they returned for tea, and would expect her to be bright and on
the alert to please him, Aunt Caroline felt. As for Stella, as
that moment approached it seemed to her that the end of all joy
had come.




CHAPTER IV


The Rev. Eustace Medlicott, when the stains of travel had been
removed from his thin person, came down to tea in the hall of the
Grand Hotel with a distinct misgiving in his heart. He did not
approve of it as a place of residence for his betrothed. Another
and equally well-drained hostelry might have been found for the
party he thought, where such evidences of worldly occupations and
amusements would not so forcibly strike the eye. Music with one's
meals savored of paganism. He was still very emaciated with his
Lenten fast. It took him until July, generally, to pick up again;
and he was tired with his journey. Stella was not there to greet
him, only the Aunt Caroline, and he felt a sense of injury
creeping over him. She might have been in time. Nancy Ruggles, the
Bishop's second daughter, had given him tea and ministered to his
wants in a spirit of solicitous devotion every day since the
Ebleys had left Exminster, but Nancy's hair was not full of
sunlight, nor did her complexion suggest cream and roses. Things
which, to be sure, the Rev. Eustace Medlicott felt he ought not to
dwell upon; they were fleshly lusts and should be discouraged.