Villette

grammar.
    »Change of air – change of scene; those are my prescriptions,« pursued the practical young doctor. »But to return to our muttons, Lucy. As yet, Père Silas, with all his tact (they say he is a Jesuit), is no wiser than you choose him to be; for, instead of returning to the Rue Fossette, your fevered wanderings – there must have been high fever –«
    »No, Dr. John: the fever took its turn that night – now, don't make out that I was delirious, for I know differently.«
    »Good! you were as collected as myself at this moment, no doubt! Your wanderings had taken an opposite direction to the Pensionnat. Near the Béguinage, amidst the stress of flood and gust, and in the perplexity of darkness, you had swooned and fallen. The priest came to your succour, and the physician, as we have seen, supervened. Between us we procured a fiacre and brought you here. Père Silas, old as he is, would carry you up stairs, and lay you on that couch himself. He would certainly have remained with you till suspended animation had been restored; and so should I, but, at that juncture, a hurried messenger arrived from the dying patient I had scarcely left – the last duties were called for – the physician's last visit and the priest's last rite; extreme unction could not be deferred. Père Silas and myself departed together, my mother was spending the evening abroad; we gave you in charge to Martha, leaving directions, which it seems she followed successfully. Now, are you a Catholic?«
    »Not yet,« said I, with a smile. »And never let Père Silas know where I live, or he will try to convert me; but give him my best and truest thanks when you see him, and if ever I get rich I will send him money for his charities. See, Dr. John, your mother wakes; you ought to ring for tea.«
    Which he did; and, as Mrs. Bretton sat up – astonished and indignant at herself for the indulgence to which she had succumbed, and fully prepared to deny that she had slept at all – her son came gaily to the attack:
    »Hushaby, mama! Sleep again. You look the picture of innocence in your slumbers.«
    »My slumbers, John Graham! What are you talking about? You know I never
do
sleep by day: it was the slightest doze possible.«
    »Exactly! a seraph's gentle lapse – a fairy's dream. Mama, under such circumstances, you always remind me of Titania.«
    »That is because you, yourself, are so like Bottom.«
    »Miss Snowe – did you ever hear anything like mama's wit? She is a most sprightly woman of her size and age.«
    »Keep your compliments to yourself, sir, and do not neglect your own size: which seems to me a good deal on the increase. Lucy, has he not rather the air of an incipient John Bull? He used to be slender as an eel, and now I fancy in him a sort of heavy-dragoon bent – a beef-eater tendency. Graham, take notice! If you grow fat I disown you.«
    »As if you could not sooner disown your own personality! I am indispensable to the old lady's happiness, Lucy. She would pine away in green and yellow melancholy if she had not my six feet of iniquity to scold. It keeps her lively – it maintains the wholesome ferment of her spirits.«
    The two were now standing opposite to each other, one on each side the fire-place; their words were not very fond, but their mutual looks atoned for verbal deficiencies. At least, the best treasure of Mrs. Bretton's life was certainly casketed in her son's bosom; her dearest pulse throbbed in his heart. As to him, of course another love shared his feelings with filial love; and, no doubt, as the new passion was the latest born, so he assigned it in his emotions Benjamin's portion. Ginevra! Ginevra! Did Mrs. Bretton yet know at whose feet her own young idol had laid his homage? Would she approve that choice? I could not tell; but I could well guess that if she knew Miss Fanshawe's conduct towards Graham: her alternations between coldness and coaxing, and repulse and allurement; if she could at all suspect the pain with which she had tried him; if she could have seen, as I had seen, his fine spirits subdued and harassed, his inferior preferred before him, his subordinate made the instrument of his humiliation –
then
Mrs. Bretton would have pronounced Ginevra imbecile, or perverted, or both. Well – I thought so too.
    That second evening passed as sweetly as the first –
more
sweetly indeed: we enjoyed a smoother interchange of thought; old troubles were not reverted to, acquaintance was better