managed handsomely: »shabby
doings,« of any description, were not endured under his sanction: from the
erection of a public building, a church, school, or court-house, to the cooking
of a dinner, he still advocated the lordly, liberal, and effective. Miss Keeldar
was like him in this respect, and they mutually approved each other's
arrangements.
    Caroline and Shirley were soon in the midst of the company; the former met
them very easily for her: instead of sitting down in a retired corner, or
stealing away to her own room till the procession should be marshalled,
according to her wont, she moved through the three parlours, conversed and
smiled, absolutely spoke once or twice ere she was spoken to, and, in short,
seemed a new creature. It was Shirley's presence which thus transformed her: the
view of Miss Keeldar's air and manner did her a world of good. Shirley had no
fear of her kind; no tendency to shrink from, to avoid it. All human beings,
men, women, or children, whom low breeding or coarse presumption did not render
positively offensive, were welcome enough to her: some much more so than others,
of course; but, generally speaking, till a man had indisputably proved himself
bad and a nuisance, Shirley was willing to think him good and an acquisition,
and to treat him accordingly. This disposition made her a general favourite, for
it robbed her very raillery of its sting, and gave her serious or smiling
conversation a happy charm: nor did it diminish the value of her intimate
friendship, which was a distinct thing from this social benevolence, depending,
indeed, on quite a different part of her character. Miss Helstone was the choice
of her affection and intellect; the Misses Pearson, Sykes, Wynne, etc., etc.,
only the profiters by her good-nature and vivacity.
    Donne happened to come into the drawing-room while Shirley, sitting on the
sofa, formed the centre of a tolerably wide circle. She had already forgotten
her exasperation against him, and she bowed and smiled good-humouredly. The
disposition of the man was then seen. He knew neither how to decline the advance
with dignity, as one whose just pride has been wounded, nor how to meet it with
frankness, as one who is glad to forget and forgive; his punishment had
impressed him with no sense of shame, and he did not experience that feeling on
encountering his chastiser: he was not vigorous enough in evil to be actively
malignant, -