It is boys' play to simulate being _blase_; but the reality
makes mature manhood disbelieve any thing sooner than inevitable
retribution. Very often the thought forced itself upon Keene's mind, "If
I were to weary of _her_ too?" and made him pause before he urged Cecil
to the step that must have linked him to her fate forever.
Under other circumstances his patience might have held out still longer;
but there were numberless difficulties and obstacles in the way of their
meeting, and the perpetual constraint fretted Royston sorely. His
principle always had been not openly to violate conventionalities
without gaining an adequate equivalent; so he was more careful of
Cecil's reputation than she was inclined to be, and, among worse
lessons, taught her prudence. They met very seldom alone. When Mrs.
Danvers was present she made it her business to be as much as possible
in the way; and her awkward attempts at interference were sometimes
inexpressibly provoking. On one particular evening she had been
unusually pertinacious and obtrusive. The major stood it tolerably well
up to a certain point, but his savage temper gradually got the better of
him; his face grew darker and darker, till it was black as midnight when
he rose to go, and his lips were rigid as steel.
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