If the old woman regarded anything on earth with affection, it was the tall, fair girl so unlike herself.

And Alice, too--I have often wondered how it were possible--Alice loved with the most ardent affection, that forbidding-looking, odious creature.
"To me, since the death of my mother, she had been civil but reserved--never addressing me without occasion required--and I neither sought nor cared for her regard.
"It was on the return of one of those holidays, when I returned home full of eager anticipations of happiness, of joyous days spent at the Park in company with Margaret and Alice, that I first beheld that artful villain, Robert Moncton.
"It was a lovely July evening.

The York coach set me down at the Park gates, and I entered the pretty cottage with my scanty luggage on my back, and found the lawyer engaged in earnest conversation with my grandmother.
"Struck with the appearance of the man, which at first sight is very remarkable, I paused for some minutes on the threshold, unobserved by the parties.

Like you, Geoffrey, I shall never forget the impression his countenance made upon me.

The features so handsome, the colouring so fine, the person that of a finished gentleman; and yet, all this pleasing combination of form and face marred by that cold, cruel, merciless eye.