Page:An Unfinished Song.djvu/131

126 and Maggie are but portraits of the author's own character."

"Yes," replied the doctor, "there is no doubt about it. As she was disappointed in her ideals and crossed in her highest hopes and aspirations"

He could not finish as my brother-in-law entered.

"Why are you so late?" enquired my sister.

"I could not dismiss my client, however hard I tried. What is the discussion about, George Eliot? Oh, she is a great woman, we must admit that, I am sorry to say."

"That is a very reluctant admission. Do you not as a man glory in such a genius in woman? She had a truly grand intellect combined with the sympathetic heart and subtle instinct of a true woman. Think of the masterly way in which she shows that every act of man, small or great, springs from a deeper motive, a finer sense of the inner nature. Has any writer of the stronger sex been able to equal her in that?"

"I disagree with you," said my brother-in-law. "Do you mean to say she is as great as Shakespeare, for instance?"