I felt myself in some kind of danger that night we met in the
railway-carriage. Her race is fatal to mine, I begin to think. Any
connection in that quarter would have galled my mother to the quick--broken
her heart perhaps; and I am bound to consider her in all I do. Nor am I a
schoolboy, to fancy that the whole colour of my life is to be governed by
such an influence as this. She is only a pretty woman, with a low sweet
voice, and gentle winning ways. Most people would call Geraldine the
handsomer of the two. Poor child! She ought to seem no more than a child to
me. I think she likes me, and trusts me. I wish Geraldine were kinder to
her; I wish-----"
He did not particularise that last wish, even to himself, but went away to
dress, having wasted the first quarter of the three-quarters that elapsed
between the first and second bell at Hale Castle.
Throughout that evening, which was an unusually quiet and domestic evening
for Hale, he did not talk any more to Clarissa. It might even have been
thought that he scrupulously, and of a fixed purpose, avoided her.
He devoted himself to chess with Lady Geraldine; a game he played
indifferently, and for which he cherished a profound aversion. But chess
was one of Geraldine Challoner's strong points; and that aristocratic
beauty never looked more regal than when she sat before a chess-table, with
one thin white hand hovering gently above the carved ivory pieces.
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