But what were his hopes, his pretensions, and in
what strange way were they mingled with his evidently very sincere
appreciation of poor Pansy? Was he in love with Gilbert Osmond's wife,
and if so what comfort did he expect to derive from it? If he was in
love with Pansy he was not in love with her stepmother, and if he
was in love with her stepmother he was not in love with Pansy. Was she
to cultivate the advantage she possessed in order to make him commit
himself to Pansy, knowing he would do so for her sake and not for
the small creature's own-was this the service her husband had asked of
her? This at any rate was the duty with which she found herself
confronted-from the moment she admitted to herself that her old friend
had still an uneradicated predilection for her society. It was not
an agreeable task; it was in fact a repulsive one. She asked herself
with dismay whether Lord Warburton were pretending to be in love
with Pansy in order to cultivate another satisfaction and what might
be called other chances. Of this refinement of duplicity she presently
acquitted him; she preferred to believe him in perfect good faith. But
if his admiration for Pansy were a delusion this was scarcely better
than its being an affectation.
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