enjoyed her tête-à-tête, for it was almost that. She knew that she was looking wonderfully well in her white dress, but Fairfax's praise was none the less welcome. He was one of the men enamoured of women's luxury, and she was aware that he would have liked to see her each time in a new dress, and arrayed with more coquetry even than she cared to use. She laughed at this trait in him—it went with much else in his character that she thought amusing, but rather despicable. But she liked his more masculine side—his energy, ability, and clear-headedness. He talked about men and affairs with incisive force, and had a lightly cynical attitude toward life in general which went rather oddly with his devotional attitude toward women.
He was, at bottom, thoroughly conventional; and part of Teresa's pleasure lay in shocking him. He had from the first been amused and interested by the freedom of her talk; then he had taken to combating lightly her ideas; but as he knew her better, he became more vehement in his protest. He thought her idea of marriage totally wrong; and he had been horrified at learning the extent of her information about life in general, and Basil's responsibility therein. He, as Teresa pointed out to him, thoroughly agreed with her Aunt Sophy, that women should be protected as much as possible from knowledge—outside their sphere.
