CHAPTER 46 Intelligence

　　'You are a very remarkable man, Dick!' said my aunt, with an air of  unqualified approbation; 'and never pretend to be anything else, for I know better!'

　　With that, my  aunt pulled him  by the sleeve,  and nodded to  me; and we  three stole quietly out of the room, and came away.

　　'That's a settler for  our military friend, at  any rate,' said my  aunt, on the way home.  'I should sleep the better for that, if there was nothing else to  be glad of!'

　　'She was quite overcome, I am afraid,' said Mr. Dick, with great commiseration.

　　'What!  Did you ever see a crocodile overcome?' inquired my aunt.

　　'I don't think I ever saw a crocodile,' returned Mr. Dick, mildly.

　　'There never would have been anything the matter, if it hadn't been for that old Animal,' said my aunt, with strong emphasis.  'It's very much to be wished  that some mothers would  leave their daughters  alone after marriage,  and not be  so violently affectionate.  They  seem to think  the only return  that can be  made them for bringing an unfortunate young woman into the world - God bless my soul, as if she asked to be brought, or wanted to come! - is full liberty to worry her out of it again.  What are you thinking of, Trot?'

　　I was thinking of all that had been said.  My mind was still running on some  of the expressions used.  'There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and  purpose.' 'The first  mistaken impulse of  an undisciplined heart.' 'My love was founded on  a rock.'  But we were  at home; and the trodden  leaves were lying under-foot, and the autumn wind was blowing.

　　CHAPTER 46 Intelligence

　　I must have been married, if I may trust to my imperfect memory for dates, about a  year or  so, when  one evening,  as I  was returning  from a  solitary  walk, thinking of the book I was then writing - for my success had steadily  increased with my steady application, and I was engaged at that time upon my first work of fiction - I came  past Mrs. Steerforth's house.   I had often passed  it before, during my  residence in  that neighbourhood,  though never  when I  could choose another road.  Howbeit,  it did sometimes  happen that it  was not easy  to find another, without making a long circuit; and  so I had passed that way, upon  the whole, pretty often.