'Great, for he has many admirable qualities, but still they are just
what persons are too apt to fancy compensation for faults. I never
heard that any of his family, except perhaps that unhappy old Hugh,
were deficient in frankness and generosity, and therefore these do not
satisfy me. Observe, I am not condemning him; I wish to be perfectly
just; all I say is, that I do not trust him till I have seen him
tried.'

Laura did not answer, she was disappointed; yet there was a justice and
guardedness in what Philip said, that made it impossible to gainsay it,
and she was pleased with his confidence. She thought how cool and
prudent he was, and how grieved she should be if Guy justified his
doubts; and so they walked on in such silence as is perhaps the
strongest proof of intimacy. She was the first to speak, led to do so
by an expression of sadness about her cousin's mouth. 'What are you
thinking of, Philip?'

'Of Locksley Hall. There is nonsense, there is affectation in that,
Laura, there is scarcely poetry, but there is power, for there is
truth.'

'Of Locksley Hall! I thought you were at Stylehurst.'

'So I was, but the one brings the other.'

'I suppose you went to Stylehurst while you were at St. Mildred's? Did
Margaret take you there?'

'Margaret? Not she; she is too much engaged with her book-club, and
her soirées, and her societies of every sort and kind.'