Mimi in his hate--Lilla, the harmless, tender-hearted, sweet-natured
girl, whose heart was so full of love for all things that in it was no
room for the passions of ordinary life--whose nature resembled those
doves of St. Columba, whose colour she wore, whose appearance she
reflected. Adam Salton came next--after a gap; for against him Caswall
had no direct animosity. He regarded him as an interference, a
difficulty to be got rid of or destroyed. The young Australian had been
so discreet that the most he had against him was his knowledge of what
had been. Caswall did not understand him, and to such a nature as his,
ignorance was a cause of alarm, of dread.

Caswall resumed his habit of watching the great kite straining at its
cord, varying his vigils in this way by a further examination of the
mysterious treasures of his house, especially Mesmer's chest. He sat
much on the roof of the tower, brooding over his thwarted passion. The
vast extent of his possessions, visible to him at that altitude, might,
one would have thought, have restored some of his complacency. But the
very extent of his ownership, thus perpetually brought before him,
created a fresh sense of grievance. How was it, he thought, that with so
much at command that others wished for, he could not achieve the dearest
wishes of his heart?

In this state of intellectual and moral depravity, he found a solace in
the renewal of his experiments with the mechanical powers of the kite.
For a couple of weeks he did not see Lady Arabella, who was always on the
watch for a chance of meeting him; neither did he see the Watford girls,
who studiously kept out of his way. Adam Salton simply marked time,
keeping ready to deal with anything that might affect his friends. He
called at the farm and heard from Mimi of the last battle of wills, but
it had only one consequence. He got from Ross several more mongooses,