On the way, that Richard might have an exalted opinion of him, Ripton hinted decorously at a somewhat intimate and mysterious acquaintance with the sex.  Headings of certain random adventures he gave.

“Well!” said his chief, “why not marry her?”

Then was Ripton shocked, and cried, “Oh!” and had a taste of the feeling of superiority, destined that day to be crushed utterly.

He was again deposited in Mrs. Berry’s charge for a term that caused him dismal fears that the Fair Persian still refused to show her face, but Richard called out to him, and up Ripton went, unaware of the transformation he was to undergo.  Hero and Beauty stood together to receive him.  From the bottom of the stairs he had his vivaciously agreeable smile ready for them, and by the time he entered the room his cheeks were painfully stiff, and his eyes had strained beyond their exact meaning.  Lucy, with one hand anchored to her lover, welcomed him kindly.  He relieved her shyness by looking so extremely silly.  They sat down, and tried to commence a conversation, but Ripton was as little master of his tongue as he was of his eyes.  After an interval, the Fair Persian having done duty by showing herself, was glad to quit the room.  Her lord and possessor then turned inquiringly to Ripton.

“You don’t wonder now, Rip?” he said.

“No, Richard!” Ripton waited to reply with sufficient solemnity, “indeed I don’t!”

He spoke differently; he looked differently.  He had the Old Dog’s eyes in his head.  They watched the door she had passed through; they listened for her, as dogs’ eyes do.  When she came in, bonneted for a walk, his agitation was dog-like.  When she hung on her lover timidly, and went forth, he followed without an idea of envy, or anything save the secret raptures the sight of her gave him, which are the Old Dog’s own.  For beneficent Nature requites him:  His sensations cannot be heroic, but they have a fulness and a wagging delight as good in their way.  And this capacity for humble unaspiring worship has its peculiar guerdon.  When Ripton comes to think of Miss Random now, what will he think of himself?  Let no one despise the Old Dog.  Through him doth Beauty vindicate her sex.

It did not please Ripton that others should have the bliss of beholding her, and as, to his perceptions, everybody did, and observed her offensively, and stared, and turned their heads back, and interchanged comments on her, and became in a minute madly in love with her, he had to smother low growls.  They strolled about the pleasant gardens of Kensington all the morning, under the young chestnut buds, and round the windless waters, talking, and soothing the wild excitement of their hearts.  If Lucy spoke, Ripton pricked up his ears.  She, too, made the remark that everybody seemed to look happy, and he heard it with thrills of joy.  “So everybody is, where you are!” he would have wished to say, if he dared, but was restrained by fears that his burning eloquence would commit him.  Ripton knew the people he met twice.  It would have been difficult to persuade him they were the creatures of accident.