There are many
who will give freely, who do not care to understand need and
anticipate want. Hence at times Sepia's purse would be long empty
before the giving-thought would wake in the mind of Hesper. When
it woke, it was gracious and free.
Had Sepia ventured to run up bills with the tradespeople, Hesper
would have taken it as a thing of course, and settled them with
her own. But Sepia had a certain politic pride in spending only
what was given her; also she saw or thought she saw serious
reason for avoiding all appearances of taking liberties; from the
first of Mr. Redmain's visits to Durnmelling, she had been aware,
with an instinct keen in respect of its objects, though blind as
to its own nature, that he did not like her, and soon satisfied
herself that any overt attempt to please him would but ripen his
dislike to repugnance; and her dread was that he might make it a
condition with Mr. Mortimer that Hesper's intimacy with her
should cease; whereas, if once they were married, the husband's
disfavor would, she believed, only strengthen the wife's
predilection. Having so far gained her end, it remained, however,
almost as desirable as before that she should do nothing to fix
or increase his dislike--nay, that, if within the possible, she
should become pleasing to him. Did not even hate turn sometimes
to its mighty opposite? But she understood so little of the man
with whom she had to deal that her calculations were ill-founded.
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