“We each have an observant faculty. You, perhaps, don’t give me credit for the possession; yet I have it.”
“But you were speaking of tastes: we may see the same objects, yet estimate them differently?”
“Let us bring it to the test. Of course, you cannot but render homage to the merits of Miss Fanshawe: now, what do you think of others in the room?—my mother, for instance; or the lions yonder, Messieurs A—— and Z——; or, let us say, that pale little lady, Miss de Bassompierre?”
“You know what I think of your mother. I have not thought of Messieurs A—— and Z——.”
“And the other?”
“I think she is, as you say, a pale little lady—pale, certainly, just now, when she is fatigued with over-excitement.”
“You don’t remember her as a child?”
“I wonder, sometimes, whether you do.”
“I had forgotten her; but it is noticeable, that circumstances, persons, even words and looks, that had slipped your memory, may, under certain conditions, certain aspects of your own or another’s mind, revive.”
“That is possible enough.”