Anne Bronte: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

11. CHAPTER XI (continued)

'Why, Rose, are you, too, giving in to the prevailing opinion?'

'No,' returned she, hesitatingly - 'but I've heard so much about her lately, both at the Wilsons' and the vicarage; - and besides, mamma says, if she were a proper person she would not be living there by herself - and don't you remember last winter, Gilbert, all that about the false name to the picture; and how she explained it - saying she had friends or acquaintances from whom she wished her present residence to be concealed, and that she was afraid of their tracing her out; - and then, how suddenly she started up and left the room when that person came - whom she took good care not to let us catch a glimpse of, and who Arthur, with such an air of mystery, told us was his mamma's friend?'

'Yes, Rose, I remember it all; and I can forgive your uncharitable conclusions; for, perhaps, if I did not know her myself, I should put all these things together, and believe the same as you do; but thank God, I do know her; and I should be unworthy the name of a man, if I could believe anything that was said against her, unless I heard it from her own lips. - I should as soon believe such things of you, Rose.'

'Oh, Gilbert!'

'Well, do you think I could believe anything of the kind, - whatever the Wilsons and Millwards dared to whisper?'

'I should hope not indeed!'

'And why not? - Because I know you - Well, and I know her just as well.'

'Oh, no! you know nothing of her former life; and last year, at this time, you did not know that such a person existed.'

'No matter. There is such a thing as looking through a person's eyes into the heart, and learning more of the height, and breadth, and depth of another's soul in one hour than it might take you a lifetime to discover, if he or she were not disposed to reveal it, or if you had not the sense to understand it.'