tasteful a woman to make a ballad heroine of herself,
by bestowing her beauty and her lands on this lowly lover. Besides, Harold
cherished the belief that, at the present time, Esther was more wisely disposed
to bestow these things on another lover in every way eligible. But in two
directions this discovery had a determining effect on him; his curiosity was
stirred to know exactly what the relation with Felix had been, and he was
solicitous that his behaviour with regard to this young man should be such as to
enhance his own merit in Esther's eyes. At the same time he was not inclined to
any euphemisms that would seem by any possibility to bring Felix into the lists
with himself.
    Naturally, when they were left alone, it was Harold who spoke first. »I
should think there's a good deal of worth in this young fellow - this Holt,
notwithstanding the mistakes he has made. A little queer and conceited, perhaps;
but that is usually the case with men of his class when they are at all superior
to their fellows.«
    »Felix Holt is a highly cultivated man; he is not at all conceited,« said
Esther. The different kinds of pride within her were coalescing now. She was
aware that there had been a betrayal.
    »Ah?« said Harold, not quite liking the tone of this answer. »This
eccentricity is a sort of fanaticism, then? - this giving up being a doctor on
horseback, as the old woman calls it, and taking to - let me see - watchmaking,
isn't it?«
    »If it is eccentricity to be very much better than other men, he is
certainly eccentric; and fanatical too, if it is fanatical to renounce all small
selfish motives for the sake of a great and unselfish one. I never knew what
nobleness of character really was before I knew Felix Holt!«
    It seemed to Esther as if, in the excitement of this moment, her own words
were bringing her a clearer revelation.
    »God bless me!« said Harold, in a tone of surprised yet thorough belief, and
looking in Esther's face. »I wish you had talked to me about this before.«
    Esther at that moment looked perfectly beautiful, with an expression which
Harold had never hitherto seen. All the confusion which had depended on personal
feeling had given way before the sense that she had to speak the truth about the
man whom she felt to be admirable.
    »I think I didn't see the meaning of anything fine - I didn't even see