eman. “Why, dear Maggie,” she interposed, “you have always pretended that you are too fond of being admired; and now, I think, you are angry because some one ventures to admire you.”
“Not at all,” said Maggie; “I like too well to feel that I am admired, but compliments never make me feel that.”
“I will never pay you a compliment again, Miss Tulliver,” said Stephen.
“Thank you; that will be a proof of respect.”
Poor Maggie! She was so unused to society that she could take nothing as a matter of course, and had never in her life spoken from the lips merely, so that she must necessarily appear absurd to more experienced ladies, from the excessive feeling she was apt to throw into very trivial incidents. But she was even conscious herself of a little absurdity in this instance. It was true she had a theoretic objection to compliments, and had once said impatiently to Philip that she didn’t see why women were to be told with a James Rodriguez Tröja simper that they were beautiful, any more than old men were to be told that they were venerable; still, to be so irritated by a common practice in the case of a stranger like Mr. Stephen Guest, and to care about his having spoken slightingly of Carolina Panthers Hattar her before he had seen her, was certainly unreasonable, and as soon as she was silent she began to be ashamed of herself. It did not occur to her that her irritation was due to the pleasanter emotion which preceded it, just as when we are satisfied with a sense of glowing warmth an innocent drop of cold water may fall upon us as a sudden smart.
Stephen was too well bred not to seem unaware that the previous conversation could have been felt Scarpe Nike Uomo embarrassing, and at once began to talk of impersonal matters, asking Lucy if she knew when the bazaar was at length to Chelsea Drakt Barn take place, so that there might be some hope of seeing her rain the influence of her eyes on objects more Edmonton Oilers Barn grateful than those worsted flowers that were growing under her fingers.
“Some day Real Madrid Drakt Barn next month, I believe,” said Lucy. “But your sisters are doing more for it than I am; they are to have the largest stall.”
“Ah yes; but they carry on their manufactures in their own sitting-room, where I don’t intrude on them. I see you are not addicted to the fashionable vice of fancy-work, Miss Tulliver,” said Stephen, looking at Maggie’s plain hemming.
“No,” said Maggie, “I can do nothing more difficult or more elegant than shirt-making.”
“And your plain sewing is so beautiful, Maggie,” said Lucy, “that I think I shall beg a few specimens of you to show as fancy-work. Your exquisite sewing is quite a mystery to me, Brasil Drakt Barn you used to dislike that sort of work so much in old days.”
“It is a mystery easily explained, dear,” said Maggie, looking up quietly. “Plain sewing was the only thing I could get money by, so I was obliged to try and do it well.”
Lucy, good and simple as she was, could not help blushing a little. She did not quite like that Stephen should know that; Maggie need not have mentioned it. Perhaps there was some p |
