It told tales of the nature of her affection for him.

In truth, her antenuptial regard for Fitzpiers had been rather of the quality of awe towards a superior being than of tender solicitude for a lover.

It had been based upon mystery and strangeness--the mystery of his past, of his knowledge, of his professional skill, of his beliefs.

When this structure of ideals was demolished by the intimacy of common life, and she found him as merely human as the Hintock people themselves, a new foundation was in demand for an enduring and stanch affection--a sympathetic interdependence, wherein mutual weaknesses were made the grounds of a defensive alliance.

Fitzpiers had furnished none of that single-minded confidence and truth out of which alone such a second union could spring; hence it was with a controllable emotion that she now watched the mare brought round.
"I'll walk with you to the hill if you are not in a great hurry," she said, rather loath, after all, to let him go.
"Do; there's plenty of time," replied her husband.