the fourth of the Transome
property seem to her an immense fortune. Both the sex and the social condition
were of the sort that lies open to many softening influences. And having seen
Esther, it was inevitable that, amongst the various issues, agreeable and
disagreeable, depicted by Harold's imagination, there should present itself a
possibility that would unite the two claims - his own, which he felt to be the
rational, and Esther's, which apparently was the legal claim.
    Harold, as he had constantly said to his mother, was »not a marrying man;«
he did not contemplate bringing a wife to Transome Court for many years to come,
if at all. Having little Harry as an heir, he preferred freedom. Western women
were not to his taste: they showed a transition from the feebly animal to the
thinking being, which was simply troublesome. Harold preferred a slow-witted
large-eyed woman, silent and affectionate, with a load of black hair weighing
much more heavily than her brains. He had seen no such woman in England, except
one whom he had brought with him from the East.
    Therefore Harold did not care to be married until or unless some surprising
chance presented itself; and now that such a chance had occurred to suggest
marriage to him, he would not admit to himself that he contemplated marrying
Esther as a plan; he was only obliged to see that such an issue was not
inconceivable. He was not going to take any step expressly directed towards that
end: what he had made up his mind to, as the course most satisfactory to his
nature under present urgencies, was to behave to Esther with a frank
gentlemanliness, which must win her good-will, and incline her to save his
family interest as much as possible. He was helped to this determination by the
pleasure of frustrating Jermyn's contrivance to shield himself from punishment;
and his most distinct and cheering prospect was, that within a very short space
of time he should not only have effected a satisfactory compromise with Esther,
but should have made Jermyn aware, by a very disagreeable form of announcement,
that Harold Transome was no longer afraid of him. Jermyn should bite the dust.
    At the end of these meditations he felt satisfied with himself and
light-hearted. He had rejected two dishonest propositions, and he was going to
do something that seemed eminently graceful. But he needed his mother's
assistance, and it was necessary that he should both confide in her and persuade
her.
    Within two hours after Christian left him, Harold begged his mother to come