an
understanding of the life, and of all that it involved. It gave him a
kind of fear, too, because she was sensitive, and there was the possible
danger of her growing disheartened or desperate, and doing some mad
thing in the hour that she wakened to the secret behind her marriage.

His apprehensions were not without cause. For slowly there came into
Lali's mind the element of comparison. She became conscious of it one
day when some neighbouring people called at Greyhope. Mrs. Armour, in
her sense of duty, which she had rigidly set before her, introduced Lali
into the drawing-room. The visitors veiled their curiosity and said some
pleasant casual things to the young wife, but she saw the half-curious,
half-furtive glances, she caught a sidelong glance and smile, and when
they were gone she took to looking at herself in a mirror, a thing she
could scarcely be persuaded to do before. She saw the difference between
her carriage and theirs, her manner of wearing her clothes and theirs,
her complexion and theirs. She exaggerated the difference. She brooded
on it. Now she sat downcast and timid, and hunted in face, as on the
first evening she came; now she appeared restless and excited.

If Mrs. Armour was not exactly sympathetic with her, she was quiet and
forbearing, and General Armour, like Richard, tried to draw her out--but
not on the same subjects. He dwelt upon what she did; the walks she
took in the park, those hours in the afternoon when, with Mackenzie or
Colvin, she vanished into the beeches, making friends with the birds and
deer and swans. But most of all she loved to go to the stables. She was,
however, asked not to go unless Richard or General Armour was with her.
She loved horses, and these were a wonder to her. She had never known
any but the wild, ungroomed Indian pony, on which she had ridden in
every fashion and over every kind of country. Mrs. Armour sent for a
riding-master, and had riding-costumes made for her. It was intended
that she should ride every day as soon as she seemed sufficiently
presentable. This did not appear so very far off, for she improved daily
in appearance. Her hair was growing finer, and was made up in the modest
prevailing fashion; her skin, no longer exposed to an inclement climate,
and subject to the utmost care, was smoother and fairer; her feet,
encased in fine, well-made boots, looked much smaller; her waist was
shaped to fashion, and she was very straight and lissom. So man