WYLDER'S HAJVD. Hi
"Saturday, is it? He seemed to think — yes — it
would be only a day or so. Some jewels, I think, for
Dorcas. He did not say distinctly; I only conjecture.
Lady Chelford and Miss Brandon, I suppose, in the
drawing-room?"
So to the drawing-room he passed.
"How is Rachel? how is your sister, Captain Lake,
have you seen her to-day?" asked old Lady Chelford,
rather benignantly. She chose to be gracious to the
Lakes.
"Only for a moment, thank you. She has one of her
miserable headaches, poor thing; but she'll be better, she
says, in the afternoon, and hopes to come up here to see
you and Miss Brandon, this evening."
Lord Chelford and I had a pleasant walk that day to
the ruins of Willerton Castle. After this he wished to
make a visit to the Vicar, and so we parted company. I
got into Brandon Park by the pretty gate near Latham.
It was a walk of nearly three miles across the park from
this point to the Hall, and the slopes and hollows of this
noble, undulating plain, came out grandly in the long
shadows and slanting beams of evening. That yellow,
level light has, in my mind, something undefinably glorious
and melancholy, such as to make almost any scenery inter-
esting, and my solitary walk was delightful.
After many devious wanderings. I found, under shelter
of a wonderful little hollow, in which lay, dim and still,
a tarn, reflecting the stems of the trees that rose from its
edge, in a way so clear and beautiful, that, with a smile
and a sigh, I sat myself down upon a rock among the ferns,
and fell into a reverie.
The image of Dorcas rose before me. There is a
strange mystery and power in the apathetic, and in that
unaffected carelessness, even defiance of opinion and criti-