantage lies to her and hers?”
His tone was still a little bitter, but it was good-humored and playful also.