unset.

And now it was already winter. The fell-sides were red with withered
fern; their round or craggy tops showed white against a steely sky; down
the withered copses by the stream, the north wind swept; a golden oak
showered its dead leaf upon her. Gray walls, purple fells, the brown and
silver of the stream, all the mountain detail that she loved--she drew it
passionately into her soul. Nature and art--why had she been so faithless
to them--she "the earth's unwearied lover?" She was miserably, ironically
conscious of her weakness; of the gap between her spring and her autumn.

On her return, she told Susy quietly of her expected visitor. Susy raised
her eyebrows.

"I shall give him tea," said Susan, "just to save the proprieties with
Sarah." Sarah was the house parlour-maid. "But _then_ you won't need to
give me hints."

Susy had departed. Lydia and Faversham sat opposite each other in the
little drawing-room.

Lydia's first impression on seeing him had been one of dismay. He looked
much older; and a certain remoteness, a cold and nervous manner seemed to
have taken the place of the responsive ease she remembered. It began to
cost her an effort to remember the emotion of their last meeting in the
Mainstairs lane.

But when they were alone together, he drew a long breath, and leaning
forward over the table before them, his face propped on his hand, he
looked at her earnestly.

"I wonder what you have been hearing about me?"

Lydia made a brave effort, and told him. She repeated to him
the gist of what Susan had reported the night before, putting it
lightly--apologetically--as though statements so extravagant had only
to be made to be disproved. His mind meanwhile was divided between
strained attention, and irrepressible delight in the spectacle of Lydia
enthroned in her mother's chair, of the pale golden hair rippling back
from the broad forehead, and the clear eyes beneath the thin dark arch of
the brows, so delicately traced on the white skin; of all the play of
gesture and expression that made up her beauty. Existence for him during
these weeks of her absence had largely meant expectation of this moment.
He had discounted all that she would probably say to him; his replies
were ready.

And she no sooner paused than he began an eager and considered defence of
himself. A defence which, as he explained, he had intended to make weeks
before. He had called the very day after their hurried departure for
Lon