Penniman that if she walked so slowly she would attract notice, and
he succeeded, after a fashion, in hurrying her back to the domicile
of which her tenure had become so insecure.
CHAPTER XXII
He had slightly misrepresented the matter in saying that Catherine
had consented to take the great step. We left her just now declaring
that she would burn her ships behind her; but Morris, after having
elicited this declaration, had become conscious of good reasons for
not taking it up. He avoided, gracefully enough, fixing a day,
though he left her under the impression that he had his eye on one.
Catherine may have had her difficulties; but those of her circumspect
suitor are also worthy of consideration. The prize was certainly
great; but it was only to be won by striking the happy mean between
precipitancy and caution. It would be all very well to take one's
jump and trust to Providence; Providence was more especially on the
side of clever people, and clever people were known by an
indisposition to risk their bones. The ultimate reward of a union
with a young woman who was both unattractive and impoverished ought
to be connected with immediate disadvantages by some very palpable
chain. Between the fear of losing Catherine and her possible fortune
altogether, and the fear of taking her too soon and finding this
possible fortune as void of actuality as a collection of emptied
bottles, it was not comfortable for Morris Townsend to choose; a fact
that should be remembered by readers disposed to judge harshly of a
young man who may have struck them as making but an indifferently
successful use of fine natural parts.
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