Reading 42

Washington Square

1. When the child was about ten
2. years old, Dr. Sloper invited his
3. sister, Mrs. Lavinia Penniman,
4. to come and stay with him. He
5. was extremely polite to Lavinia,
6. scrupulously, formally polite;
7. and she had never seen him in
8. anger but once in her life,
9. when he lost his temper in a
10. theological discussion with her
11. late husband. With her he
12. never discussed theology nor,
13. indeed, discussed anything; he
14. contented himself with making
15. known, very distinctly, in the
16. form of a lucid ultimatum, his
17. wishes with regard to Catherine.
18. Once, when the girl was about
19. twelve years old, he had said to
20. her ‘Try and make a clever
21. woman of her, Lavinia; I should
22. like her to be a clever woman.’
23. Mrs. Penniman, at this, looked
24. thoughtful a moment. ‘My dear
25. Austin,’ she then inquired, ‘do
26. you think it is better to be
27. clever than to be good?’
28. ‘Good for what?’ asked the
29. Doctor. ‘You are good for
30. nothing unless you are clever.’
31. From this assertion Mrs.
32. Penniman saw no reason to
33. dissent; she possibly reflected
34. that her own great use in the
35. world was owing to her
36. aptitude for many things.
37. ‘Of course I wish Catherine to
38. be good,’ the Doctor said next
39. day; ‘but she won’t be any the
40. less virtuous for not being a
41. fool. I am not afraid of her
42. being wicked; she will never
43. have the salt of malice in her
44. character. She is “as good as
45. good bread,” as the French
46. say; but six years hence I
47. don’t want to have to compare
48. her to good bread-and-butter.’
49. ‘Are you afraid she will be
50. insipid? My dear brother, it
51. is I who supply the butter; so
52. you needn’t fear!’ said Mrs.
53. Penniman, who had taken in
54. hand the child’s
55. ‘accomplishments,’ overlooking
56. her at the piano, where
57. Catherine displayed a certain
58. talent, and going with her to
59. the dancing-class, where it
60. must be confessed that she
61. made but a modest figure.
62. Mrs. Penniman was a tall, thin,
63. fair, rather faded woman, with
64. a perfectly amiable disposition,
65. a high standard of gentility, a
66. taste for light literature, and a
67. certain foolish indirectness
68. and obliquity of character.
69. She was romantic; she was
70. sentimental; she had a passion
71. for little secrets and mysteries
72. – a very innocent passion, for
73. her secrets had hitherto always
74. been as unpractical as addled
75. eggs. She was not absolutely
76. veracious; but this defect was
77. of no great consequence, for
78. she had never had anything to
79. conceal.
80. Her brother, who was very
81. shrewd, understood her turn
82. of mind. ‘When Catherine is
83. about seventeen,’ he said to
84. himself, ‘Lavinia will try and
85. persuade her that some young
86. man with a mustache is in
87. love with her. It will be quite
88. untrue; no young man, with
89. a mustache or without, will
90. ever be in love with Catherine.
91. But Lavinia will take it up,
92. and talk to her about it;
93. perhaps even, if her taste for
94. clandestine operations doesn’t
95. prevail with her, she will talk
96. to me about it. Catherine
97. won’t see it, and won’t believe
98. it, fortunately for her peace of
99. mind; poor Catherine
100. isn’t romantic.’
101. She was a healthy, well-grown
102. child, without a trace of her
103. mother’s beauty. She was not
104. ugly; she had simply a plain,
105. dull, gentle countenance. The
106. most that had ever been said
107. for her was that she had a
108. ‘nice’ face; and, though she
109. was an heiress, no one had
110. ever thought of regarding
111. her as a belle.
112. Her father’s opinion of her
113. moral purity was abundantly
114. justified; she was excellently,
115. imperturbably good;
116. affectionate, docile, obedient,
117. and much addicted to
118. speaking the truth. In her
119. younger years she was a
120. good deal of a romp, and,
121. though it is an awkward
122. confession to make about
123. one’s heroine, I must add
124. that she was something of a
125. glutton.
126. Catherine was decidedly not
127. clever; she was not quick with
128. her book, nor, indeed, with
129. anything else. She was not
130. abnormally deficient, and
131. she mustered learning enough
132. to acquit herself respectably
133. in conversation with her
134. contemporaries. She was
135. extremely fond of her father,
136. and very much afraid of him;
137. her deepest desire was to
138. please him, and her
139. conception of happiness
140. was to know that she had
141. succeeded in pleasing him.
142. She had never succeeded
143. beyond a certain point.