isclosures to sadden any woman who loves her as dearly, and
feels for her as acutely, as I do.

There is only one consolation to set against them--a consolation that
ought to comfort me, and that does comfort me. All the graces and
gentleness of her character--all the frank affection of her nature--all
the sweet, simple, womanly charms which used to make her the darling
and delight of every one who approached her, have come back to me with
herself. Of my other impressions I am sometimes a little inclined to
doubt. Of this last, best, happiest of all impressions, I grow more
and more certain every hour in the day.

Let me turn, now, from her to her travelling companions. Her husband
must engage my attention first. What have I observed in Sir Percival,
since his return, to improve my opinion of him?

I can hardly say. Small vexations and annoyances seem to have beset
him since he came back, and no man, under those circumstances, is ever
presented at his best. He looks, as I think, thinner than he was when
he left England. His wearisome cough and his comfortless restlessness
have certainly increased. His manner--at least his manner towards
me--is much more abrupt than it used to be. He greeted me, on the
evening of his return, with little or nothing of the ceremony and
civility of former times--no polite speeches of welcome--no appearance
of extraordinary gratification at seeing me--nothing but a short shake
of the hand, and a sharp "How-d'ye-do, Miss Halcombe--glad to see you
again." He seemed to accept me as one of the necessary fixtures of
Blackwater Park, to be satisfied at finding me established in my proper
place, and then to pass me over altogether.

Most men show something of their disposition in their own houses, which
they have concealed elsewhere, and Sir Percival has already displayed a
mania for order and regularity, which is quite a new revelation of him,
so far as my previous knowledge of his character is concerned. If I
take a book from the library and leave it on the table, he follows me
and puts it back again. If I rise from a chair, and let it remain
where I have been sitting, he carefully restores it to its proper place
against the wall. He picks up stray flower-blossoms from the carpet,
and mutters to himself as discontentedly as if they were hot cinders
burning holes in it, and he storms at the servants if there is a crease
in the tablecloth, or a knife missing from its place at the din