What
is the fee for re-examination?"
"Five guineas."
"My God!" said Mr. Marrapit.
He tottered away up the path.
CHAPTER II
Excursions In Melancholy.
I.
Gloom brooded over Herons' Holt that evening. Gloom hung thickly about
the rooms: blanketed conversation; veiled eyes that might have
sparkled; choked appetites.
Nevertheless this was an atmosphere in which one member of the
household felt most comfortable.
Margaret, Mr. Marrapit's only child, was nineteen; of sallow
complexion, petite, pretty; with large brown eyes in which sat always
a constant quest--an entreaty, a wistful yearning.
Hers was a clinging nature, readily responsive to the attraction of
any stouter mind. Enthusiasm was in this girl, but it lay well-like--
not as a spring. To stir it the influence of another was wanted; of
itself, spontaneous, it could not leap. Aroused, there was no rush and
surge of emotion--it welled, rose deeply; thickly, without ripple;
crestless, flinging no intoxicating spume. Waves rush triumphant,
hurtling forward the stick they support: the pool swells, leaving the
stick quiescent, floating.
Many persons have this order of enthusiasm; it is a clammy thing to
attract. A curate with a glimpse at Shelley's mind once roused
Margaret's enthusiasm for the poet.
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