few days--his eyes! And now! She brooded earnestly over what dress she
should put on. She, who tanned so quickly, had almost lost her sunburn
in the week of travelling and Oxford. To-day her eyes looked tired, and
she was pale. She was not going to disdain anything that might help. She
had reached thirty-six last month, and he would be nineteen to-morrow!
She decided on black. In black she knew that her neck looked whiter, and
the colour of her eyes and hair stranger. She put on no jewellery, did
not even pin a rose at her breast, took white gloves. Since her husband
did not come to her room, she went up the little stairway to his. She
surprised him ready dressed, standing by the fireplace, smiling faintly.
What was he thinking of, standing there with that smile? Was there blood
in him at all?

He inclined his head slightly and said:

"Good! Chaste as the night! Black suits you. Shall we find our way down
to these savage halls?"

And they went down.

Everyone was already there, waiting. A single neighbouring squire and
magistrate, by name Trusham, had been bidden, to make numbers equal.

Dinner was announced; they went in. At the round table in a dining-room,
all black oak, with many candles, and terrible portraits of departed
ancestors, Anna sat between the magistrate and Gordy. Mark was opposite,
between a quaint-looking old lady and a young girl who had not been
introduced, a girl in white, with very fair hair and very white skin,
blue eyes, and lips a little parted; a daughter evidently of the faded
Mrs. Doone. A girl like a silvery moth, like a forget-me-not! Anna