But
what was rank to the colonists of Blithedale?"
"There were other reasons," I replied, "why I should have
demonstrated myself an ass, had I fallen in love with Priscilla. By
the bye, has Hollingsworth ever seen her in this dress?"
"Why do you bring up his name at every turn?" asked Zenobia in an
undertone, and with a malign look which wandered from my face to
Priscilla's. "You know not what you do! It is dangerous, sir,
believe me,
to tamper thus with earnest human passions, out of your own mere
idleness, and for your sport. I will endure it no longer! Take care
that it does not happen again! I warn you!"
"You partly wrong me, if not wholly," I responded. "It is an
uncertain sense of some duty to perform, that brings my thoughts, and
therefore my words, continually to that one point."
"Oh, this stale excuse of duty!" said Zenobia, in a whisper so full
of scorn that it penetrated me like the hiss of a serpent. "I have
often heard it before, from those who sought to interfere with me,
and I know precisely what it signifies. Bigotry; self-conceit; an
insolent curiosity; a meddlesome temper; a cold-blooded criticism,
founded on a shallow interpretation of half-perceptions; a monstrous
scepticism in regard to any conscience or any wisdom, except one's
own; a most irreverent propensity to thrust Providence aside, and
substitute one's self in its awful place,--out of these, and other
motives as miserable as these, comes your idea of duty! But, beware,
sir! With all your fancied acuteness, you step blindfold into these
affairs.
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