"The next time he comes," the Doctor added, "you had better call me.
He might like to see me."
Morris Townsend came again, some five days afterwards; but Dr. Sloper
was not called, as he was absent from home at the time. Catherine
was with her aunt when the young man's name was brought in, and Mrs.
Penniman, effacing herself and protesting, made a great point of her
niece's going into the drawing-room alone.
"This time it's for you--for you only," she said. "Before, when he
talked to me, it was only preliminary--it was to gain my confidence.
Literally, my dear, I should not have the COURAGE to show myself to-
day."
And this was perfectly true. Mrs. Penniman was not a brave woman,
and Morris Townsend had struck her as a young man of great force of
character, and of remarkable powers of satire; a keen, resolute,
brilliant nature, with which one must exercise a great deal of tact.
She said to herself that he was "imperious," and she liked the word
and the idea. She was not the least jealous of her niece, and she
had been perfectly happy with Mr. Penniman, but in the bottom of her
heart she permitted herself the observation: "That's the sort of
husband I should have had!" He was certainly much more imperious--
she ended by calling it imperial--than Mr. Penniman.
So Catherine saw Mr. Townsend alone, and her aunt did not come in
even at the end of the visit.
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