The distress of mind which Robert Darnley suffered, and that gloominess of look which his father reprobated and lectured him upon, did not arise so much from the mere loss of Penelope, as from the harassing doubts to which he was exposed by the conflicting of external and internal evidence. It is a painful thing to doubt, because it is humiliating, and seems to question our discernment. It is also very perplexing to the mind when it sees evidence enough to prove that which it feels to be impossible, or very unlikely. In this dilemma Robert Darnley had been placed by what he had heard of Penelope Primrose. He knew, or at least very firmly believed her to be of decided character, good principle and high spirit. He felt it impossible that she should love a profligate or a blockhead, and he knew Lord Spoonbill to be both. But it was very clear that she was with Lord Smatterton's family, and that she had certainly contemplated the public exercise of her musical talents. To his fathers discourse therefore he listened with unresisting patience, and only replied when it was finished; "I can only say, sir, that if what Mr Pringle has said concerning Miss Primrose be true, I have been very much deceived in the estimate which I had formed of the young lady's mind and character." "Certainly you were," replied his father; "you are a young man and have seen but little of human nature. You are hasty, very hasty, in forming your judgment. You will grow wiser as you grow older. Now I was not deceived in Miss Primrose. I could see her real character. I always thought her very proud and vain and conceited. But she laboured under great disadvantages in her education. Her uncle was a worthy man, but he was a mere scholar, by no means a man of the world. And as for Mrs Greendale, she is a very weak woman." Robert Darnley knew his father too well to contradict him directly in anything which he might be pleased to assert; he therefore only ventured in a very circuitous way to insinuate the possibility that Mr Zephaniah Pringle might be erroneously informed, and that there might be some mistake or misapprehension. But the worthy rector of Neverden was not able to bear the slightest approach to contradiction or opposition. He had lived so long in absolute authority in his own house and parish, that he was perfectly sincere in believing that he could never be wrong and ought never to be contradicted. He therefore contributed very considerably to shorten the discussion, by saying: "You are of age, and of course may do as you please; but, if you will condescend to take my advice, you will think no more of Miss Primrose. At all events, it is my particular request that I may hear no more of her."