"I'd spoil my part! But a natural clown won't keep up an artificial performance for an entire month, you see; which is the length of time we propose. He'll exhaust his nature in a day and be bowled over by the dullest regular donkey-engine with paint on his cheeks and a nodding topknot." "What is this expedition 'we' propose?" De Craye was advised in his heart to spare Miss Middleton any allusion to honeymoons. "Merely a game to cure dulness." "Ah!" Willoughby acquiesced. "A month, you said?" "One'd like it to last for years." "Ah! You are driving one of Mr. Merriman's witticisms at me, Horace; I am dense." Willoughby bowed to Dr. Middleton, and drew him from Vernon, filially taking his turn to talk with him closely. De Craye saw Clara's look as her father and Willoughby went aside thus linked. It lifted him over anxieties and casuistries concerning loyalty. Powder was in the look to make a warhorse breathe high and shiver for the signal. CHAPTER XXIV CONTAINS AN INSTANCE OF THE GENEROSITY OF WILLOUGHBY Observers of a gathering complication and a character in action commonly resemble gleaners who are intent only on picking up the cars of grain and huddling their store. Disinterestedly or interestedly they wax over-eager for the little trifles, and make too much of them. Observers should begin upon the precept, that not all we see is worth hoarding, and that the things we see are to be weighed in the scale with what we know of the situation, before we commit ourselves to a measurement. And they may be accurate observers without being good judges. They do not think so, and their bent is to glean hurriedly and form conclusions as hasty, when their business should be sift at each step, and question.