Title:  One of Our Conquerors, v5

Author:  George Meredith

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

Release Date:  September, 2003 [Etext #4475] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 19, 2002]

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ONE OF OUR CONQUERORS

By George Meredith

1897

BOOK 5.

XXXVI.  Nesta and her father
XXXVII.  The mother—­the daughter
XXXVIII.  Nataly, Nesta, and Dartrey Fenellan
XXXIX.  A chapter in the shadow of Mrs. Marsett
XL.  An expiation
XLI.  The night of the great UNDELIVERED speech
XLII.  The last

CHAPTER XXXVI

NESTA AND HER FATHER

The day of Nesta’s return was one of a number of late when Victor was robbed of his walk Westward by Lady Grace Halley, who seduced his politeness with her various forms of blandishment to take a seat in her carriage; and she was a practical speaker upon her quarter of the world when she had him there.  Perhaps she was right in saying—­though she had no right to say—­that he and she together might have the world under their feet.  It was one of those irritating suggestions which expedite us up to a bald ceiling, only to make us feel the gas-bladder’s tight extension upon emptiness:  It moved him to examine the poor value of his aim, by tying him to the contemptible means:  One estimate involved the other, whichever came first.  Somewhere he had an idea, that would lift and cleanse all degradations.  But it did seem as if he were not enjoying:  things pleasant enough in the passage of them were barren, if not prickly, in the retrospect.