III

III

Her thus turning her back on me was fortunately not, for my justpreoccupations, a snub that could check the growth of our mutualesteem. We met, after I hadbrought home little Miles, moreintimately than ever on the ground of my stupefaction, my generalemotion: so monstrous was I then ready to pronounce it that such achild as had now been revealed to me should be under an interdict.I was a little late on the scene, and I felt, as he stood wistfullylooking out for me before the door of the inn at which the coachhad put him down, that I had seen him, on the instant, without andwithin, in the great glow of freshness, the same positive fragranceof purity, in which I had, from the first moment, seen his littlesister. He was incredibly beautiful, and Mrs. Grose had put herfinger on it: every……