, while the
Rector and his niece passed out through the arched gateway.
 

                                  Chapter XII

                              Shirley and Caroline

Shirley showed she had been sincere in saying she should be glad of Caroline's
society, by frequently seeking it: and, indeed, if she had not sought it, she
would not have had it; for Miss Helstone was slow to make fresh acquaintance.
She was always held back by the idea that people could not want her, - that she
could not amuse them; and a brilliant, happy, youthful creature, like the
heiress of Fieldhead, seemed to her too completely independent of society so
uninteresting as hers, ever to find it really welcome.
    Shirley might be brilliant, and probably happy likewise, but no one is
independent of genial society; and though in about a month she had made the
acquaintance of most of the families round, and was on quite free and easy terms
with the Misses Sykes, and all the Misses Pearson, and the two superlative
Misses Wynne of Walden Hall; yet, it appeared, she found none amongst them very
genial: she fraternized with none of them, to use her own words. If she had had
the bliss to be really Shirley Keeldar, Esq., Lord of the Manor of Briarfield,
there was not a single fair one in this and the two neighbouring parishes, whom
she should have felt disposed to request to become Mrs. Keeldar, lady of the
manor. This declaration she made to Mrs. Pryor, who received it very quietly, as
she did most of her pupil's off-hand speeches, responding, -
    »My dear, do not allow that habit of alluding to yourself as a gentleman to
be confirmed: it is a strange one. Those who do not know you, hearing you speak
thus, would think you affected masculine manners.«
    Shirley never laughed at her former governess: even the little formalities
and harmless peculiarities of that lady were respectable in her eyes: had it
been otherwise, she would have proved herself a weak character at once: for it
is only the weak who make a butt of quiet worth; therefore she took her
remonstrance in silence. She stood quietly near the window, looking at the grand
cedar on her lawn, watching a bird on one of its lower boughs. Presently she
began to chirrup to the bird: soon her chirrup grew clearer; erelong she was
whistling; the whistle struck into a tune, and very sweetly and deftly it was
executed.
    »My dear!« expostulated Mrs. Pryor.
    »Was I whistling?« said Shirley; »I forgot