Nothing,
indeed, could less suggest the blithe nature-life which Greek
imagination embodied in the Faun, than the bizarre and restless
aspect of the Squire. This spare white-haired man, with his tempers
and irritations, was far indeed from Greek joyousness. And yet the
Greek sense of beauty, half intellectual, half sensuous, had always
seemed to her the strongest force in him. Was it now besieged by
something else?--was the Faun in him, at last, after these three
years, beginning to feel the bitter grip of humanity?
'"Deeper"? I don't know what you mean. There is nothing "deep" in
me!' She often recalled that saying of his, and the look of
perplexity which had accompanied it.
To herself of late he had been always courteous and indulgent; she
had hardly had an uncivil word from him! But it seemed to her that
he had also begun to avoid her, and the suspicion hurt her
amazingly. If indeed it were true, then leave Mannering she must.
He came up with her at a cross-road, and threw her a look of
enquiry.
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