 - Gwendolen was so sensitive (she did
not like to say wilful). But the Rector's was a firm mind, grasping its first
judgments tenaciously and acting on them promptly, whence counter-judgments were
no more for him than shadows fleeting across the solid ground to which he
adjusted himself.
    This match with Grandcourt presented itself to him as a sort of public
affair; perhaps there were ways in which it might even strengthen the
Establishment. To the Rector, whose father (nobody would have suspected it, and
nobody was told) had risen to be a provincial corn-dealer, aristocratic heirship
resembled regal heirship in excepting its possessor from the ordinary standard
of moral judgments, Grandcourt, the almost certain baronet, the probable peer,
was to be ranged with public personages, and was a match to be accepted on broad
general grounds national and ecclesiastical. Such public personages, it is true,
are often in the nature of giants which an ancient community may have felt pride
and safety in possessing, though, regarded privately, these born eminences must
often have been inconvenient and even noisome. But of the future husband
personally Mr. Gascoigne was disposed to think the best. Gossip is a sort of
smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves
nothing but the bad taste of the smoker. But if Grandcourt had really made any
deeper or more unfortunate experiments in folly than were common in young men of
high prospects, he was of an age to have finished them. All accounts can be
suitably wound up when a man has not ruined himself, and the expense may be
taken as an insurance against future error. This was the view of practical
wisdom; with reference to higher views, repentance had a supreme moral and
religious value. There was every reason to believe that a woman of
well-regulated mind would be happy with Grandcourt.
    It was no surprise to Gwendolen on coming down to tea to be told that her
uncle wished to see her in the dining-room. He threw aside the paper as she
entered and greeted her with his usual kindness. As his wife had remarked, he
always »made much« of Gwendolen, and her importance had risen of late. »My
dear,« he said, in a fatherly way, moving a chair for her as he held her hand,
»I want to speak to you on a subject which is more momentous than any other with
regard to your welfare. You will guess what I mean. But I shall speak to you
with perfect directness: in such matters I consider myself bound to
