She seemed in her placidity to be far removed from any earthly emotion, and resembled a picture of the Madonna, serene, peaceful, and somewhat sad.
Yet who could tell what anguished feelings were masked by her womanly pride?
"I hope you do not find the weather too warm for walking," said Lambert, reining in his emotions with an iron hand, and speaking conventionally.
"Not at all.

I enjoyed the walk.

I am staying at The Manor." "So I understand." "And you are staying here ?" "There can be no doubt on that point." "Do you think you are acting wisely ?" she asked with great calmness.
"I might put the same question to you, Agnes, seeing that you have come to live within three miles of my hermitage." "It is because you are living in what you call your hermitage that I have come," rejoined Agnes, with a slight color deepening her cheeks.
"Is it fair to me that you should shut yourself up and play the part of the disappointed lover ?" Lambert, who had been touching up his picture here and there, laid down his palette and brushes with ostentatious care, and faced her doggedly.
"I don't understand what you mean," he declared.
"Oh, I think you do; and in the hope that I may induce you, in justice to me, to change your conduct, I have come over." "I don't think you should have come," he observed in a low voice, and threw himself on the couch with averted eyes.
Lady Agnes colored again.

"You are talking nonsense," she said with some sharpness.

"There is no harm in my coming to see my cousin." "We were more than cousins once." "Exactly, and unfortunately people know that.