On some occasions the two girls and Miss Mueller were of the party, and
then it seemed to John Hammond as if nothing were needed to complete the
glory of earth and sky. There were other days--rougher journeys--when
the men went alone, and there were days when Lady Mary stole away from
her books and music, and all those studies which she was supposed still
to be pursuing--no longer closely supervised by her governess, but on
parole, as it were--and went with her brother and his friend across the
hills and far away. Those were happy days for Mary, for it was always
delight to her to be with Maulevrier; yet she had a profound conviction
of John Hammond's indifference, kind and courteous as he was in all his
dealings with her, and a sense of her own inferiority, of her own humble
charms and little power to please, which was so acute as to be almost
pain. One day this keen sense of humiliation broke from her unawares in
her talk with her brother, as they two sat on a broad heathy slope face
to face with one of the Langdale pikes, and with a deep valley at their
feet, while John Hammond was climbing from rock to rock in the gorge on
their right, exploring the beauties of Dungeon Ghyll.
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