 the
curtain just marking it off.«
    »I have been studying expression,« said Philip, curtly.
    »What! Miss Tulliver's? It's rather of the savage-moody order to-day, I
think - something of the fallen princess serving behind a counter. Her cousin
sent me to her with a civil offer to get her some refreshment, but I have been
snubbed, as usual. There's a natural antipathy between us, I suppose: I have
seldom the honour to please her.«
    »What a hypocrite you are!« said Philip, flushing angrily.
    »What! because experience must have told me that I'm universally pleasing? I
admit the law, but there's some disturbing force here.«
    »I am going,« said Philip, rising abruptly.
    »So am I - to get a breath of fresh air; this place gets oppressive. I think
I have done suit and service long enough.«
    The two friends walked down-stairs together without speaking. Philip turned
through the outer door into the courtyard, but Stephen, saying, »O, by the by, I
must call in here,« went on along the passage to one of the rooms at the other
end of the building, which were appropriated to the town library. He had the
room all to himself, and a man requires nothing less than this, when he wants to
dash his cap on the table, throw himself astride a chair, and stare at a high
brick wall with a frown which would not have been beneath the occasion if he had
been slaying »the giant Python.« The conduct that issues from a moral conflict
has often so close a resemblance to vice, that the distinction escapes all
outward judgments, founded on a mere comparison of actions. It is clear to you,
I hope, that Stephen was not a hypocrite - capable of deliberate doubleness for
a selfish end; and yet his fluctuations between the indulgence of a feeling and
the systematic concealment of it, might have made a good case in support of
Philip's accusation.
    Meanwhile, Maggie sat at her stall cold and trembling, with that painful
sensation in the eyes which comes from resolutely repressed tears. Was her life
to be always like this? - always bringing some new source of inward strife? She
heard confusedly the busy indifferent voices around her, and wished her mind
could flow into that easy, babbling current. It was at this moment that Dr Kenn,
who had quite lately come into the hall, and was now walking down the middle
