, if it might not rather be thought to
add to it.
    »What do you think of her?« asked Zenobia.
    I could not understand the look of melancholy kindness with which Zenobia
regarded her. She advanced a step, and beckoning Priscilla near her, kissed her
cheek; then, with a slight gesture of repulse, she moved to the other side of
the room. I followed.
    »She is a wonderful creature,« I said. »Ever since she came among us, I have
been dimly sensible of just this charm which you have brought out. But it was
never absolutely visible till now. She is as lovely as a flower!«
    »Well; say so, if you like,« answered Zenobia. »You are a poet - at least,
as poets go, now-a-days - and must be allowed to make an opera-glass of your
imagination, when you look at women. I wonder, in such Arcadian freedom of
falling in love as we have lately enjoyed, it never occurred to you to fall in
love with Priscilla! In society, indeed, a genuine American never dreams of
stepping across the inappreciable air-line which separates one class from
another. But what was rank to the colonists of Blithedale?«
    »There were other reasons,« I replied, »why I should have demonstrated
myself an ass, had I fallen in love with Priscilla. By-the-by, has Hollingsworth
ever seen her in this dress?«
    »Why do you bring up his name, at every turn?« asked Zenobia, in an
undertone, and with a malign look which wandered from my face to Priscilla's.
»You know not what you do! It is dangerous, sir, believe me, to tamper thus with
earnest human passions, out of your own mere idleness, and for your sport. I
will endure it no longer! Take care that it does not happen again! I warn you!«
    »You partly wrong me, if not wholly,« I responded. »It is an uncertain sense
of some duty to perform, that brings my thoughts, and therefore my words,
continually to that one point.«
    »Oh, this stale excuse of duty!« said Zenobia, in a whisper so full of scorn
that it penetrated me like the hiss of a serpent. »I have often heard it before,
from those who sought to interfere with me, and I know precisely what it
signifies. Bigotry; self-conceit; an insolent curiosity; a meddlesome temper; a
cold