I never saw him that I remember." Lord Maxwell left the subject, of course, at once, but showed a great wish to talk to her, and make her talk.

He had pleasant things to say about Mellor and its past, which could be said without offence; and some conversation about the Boyce monuments in Mellor church led to a discussion of the part played by the different local families in the Civil Wars, in which it seemed to Aldous that his grandfather tried in various shrewd and courteous ways to make Marcella feel at ease with herself and her race, accepted, as it were, of right into the local brotherhood, and so to soothe and heal those bruised feelings he could not but divine.
The girl carried herself a little loftily, answering with an independence and freedom beyond her age and born of her London life.

She was not in the least abashed or shy.

Yet it was clear that Lord Maxwell's first impressions were favourable.

Aldous caught every now and then his quick, judging look sweeping over her and instantly withdrawn--comparing, as the grandson very well knew, every point, and tone, and gesture with some inner ideal of what a Raeburn's wife should be.