She
was not sincere when she told her that she wanted to be helped against
Mr. Ransom--when she exhorted her, that way, to keep everything that was
salutary and fortifying before her eyes. Olive did not go so far as to
believe that she was playing a part and putting her off with words
which, glossing over her treachery, only made it more cruel; she would
have admitted that that treachery was as yet unwitting, that Verena
deceived herself first of all, thinking she really wished to be saved.
Her phrases about her dignity were insincere, as well as her pretext
that they must stay to look after Miss Birdseye: as if Doctor Prance
were not abundantly able to discharge that function and would not be
enchanted to get them out of the house! Olive had perfectly divined by
this time that Doctor Prance had no sympathy with their movement, no
general ideas; that she was simply shut up to petty questions of
physiological science and of her own professional activity. She would
never have invited her down if she had realised this in advance so much
as the doctor's dry detachment from all their discussions, their
readings and practisings, her constant expeditions to fish and botanise,
subsequently enabled her to do. She was very narrow, but it did seem as
if she knew more about Miss Birdseye's peculiar physical
conditions--they were _very_ peculiar--than any one else, and this was a
comfort at a time when that admirable woman seemed to be suffering a
loss of vitality.
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