Analyzed to its last elements, her feeling, it must be confessed, was
pretty nearly pure selfishness; but she was able, without effort, and
by half-unconscious art, to throw over it the air of being
disinterested friendship. Such a nature is essentially false, but
chiefly in that it gives to a passing mood the appearance of a
permanent sentiment, and, while seeking only self-gratification, seems
actuated by genuine desire to give pleasure to another.
The attitude of Rangely toward Mrs. Staggchase was, perhaps, no more
unselfish, and was certainly no more noble, but his sentiment was at
least more genuine. He was flattered by her preference, and he was
bewildered by her cleverness. He liked to believe himself capable of
interesting her, and without in the most remote degree desiring or
anticipating an intrigue, he was ready to go as far as she would allow
in his devotion. He was constantly tormented by a vague phantom of
conquest, which danced with will-o'-the-wisp fantasy before him, and
from day to day he endeavored to discover how deeply in love she was
willing he should fall. He was really fond of her, a fact that did not
prevent his entertaining a half-hearted passion for Ethel Mott, the
result of this mixture of emotion being that he was the slave, albeit
with a difference, of either lady with whom he chanced to be.
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