But being a man of some insight, and possessed also of
considerable versatility, so that, readily discovering any
perculiarity, he was equally ready to meet it, he laid himself out
to talk to her of the things, and in the ways, which he thought she
would like. To discover, however, is not to understand. No longer
young enough, as he said to himself, to be greatly interested in
anything but GETTING ON, he could yet, among the contents of the
old property-room in his brain, easily lay his hands on many things
to help him in the part he chose as the fittest to represent
himself. The greater part of conventionally honest men try to look
the thing they would like to be--that being at the same time the
way they would like others to see them; others, along with what
they would like to be, act that which they would only like to
appear; the downright rascal cares only to look what will serve his
purpose; and the honest man thinks only of being, and of being to
his fellows.
But even had Jermyn only taken upon him to imagine himself in love
with a woman like Lady Joan, he must soon have become, more or
less, actually in love with her. This did not however destroy his
caution; and so far as his attentions had gone, they were pleasant
to her;--they were at least a break in the ennui of her daily life,
helping her to reach the night in safety. She was not one of those
who, unable to make alive the time, must kill it lest it kill them;
but neither was she of those who make their time so living, that
the day is too short for them.
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