Politic as the ladies of Brookfield were, they were full of natural kindness; and Wilfrid, albeit a diplomatist, was not yet mature enough to control and guide a very sentimental heart.
There was an element of dim imagination in all the family: and it was this that consciously elevated them over the world in prospect, and made them unconsciously subject to what I must call the spell of the poetic power.
Wilfrid in his soul wished that Emilia should date from the day she had entered Brookfield.

But at times it seemed to him that a knowledge of her antecedents might relieve him from his ridiculous perplexity of feeling.

Besides though her voice struck emotion, she herself was unimpressionable.

"Cold by nature," he said; looking at the unkindled fire.

She shook hands like a boy.