For this reason she was drawn to
Hope, who possessed that aggressive artistic temperament, where
good and bad, are in violent contrast. Random took opinions from
books, or from other people, and his mind, like a looking-glass,
reflected whatever came along; but Hope possessed opinions of his
own, both right and wrong, and held to these in the face of all
verbal opposition. He could argue and did argue, when Random
simply agreed. Lucy had similar idiosyncrasies, inherited from a
clever father, so it was just as well that she preferred Archie
to Frank. Had the latter young gentleman married her, he would
have dwindled to Lady Random's husband, and would have found too
late that he had domesticated a kind of imitation George Eliot.
When he congratulated Archie on his engagement somewhat ruefully,
he little thought what an escape he had had.
But Professor Braddock, who did not belong to the gray tribe,
knew nothing of this, as his Egyptological studies did not permit
him time to argue on such commonplace matters. He therefore
failed in advance when he set out to persuade Random into
renewing his suit. As the fiery little man afterwards expressed
himself, "I might as well have talked to a mollusc," for Random
politely declined to be used as an instrument to forward the
Professor's ambition at the cost of Miss Kendal's unhappiness.
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