le gate leading to a door at the side of the house
through the Cedar Garden. The narrow path only admitted of single file,
and Hallin followed her, admiring her tall youth and the fine black and
white of her head and cheek as she turned every now and then to speak to
him. He realised more vividly than before the rare, exciting elements of
her beauty, and the truth in Aldous's comparison of her to one of the
tall women in a Florentine fresco. But he felt himself a good deal
baffled by her, all the same. In some ways, so far as any man who is not
the lover can understand such things, he understood why Aldous had
fallen in love with her; in others, she bore no relation whatever to the
woman his thoughts had been shaping all these years as his friend's fit
and natural wife.

Luncheon passed as easily as any meal could be expected to do, of which
Mr. Boyce was partial president. During the preceding month or two he
had definitely assumed the character of an invalid, although to
inexperienced eyes like Marcella's there did not seem to be very much
the matter. But, whatever the facts might be, Mr. Boyce's adroit use of
them had made a great difference to his position in his own household.
His wife's sarcastic freedom of manner was less apparent; and he was
obviously less in awe of her. Meanwhile he was as sore as ever towards
the Raeburns, and no more inclined to take any particular pleasure in
Marcella's prospects, or to make himself agreeable towards his future
son-in-law. He and Mrs. Boyce had been formally asked in Miss Raeburn's
best hand to the Court ball, but he had at once snappishly announced his
intention of staying at home. Marcella sometimes looked back with
astonishment to his eagerness for social notice when they first came to
Mellor. Clearly the rising irritability of illness had made it doubly
unpleasant to him to owe all that he was likely to get on that score to
his own daughter; and, moreover, he had learnt to occupy himself more
continuously on his own land and with his own affairs.

As to the state of the village, neither Marcella's entreaties nor
reproaches had any effect upon him. When it appeared certain that he
would be summoned for some specially flagrant piece of neglect he would
spend a few shillings on repairs; otherwise not a farthing. All that
filial softening towards him of which Marcella had been conscious in the
early autumn had died away in her. She said to herself now plainly and
bitterly t