 - not any self-confident personage, but one in
particular, who suddenly looks humble and anxious, and lingers, bending still,
to ask if there is not some draught in that position between the window and the
fireplace, and if he may not be allowed to move the work-table for her - these
things will summon a little of the too-ready, traitorous tenderness into a
woman's eyes, compelled as she is in her girlish time to learn her life-lessons
in very trivial language. And to Maggie such things had not been everyday
incidents, but were a new element in her life, and found her keen appetite for
homage quite fresh. That tone of gentle solicitude obliged her to look at the
face that was bent towards her, and to say, »No, thank you;« and nothing could
prevent that mutual glance from being delicious to both, as it had been the
evening before.
    It was but an ordinary act of politeness in Stephen; it had hardly taken two
minutes; and Lucy, who was singing, scarcely noticed it. But to Philip's mind,
filled already with a vague anxiety that was likely to find a definite ground
for itself in any trivial incident, this sudden eagerness in Stephen, and the
change in Maggie's face, which was plainly reflecting a beam from his, seemed so
strong a contrast with the previous overwrought signs of indifference, as to be
charged with painful meaning. Stephen's voice, pouring in again, jarred upon his
nervous susceptibility as if it had been the clang of sheet-iron, and he felt
inclined to make the piano shriek in utter discord. He had really seen no
communicable ground for suspecting any unusual feeling between Stephen and
Maggie: his own reason told him so, and he wanted to go home at once that he
might reflect coolly on these false images, till he had convinced himself of
their nullity. But then, again, he wanted to stay as long as Stephen stayed -
always to be present when Stephen was present with Maggie. It seemed to poor
Philip so natural, nay, inevitable, that any man who was near Maggie should fall
in love with her! There was no promise of happiness for her if she were beguiled
into loving Stephen Guest; and this thought emboldened Philip to view his own
love for her in the light of a less unequal offering. He was beginning to play
very falsely under this deafening inward tumult, and Lucy was looking at him in
astonishment, when Mrs. Tulliver's entrance to summon them to lunch came as an
excuse
