rather slight in form; her complexion white rather than pale, her face
being only less white than the deep marbly whiteness of her arms. Her
eyes were large, and full of liquid night--a night throbbing with the
light of invisible stars. Her hair seemed raven-black, and in quantity
profuse. The expression of her face, however, generally partook more of
vagueness than any other characteristic. Lady Hilton called her Lady
Alice; and she never addressed Lady Hilton but in the same ceremonious
style.

I afterwards learned from the old house-keeper, that Lady Alice's
position in the family was a very peculiar one. Distantly connected with
Lord Hilton's family on the mother's side, she was the daughter of the
late Lord Glendarroch, and step-daughter to Lady Hilton, who had become
Lady Hilton within a year after Lord Glendarroch's death. Lady Alice,
then quite a child, had accompanied her stepmother, to whom she was
moderately attached, and who had been allowed to retain undisputed
possession of her. She had no near relatives, else the fortune I
afterwards found to be at her disposal would have aroused contending
claims to the right of guardianship.

Although she was in many respects kindly treated by her stepmother,
certain peculiarities tended to her isolation from the family pursuits
and pleasures. Lady Alice had no accomplishments. She could neither
spell her own language, nor even read it aloud. Yet she delighted in
reading to herself, though, for the most part, books which Mrs. Wilson
characterised as very odd. Her voice, when she spoke, had a quite
indescribable music in it; yet she neither sang nor played. Her habitual
motion was more like a rhythmical gliding than an ordinary walk, yet she
could not dance. Mrs. Wilson hinted at other and more serious
peculiarities, which she either could not, or would not describe; always