"The world moves and changes," he soliloquized, smilingly, "and we
must move on and change with it."
He found Mr. and Mrs. Muir, with Madge and the children, ready for
church, and told them, laughingly, to "remember him if they did not
think him past praying for." During his breakfast he recalled the fact
that Madge was uncommonly well dressed. "She hasn't in externals," he
thought, "the provincial air that one might expect, although her
ideas are not only provincial, but prim, obtained, no doubt, from some
goody-good books that she has read in the remote region wherein she
has developed so remarkably. She has some stilted ideal of womanhood
which she is seeking to attain, and the more unnatural the ideal, the
more attractive, no doubt, it appears to her."
It did not occur to him that he was explaining Madge on more theories
than one, and that they were not exactly harmonious. Having finished
his meal, he sought for Miss Wildmere, and soon found her in a shady
corner, reading a light, semi-philosophical work, thus distinguishing
and honoring the day in her choice of literature. He proposed to read
to her, but the book was soon forgotten in animated talk on his part.
She could skilfully play the role of a good listener when she chose,
and could, therefore, be a delightful companion.
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