This and the adjoining boudoir were the prettiest
rooms in the house, and no one wondered that her ladyship should spend
so much of her life in the luxurious seclusion of her own apartments.
John Hammond went to his room, which was on the same side of the house
as her ladyship's; but he was in no disposition for sleep. He opened the
casement, and stood looking out upon the moonlit lake and the quiet
village, where one solitary light shone like a faint star in a cottage
window, amidst that little cluster of houses by the old church, once
known as Kirktown. Beyond the village rose gentle slopes, crowned with
foliage, and above those wooded crests appeared the grand outline of the
hills, surrounding and guarding Easedale's lovely valley, as the hills
surrounded Jerusalem of old.
He looked at that delicious landscape with eyes that hardly saw its
beauty. The image of a lovely face came between him and all the glory of
earth and sky.
'I think she likes me,' he was saying to himself. 'There was a look in
her eyes to-night that told me the time was come when----'
The thought died unfinished in his brain.
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