Her
impulse had been to avail herself of the things that helped her to
resist such an obligation; and this impulse had been much concerned in
her eager acceptance of her aunt's invitation, which had come to her
at an hour when she expected from day to day to see Mr. Goodwood and
when she was glad to have an answer ready for something she was sure
he would say to her. When she had told him at Albany, on the evening
of Mrs. Touchett's visit, that she couldn't then discuss difficult
questions, dazzled as she was by the great immediate opening of her
aunt's offer of "Europe," he declared that this was no answer at
all; and it was now to obtain a better one that he was following her
across the sea. To say to herself that he was a kind of grim fate
was well enough for a fanciful young woman who was able to take much
for granted in him; but the reader has a right to a nearer and a
clearer view.
He was the son of a proprietor of well-known cotton-mills in
Massachusetts- a gentleman who had accumulated a considerable
fortune in the exercise of this industry. Caspar at present managed
the works, and with a judgement and a temper which, in spite of keen
competition and languid years, had kept their prosperity from
dwindling.
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