Her eyes went back to the sugar-tongs, and Edna joyfully escaped
from a room whose restraints and associations were irksome.

Impressed by Hagar's vehement adjuration to keep out of Mr. Murray's
path, she avoided those portions of the house to which he seemed
most partial, and thus although they continued to meet at meals, no
words passed between them, after that brief salutation on the
morning of presentation. Very often she was painfully conscious that
his searching eyes scrutinized her; but though the blood mounted
instantly to her cheeks at such times, she never looked up--dreading
his gaze as she would that of a basilisk. One sultry afternoon she
went into the park, and threw herself down on the long grass, under
a clump of cedars, near which the deer and bison were quietly
browsing, while the large white merinoes huddled in the shade and
blinked at the sun. Opening a pictorial history of England, which
she had selected from the library, she spread it on the grass, and
leaning her face in her palms, rested her elbows on the ground, and
began to read. Now and then she paused as she turned a leaf, to look
around at the beautiful animals, each one of which might have served
as a model for Landseer or Rosa Bonheur. Gradually the languor of
the atmosphere stole into her busy brain; as the sun crept down the
sky, her eyelids sunk with it, and very soon she was fast asleep,
with her head on the book, and her cheeks flushed almost to a
vermilion hue. From that brief summer dream she was aroused by some
sudden noise, and starting up, she saw the sheep bounding far away,
while a large, gaunt, wolfish, grey dog snuffed at her hands and
face.

Once before she had seen him chained near the stables, and Hagar