[The Short Works of George Meredith by George Meredith]@TWC D-Link bookThe Short Works of George Meredith CHAPTER V 9/16
And always cheerful.
She hasn't a minute of grumps; and I'm sometimes a dish of stale milk fit only for pigs. With your late hours here, I'm sure I want tickling in the morning, and Chloe carols me one of her songs, and I say, "There's my bird!"' Mr.Beamish added, 'And you will remember she has a heart.' 'I should think so!' said the duchess. 'A heart, madam!' 'Why, what else ?' Nothing other, the beau, by his aspect, was constrained to admit. He appeared puzzled by this daughter of nature in a coronet; and more on her remarking, 'You know about her heart, Mr.Beamish.' He acquiesced, for of course he knew of her life-long devotion to Caseldy; but there was archness in her tone.
However, he did not expect a woman of her education to have the tone perfectly concordant with the circumstances.
Speaking tentatively of Caseldy's handsome face and figure, he was pleased to hear the duchess say, 'So I tell Chloe.' 'Well,' said he, 'we must consider them united; they are one.' Duchess Susan replied, 'That's what I tell him; she will do anything you wish.' He repeated these words with an interjection, and decided in his mind that they were merely silly.
She was a real shepherdess by birth and nature, requiring a strong guard over her attractions on account of her simplicity; such was his reading of the problem; he had conceived it at the first sight of her, and always recurred to it under the influence of her artless eyes, though his theories upon men and women were astute, and that cavalier perceived by long-sighted Chloe at Duchess Susan's coach window perturbed him at whiles.
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