"And to think you will be in Ireland to-morrow," said Elinor, "over the sea, with the Channel between us--in another island!"
"I don't see much that's wonderful in that," said Phil, "the boat goes every day."
"Oh, there's nothing wonderful about the boat. Hundreds might go, and I shouldn't mind, but you---- It's strange to think of your going off into a world I don't know at all--and then coming back."
"To take you off to that world you don't know, Nell; and then the time will come when you will know it as well as I do, and more, too; and be able to set me down in my proper place."
"What is your proper place? Your place will always be the same. Phil, you've been so good to me this time; you've made everybody like you so. Mamma--that's the best of all. She was a little--I can't say jealous, that is not the right word, but uncertain and frightened--which just means that she did not know you, Phil; now you've condescended to let yourself be known."
"Have I, Nell? I've had more luck than meaning if that's so."
"'Tis that you've condescended to let yourself be known. A man has such odious pride. He likes to show himself all on the wrong side, to brave people's opinions--as if it was better to be liked for the badness in you than for the goodness in you!"
"What's the goodness in me, Nell? I'd like to know, and then I can have it ready in other emergencies and serve it out as it is wanted."
"Oh, Phil! the goodness in you is--yourself. You can't help being nice when you throw off those society airs. When you are talking with Mariamne and all that set of people----"
"Why can't you call her Jew? life is too short to say all those syllables."
"I don't like you to call her Jew. It's unkind. I don't think she deserves it. It's a sort of an insult."
"Shut up, Nell. It's her name and that's enough. Mar-ry-am-ne! It's a beast of a name to begin with. And do you think any of us has got time to say as much as that for one woman? Oh, I suppose I'm fond of her--as men are of their sisters. She is not a bad sort--mean as her name, and never fond of parting with her money--but stands by a fellow in a kind of a way all the same."
"I'll never call her Jew," said Elinor; "and, Phil, all this wonderful amount of things you have to do is simply--nothing. What do you ever do? It is the people who do things that have time to spare. I know one----"