Nothing but a becoming blush betrayed the moving thoughts that urged
themselves upon her as she accepted the seat next to Mr
Crackenthorp; for she was so instinctively neat and adroit in all
her actions, and her pretty lips met each other with such quiet
firmness, that it would have been difficult for her to appear
agitated.
It was not the rector's practice to let a charming blush pass
without an appropriate compliment. He was not in the least lofty or
aristocratic, but simply a merry-eyed, small-featured, grey-haired
man, with his chin propped by an ample, many-creased white
neckcloth, which seemed to predominate over every other point in his
person, and somehow to impress its peculiar character on his
remarks; so that to have considered his amenities apart from his
cravat, would have been a severe, and perhaps a dangerous, effort of
abstraction.
'Ha, Miss Nancy,' he said, turning his head within his cravat,
and smiling down pleasantly upon her, 'when anybody pretends this
has been a severe winter, I shall tell them I saw the roses blooming
on New Year's Eve- eh, Godfrey, what do you say?'
Godfrey made no reply, and avoided looking at Nancy very
markedly; for though these complimentary personalities were held to be
in excellent taste in old-fashioned Raveloe society, reverent love has
a politeness of its own which it teaches to men otherwise of small
schooling.
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