Quotation from: Villette

Written by: Charlotte Bronte


How animated was Graham's face! How true, how warm, yet how retiring
the joy it expressed! This was the state of things, this the
combination of circumstances, at once to attract and enchain, to
subdue and excite Dr. John. The pearl he admired was in itself of
great price and truest purity, but he was not the man who, in
appreciating the gem, could forget its setting. Had he seen Paulina
with the same youth, beauty, and grace, but on foot, alone, unguarded,
and in simple attire, a dependent worker, a demi-grisette, he would
have thought her a pretty little creature, and would have loved with
his eye her movements and her mien, but it required other than this to
conquer him as he was now vanquished, to bring him safe under dominion
as now, without loss, and even with gain to his manly honour, one saw
that he was reduced; there was about Dr. John all the man of the
world; to satisfy himself did not suffice; society must approve--the
world must admire what he did, or he counted his measures false and
futile. In his victrix he required all that was here visible--the
imprint of high cultivation, the consecration of a careful and
authoritative protection, the adjuncts that Fashion decrees, Wealth
purchases, and Taste adjusts; for these conditions his spirit
stipulated ere it surrendered: they were here to the utmost fulfilled;
and now, proud, impassioned, yet fearing, he did homage to Paulina as
his sovereign. As for her, the smile of feeling, rather than of
conscious power, slept soft in her eyes.

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Old Dominion University CS Dept
Designed by Joan A. Smith for the CRATE project
Created: 2007-2-22T12:35:29Z
Part of the CratePreservation Project
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Part of a series of experiments in web preservation under the direction of Michael L. Nelson, Ph.D.