frozen, and her features, I fancied, particularly proud and
pale. It seemed to me to indicate a great deal more than mere
indifference--something of aversion, and nearer to a positive emotion
than anything I had yet seen in that exquisitely apathetic face.

How was it that this man with the yellow eyes seemed to gleam from them
an influence of pain or disturbance, wherever almost he looked.

'Shake hands with your cousin, my dear,' said old Lady Chelford,
peremptorily. The little scene took place close to her chair; and upon
this stage direction the little piece of by-play took place, and the
young lady coldly touched the captain's hand, and passed on.

Young as he was, Stanley Lake was an old man of the world, not to be
disconcerted, and never saw more than exactly suited him. Waiting in the
drawing-room, I had some entertaining talk with Miss Lake. Her
conversation was lively, and rather bold, not at all in the coarse sense,
but she struck me as having formed a system of ethics and views of life,
both good-humoured and sarcastic, and had carried into her rustic
sequestration the melancholy and precocious lore of her early London
experience.

When Lord Chelford joined us, I perceived that Wylder was in the room,
and saw a very cordial greeting between him and Lake. The captain
appeared quite easy and cheerful; but Mark, I thought, notwithstanding
his laughter and general jollity, was uncomfortable; and I saw him once
or twice, when Stanley's eye was not upon him, glance sharply on the
young man with an uneasy and not very friendly curiosity.

At dinner Lake was easy and amusing. That meal passed off rather