That
such a woman, so beautiful, so gifted, so well fitted to shine and
govern in the great world, should have been content to live a long life
of absolute seclusion in this remote valley was in itself a social
mystery which must needs set an observant young man wondering. It was
all very well to say that Lady Maulevrier loved a country life, that she
had made Fellside her earthly Paradise, and had no desire beyond it. The
fact remained that it was not in Lady Maulevrier's temperament to be
satisfied with such an existence; that falcon eye was never meant to
gaze for ever upon one narrow range of mountain and lake; that lip was
made to speak among the great ones of the world.
Lady Maulevrier was particularly gracious to her grandson's friend this
evening. Maulevrier spoke so decisively about a speedy migration
northward, seemed so inclined to regret the time wasted since the
twelfth of the month, that she thought the danger was past, and she
could afford to be civil. She really liked the young man, had no doubt
in her own mind that he was a gentleman in the highest and broadest
sense of the word, but not in the sense which made him an eligible
husband for either of her granddaughters.
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