Lucy's eyes turned with anxious interest towards Maggie, to see how she went through this first interview since a sadly memorable time with a man towards whom she must have so strange a mixture of feelings, but she was pleased to notice that Wakem had tact enough to enter at once into talk about the bazaar wares and appear interested in purchasing, smiling now and then kindly at Maggie, and not calling on her to speak much, as if he observed that she was rather pale and tremulous.
`Why, Wakem is making himself particularly amiable to your cousin,'
said Stephen, in an undertone to Lucy.`Is it pure magnanimity? You talked of a family quarrel.'
`O, that will soon be quite healed, I hope,' said Lucy, becoming a little indiscreet in her satisfaction, and speaking with an air of significance.
But Stephen did not appear to notice this, and as some lady-purchasers came up, he lounged on towards Maggie's end, handling trifles and standing aloof until Wakem, who had taken out his purse, had finished his transactions.
`My son came with me,' he overheard Wakem saying, `but he has vanished into some other part of the building, and has left all these charitable gallantries to me.I hope you'll reproach him for his shabby conduct.'
She returned his smile and bow, without speaking, and he turned away, only then observing Stephen and nodding to him.Maggie, conscious that Stephen was still there, busied herself with counting money, and avoided looking up.She had been well pleased that he had devoted himself to Lucy today, and had not come near her.They had begun the morning with an indifferent salutation and both had rejoiced in being aloof from each other, like a patient who has actually done without his opium, in spite of former failures in resolution.And during the last few days they had even been making up their minds to failures, looking to the outward events that must soon come to separate them, as a reason for dispensing with self-conquest in detail.
Stephen moved step by step as if he were being unwillingly dragged, until he had got round the open end of the stall and was half hidden by a screen of draperies.Maggie went on counting her money till she suddenly heard a deep gentle voice saying, `Aren't you very tired? Do let me bring you something - some fruit or jelly - mayn't I?'
The unexpected tones shook her like a sudden accidental vibration of a harp close by her.
`O no, thank you,' she said, faintly, and only half looking up for an instant.
`You look so pale,' Stephen insisted, in a more entreating tone.`I'm sure you're exhausted.I must disobey you, and bring something.'
`No, indeed I couldn't take it.'
`Are you angry with me? What have I done? Do look at me.'
`Pray, go away,' said Maggie, looking at him helplessly, her eyes glancing immediately form him to the opposite corner of the orchestra, which was half hidden by the folds of the old faded green curtain.Maggie had no sooner uttered this entreaty than she was wretched at the admission it implied, but Stephen turned away at once, and, following her upward glance, he saw Philip Wakem seated in the half-hidden corner, so that he could command little more than that angle of the hall in which Maggie sat.An entirely new thought occurred to Stephen, and, linking itself with what he had observed of Wakem's manner, and with Lucy's reply to his observation, it convinced him that there had been some former relation between Philip and Maggie beyond that childish one of which he had heard.More than one impulse made him immediately leave the hall, and go upstairs to the refreshment room, where, walking up to Philip, he sat down behind him, and put his hand on his shoulder.
`Are you studying for a portrait, Phil,' he said, `or for a sketch of that oriel window? By George, it makes a capital bit from this dark corner, with the curtain just marking it off.'
`I have been studying expression,' said Philip curtly.
`What, Miss Tulliver's? It's rather of the savage-moody order today, I think - something of the fallen princess serving behind a counter.Her cousin sent me to her with a civil offer to get her some refreshment, but I have been snubbed, as usual.There's a natural antipathy between us, I suppose - I have seldom the honour to please her.'
`What a hypocrite you are!' said Philip, flushing angrily.
`What, because experience must have told me that I'm universally pleasing?
I admit the law, but there's some disturbing force here.'
`I am going,' said Philip, rising abruptly.
`So am I - to get a breath of fresh air; this place gets oppressive.
I think I have done suit and service long enough.'
The two friends walked downstairs together without speaking.Philip turned through the outer door into the churchyard, but Stephen, saying, `O by the by, I must call in here,' went on along the passage to one of the rooms at the other end of the building, which were appropriated to the town library.He had the room all to himself and a man requires nothing less than this, when he wants to dash his cap on the table, throw himself astride a chair and stare at a high brick wall with a frown which would not have been beneath the occasion if he had been slaying the Giant Python.
The conduct that issues from a moral conflict has often so close a resemblance to vice, that the distinction escapes all outward judgments, founded on a mere comparison of actions.It is clear to you, I hope, that Stephen was not a hypocrite - capable of deliberate doubleness for a selfish end;and yet his fluctuations between the indulgence of a feeling and the systematic concealment of it might have made a good case in support of Philip's accusation.
