‘The turnpike-road to Rookington is pleasant.’
‘Faith, that is really where I have been. How came you to know?’
‘I only guessed. Verses and an accidental meeting produce a special journey.’
‘Ethelberta is a fine woman, physically and mentally, both. I wonder people do not talk about her twice as much as they do.’
‘Then surely you are getting attached to her again. You think you discover in her more than anybody else does; and love begins with a sense of superior discernment.’
‘No, no. That is only nonsense,’ he said hurriedly. ‘However, love her or love her not, I can keep a corner of my heart for you, Faith. There is another brute after her too, it seems.’
‘Of course there is: I expect there are many. Her position in society is above ours, so that it is an unwise course to go troubling yourself more about her.’
‘No. If a needy man must be so foolish as to fall in love, it is best to do so where he cannot double his foolishness by marrying the woman.’
‘I don’t like to hear you talk so slightingly of what poor father did.’
Christopher fixed his attention on the supper. That night, late as it was, when Faith was in bed and sleeping, he sat before a sheet of music-paper, neatly copying his composition upon it. The manuscript was intended as an offering to Ethelberta at the first convenient opportunity.