Title:  The Tragic Comedians, v2

Author:  George Meredith

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

Release Date:  September, 2003 [Etext #4462] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 12, 2002]

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THE TRAGIC COMEDIANS

A STUDY IN A WELL-KNOWN STORY

By George Meredith

1892

BOOK 2.

CHAPTER VII

He was down on the plains to her the second day, and as usual when they met, it was as if they had not parted; his animation made it seem so.  He was like summer’s morning sunlight, his warmth striking instantly through her blood dispersed any hesitating strangeness that sometimes gathers during absences, caused by girlish dread of a step to take, or shame at the step taken, when coldish gentlemen rather create these backflowings and gaps in the feelings.  She had grown reconciled to the perturbation of his messages, and would have preferred to have him startling and thrilling her from a distance; but seeing him, she welcomed him, and feeling in his bright presence not the faintest chill of the fit of shyness, she took her bravery of heart for a sign that she had reached his level, and might own it by speaking of the practical measures to lead to their union.  On one subject sure to be raised against him by her parents, she had a right to be inquisitive:  the baroness.

She asked to see a photograph of her.

Alvan gave her one out of his pocketbook, and watched her eyelids in profile as she perused those features of the budless grey woman.  The eyelids in such scrutinies reveal the critical mind; Clotilde’s drooped till they almost closed upon their lashes—­deadly criticism.