So to Miriam, Christ and God made one great figure, which she loved tremblingly and passionately when a tremendous sunset burned out the western sky, and Ediths, and Lucys, and Rowenas, Brian de Bois Guilberts, Rob Roys, and Guy Mannerings, rustled the sunny leaves in the morning, or sat in her bedroom aloft, alone, when it snowed. They were both brown-eyed, and inclined to be mystical, such women as treasure religion inside them, breathe it in their nostrils, and see the whole of life in a mist thereof. And she was afraid lest this boy, who, nevertheless, looked something like a Walter Scott hero, who could paint and speak French, and knew what algebra meant, and who went by train to Nottingham every day, might consider her simply as the swine-girl, unable to perceive the princess beneath so she held aloof. She herself was something of a princess turned into a swine-girl in her own imagination. Everywhere was a Walter Scott heroine being loved by men with helmets or with plumes in their caps. She was afraid of being set at nought, as by her own brothers. And Miriam also refused to be approached. Edgar the eldest, would not condescend at first. He was friends with the two youngest boys. PART TWO LAD-AND-GIRL LOVE PAUL had been many times up to Willey Farm during the autumn.
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