He felt pretty sure, however, that Willowes, despite his
hurt feelings, would have reappeared to claim his bright-eyed
property if he had been alive at the end of the twelve months.
As there was no husband to live with her, Barbara had relinquished
the house prepared for them by her father, and taken up her abode
anew at Chene Manor, as in the days of her girlhood. By degrees the
episode with Edmond Willowes seemed but a fevered dream, and as the
months grew to years Lord Uplandtowers' friendship with the people
at Chene--which had somewhat cooled after Barbara's elopement--
revived considerably, and he again became a frequent visitor there.
He could not make the most trivial alteration or improvement at
Knollingwood Hall, where he lived, without riding off to consult
with his friend Sir John at Chene; and thus putting himself
frequently under her eyes, Barbara grew accustomed to him, and
talked to him as freely as to a brother. She even began to look up
to him as a person of authority, judgment, and prudence; and though
his severity on the bench towards poachers, smugglers, and turnip-
stealers was matter of common notoriety, she trusted that much of
what was said might be misrepresentation.
Thus they lived on till her husband's absence had stretched to
years, and there could be no longer any doubt of his death. A
passionless manner of renewing his addresses seemed no longer out of
place in Lord Uplandtowers.
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