" And then she
laughed with an air of enjoyment, as though her new title amused
her. "Old maids can be very nice, can they not, Mr. Herrick?"
They were sitting down by the Pool, and Dinah had just left them at
Elizabeth's suggestion to tell the servants that they would have tea
there, and to answer a business note. The afternoon was sultry, more
like August than September; but down by the Pool there was a
pleasant shade and coolness. As usual, all the dogs were grouped
round them; and Elizabeth, in spite of her thirty-one years, looked
quite youthful in her white gown. A dark velvety Cramoisie rose
nestled against her full throat. Malcolm remembered suddenly that he
had noticed that special rose in the garden of the White Cottage
when he last dined at the vicarage; he wondered with a sudden fierce
prick of jealousy if that fellow Carlyon knew it was her birthday,
and had brought it to her. At the idea there was a dangerous
throbbing of his pulses.
The previous evening he had strolled across to the Wood House in the
hope that Elizabeth would be in one of her gracious moods, and then
he could coax her to sing to him.
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