Morosine
seemed to her so extraordinarily reasonable, so ready, with well-known
laws, to account for unheard of vagaries, that it would have been real
luxury to her to find herself and her escapade the mere creatures of some
such law. To be discovered normal: what a relief from strain!
Lady Maria, it seems, charged him with Oriental aptitudes. Sanchia gave
that judgment careful attention, studied her friend in the light of it,
weighed every word of his to her, watched him closely in company when he
could not be aware of it. She decided against the opinion. His manners
with women were his manners with men, those of urbane indifference to sex.
To sex! To much more than that. He was, in fact, outwardly polite to the
point of formality; but his attitude of mind towards the person he
happened to be with seemed to her--when she examined it closely--to be
sublimely insulting. No created thing, with the passions and affections
common to his kind, ought to take up such a position with his fellow-
creature--that which says, "I infer your existence from my sensations:
apart from them, I cannot bring myself to believe in it." She was aware
that he must needs regard her from this stand-point, and the knowledge
piqued her.
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