 that he was always happy, and it may be counted among the present
sources of his happiness that he had as regards this matter of his relations
with Gertrude a deliciously good conscience. His own deportment seemed to him
suffused with the beauty of virtue - a form of beauty that he admired with the
same vivacity with which he admired all other forms.
    »I think that if you marry,« said Mr. Wentworth presently, »it will conduce
to your happiness.«
    »Sicurissimo!« Felix exclaimed; and then, arresting his brush, he looked at
his uncle with a smile. »There is something I feel tempted to say to you. May I
risk it?«
    Mr. Wentworth drew himself up a little. »I am very safe; I don't repeat
things.« But he hoped Felix would not risk too much.
    Felix was laughing at his answer.
    »It's odd to hear you telling me how to be happy. I don't think you know
yourself, dear uncle. Now, does that sound brutal?«
    The old man was silent a moment, and then, with a dry dignity that suddenly
touched his nephew: »We may sometimes point out a road we are unable to follow.«
    »Ah, don't tell me you have had any sorrows,« Felix rejoined. »I didn't
suppose it, and I didn't mean to allude to them. I simply meant that you all
don't amuse yourselves.«
    »Amuse ourselves? We are not children.«
    »Precisely not! You have reached the proper age. I was saying that the other
day to Gertrude,« Felix added. »I hope it was not indiscreet.«
    »If it was,« said Mr. Wentworth, with a keener irony than Felix would have
thought him capable of, »it was but your way of amusing yourself. I am afraid
you have never had trouble.«
    »Oh, yes, I have!« Felix declared, with some spirit; »before I knew better.
But you don't catch me at it again.«
    Mr. Wentworth maintained for a while a silence more expressive than a
deep-drawn sigh. »You have no children,« he said at last.
    »Don't tell me,« Felix exclaimed, »that your charming young people are a
source of grief to you!«
    »I don't speak of Charlotte.« And then, after a pause, Mr. Wentworth
continued, »I don't speak of
