But he was here this morning
for another purpose than to weigh the question of Miss Royal's fancy. If
she did encourage Edmonson she was all the more inexplicable.
Stephen bent over Lady Dacre's chair, talking gayly to her; yet his eyes
wandered every now and then, and, gradually, after he had stopped
several times beside one and another, he came up to Elizabeth, as she
was sitting listening to a young lady who, with her brother, had come
back from town with Madam Pepperell, the night before, to spend a few
days at the house.
As Stephen stood behind her chair he looked across the room, and saw
Edmonson leaning with folded arms against a window. The light fell over
his face; he had been looking at Elizabeth, but his eyes met Archdale's
at once with an expression meant for cool scrutiny and a dash of
insolent triumph at the victory he had scored. Edmonson's fierceness was
not easily fettered; the dark shadow in his heart darted over his face,
and, withdrawing as hastily, left to view a light that blazed in his
eyes and only slowly died down into the cordial warmth necessary between
guest and host, even under peculiar circumstances. Stephen's face
darkened also, but his feeling was less, and his control greater.
Elizabeth was listening quietly to some account of a merry-making at
which Katie must have been present, for her name occurred frequently in
the narrative.
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