He had a queer, bird-like aspect, and
a nose that was as sharp as the beak of any of the rooks cawing
hoarsely amongst the elms of Hallgrove that snowy Christmas-day.
After the dinner in the old hall, Lionel Dale and his guests returned
to their own quarters; Mrs. Mordaunt and the three younger ladies
walked in the grounds, with Douglas Dale and Sir Reginald Eversleigh in
attendance upon them.
Miss Graham was the last woman in the world to forget that the income
of Douglas Dale was almost as large as that of his brother, the rector;
and that in this instance she might have two strings to her bow. She
contrived to be by the side of Douglas as they walked in the
shrubberies, and lingered on the rustic bridge across the river; but
she had not been with him long before she perceived that all her
fascinations were thrown away upon him; and that, attentive and polite
though he was, his heart was far away.
It was indeed so. In that pleasant garden, where the dark evergreens
glistened in the red radiance of the winter sunset, Douglas Dale's
thoughts wandered away from the scene before him to the lovely Austrian
woman--the fair widow, whose life was so strange a mystery to him; the
woman whom he could neither respect nor trust; but whom, in spite of
himself, he loved better than any other creature upon earth.
"I had rather be by her side than here," he said to himself.
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