Seeing such things had quickened her high spirit;
it seemed indecent not to scorn them. Of course the danger of a high
spirit was the danger of inconsistency- the danger of keeping up the
flag after the place has surrendered; a sort of behaviour so crooked
as to be almost a dishonour to the flag. But Isabel, who knew little
of the sorts of artillery to which young women are exposed,
flattered herself that such contradictions would never be noted in her
own conduct. Her life should always be in harmony with the most
pleasing impression she should produce; she would be what she
appeared, and she would appear what she was. Sometimes she went so far
as to wish that she might find herself some day in a difficult
position, so that she should have the pleasure of being as heroic as
the occasion demanded. Altogether, with her meagre knowledge, her
inflated ideals, her confidence at once innocent and dogmatic, her
temper at once exacting and indulgent, her mixture of curiosity and
fastidiousness, of vivacity and indifference, her desire to look
very well and to be if possible even better, her determination to see,
to try, to know, her combination of the delicate, desultory,
flame-like spirit and the eager and personal creature of conditions:
she would be an easy victim of scientific criticism if she were not
intended to awaken on the reader's part an impulse more tender and
more purely expectant.
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