274
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
nothing as I between you. Come now, Dorkie, be a good
girl — you must not look so vexed."
"I'm not vexed."
"What then?"
"I'm only thinking."
She said this with the same bitter smile. Stanley Lake
looked for a moment disposed to break into one of his
furies, but instead he only laughed his unpleasant laugh.
"Well, I'm thinking too, and I find it quite possible to
be vexed at the same time. I assure you, Dorcas, I really
am busy; and it is too bad to have one's time wasted in
solemn lectures about stuff and nonsense. Do make Ra-
chel explain herself, if she can — 1 have no objection, I
assure you; but I must be permitted to decline undertak-
ing to interpret that oracle. And so saying, Stanley Lake
glided into the library and shut the door with an angry
clap.
Dorcas did not deign to look after him. She had heard
his farewell address, looking from the window at the tow-
ering and sombre clumps of her ancestral trees — pale,
proud, with perhaps a peculiar gleam of resentment — or
malignity — in her exquisite features.
So she stood, looking forth on her noble possessions —
on terraces — " long rows of urns " — noble timber — all
seen in slanting sunlight and long shadows — and seeing
nothing but the great word fool! in letters of flame in
the air before her.