THE EUROPEANS.
71
occurrence,   a pleasure   the   more  in this tranquil
household,- a prospective  source  of entertainment.
This was not Mr. Wentworth's way of treating any
human occurrence.    The sudden irruption into the
well-ordered consciousness of the Wentworths of an
element   not   allowed   for  in   its   scheme  of usual
obligations, required  a readjustment of that sense
of responsibility which constituted its principal furni-
ture.    To consider an event, crudely and baldly, in
the light of the pleasure it might bring them was
an intellectual  exercise with which Felix Young's
American cousins were almost wholly unacquainted,
and  which  they scarcely  supposed   to  be largely
pursued  in   any section   of human   society.     The
arrival  of Felix  and  his  sister was  a  satisfaction,
but it was a singularly joyless and inelastic satisfac-
tion.    It was an extension of duty,  of the exercise
of the more recondite virtues; but neither Mr. Went-
worth, nor Charlotte, nor Mr. Brand, who, among
these excellent people,  was a great promoter of re-
flection and aspiration,  frankly adverted to it as an
extension of enjoyment.   This function was ultimately
assumed by Gertrude Wentworth, who was a peculiar
girl, but the full compass of whose peculiarities had
not  been   exhibited  before   they   very ingeniously
found their pretext in the presence of these pos-
sibly too agreeable foreigners.    Gertrude, however,