All 3 Uses of
guile
in
Nicholas Nickleby
- But, it would have been a stranger contrast still, to have read the hearts that were beating side by side; to have laid bare the gentle innocence of the one, and the rugged villainy of the other; to have hung upon the guileless thoughts of the affectionate girl, and been amazed that, among all the wily plots and calculations of the old man, there should not be one word or figure denoting thought of death or of the grave.†
Chpt 10
- There was something so earnest and guileless in the way in which all this was said, and such a complete disregard of all conventional restraints and coldnesses, that Nicholas could not resist it.
Chpt 35 *guileless = innocent -- without cunning (shrewdness, cleverness) or deceitstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in guileless means without. This is the same pattern you see in words like fearless, homeless, and endless.
- In this guileless and most kind simplicity, brother Charles was so happy, and in this possibility of the young lady being led to think that she was under no obligation to him, he evidently felt so sanguine and had so much delight, that Nicholas would not breathe a doubt upon the subject.†
Chpt 46
Definition:
-
(guile) cunning (shrewdness and cleverness) and deceitful