She was in the obstinate phase of
first youth, common enough in girls of her sheltered class, where the
opportunities to study men and their behavior are few. Having persuaded
herself that she was far more romantic than she really was, and that there
would be no possible happiness or indeed interest in life after youth, she
had conceived as her ideal mate the dominant male, the complete master, and
easily persuaded herself that she had found him in Mortimer Dwight....If
she married Gathbroke he would be her slave (so little did she know him.).
Dwight would be her master. (So little did she know him, or herself.)
CHAPTER XIV
I
After luncheon, grinning amiably when Mrs. Abbott hinted that Englishmen
liked to be out of doors, she led Gathbroke to the confines of the park,
where they sat down under one of the oaks that reminded him of England; for
which he was in truth desperately homesick, and never more so than at this
moment.
Everything combined to make him realize uneasily his youth. In England
a man of twenty-three was a man-of-the-world if he had had the proper
opportunities; but this girl who had infatuated him, and even the far more
sympathetic Miss Dwight, made him feel that he was a mere boy; and so had
this entire family, however unwittingly.
II
He spoke of Miss Dwight suddenly, for Alexina, who had been duly
enlightened while the men were smoking with Tom, had tactfully conveyed her
sympathy, her eyes almost round with fascinated horror and curiosity.
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