40
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
low there was something very unpleasant about that wor-
thy old woman; and not being under any personal obliga-
tions to her, I confess my acquiescence in the spirit of
Captain Lake's remarks.
She was certainly perfectly neat and clean, but white
predominated unpleasantly in her costume. Her cotton
gown had once had a pale pattern over it, but wear and
washing had destroyed its tints, till it was no better than
white, with a mottling of grey. She had a large white
kerchief pinned with a grisly precision across her breast,
and a white linen cap tied under her chin, fitting close to
her head, like a child's night-cap, and destitute of border
or frilling about the face. It was a dress very odd and
unpleasant to behold, and suggested the idea of an hospi-
tal, or a mad house, or death, in an undefined way.
She was past sixty, with a mournful puckered and
puffy face, tinted all over with a thin gamboge and burnt
sienna glazing; and very blue under the eyes, which
showed a great deal of their watery whites. This old wo-
man had in her face and air, along with an expression of
suspicion, and anxiety, a certain character of decency and
respectability, which made her altogether a puzzling and
unpleasant apparition.
Being taciturn and undemonstrative, she stood at the
door, looking with as pleased a countenance as so sad a por-
trait could wear, upon the young gentleman.
He got up at his leisure and greeted "old Tamar,"
with his sleepy, amused sort of smile, and a few trite
words of kindness. So Tamar withdrew to prepare tea;
and he said, all at once, with a sudden accession of energy,
and an unpleasant momentary glare in his eyes —
"You know,; Rachel, this sort of thing is all nonsense.
You cannot go on living like this; you must marry —
you shall marry. Mark Wylder is down here, and he