When Lady Arleigh had changed her traveling-dress, she went down-stairs.
Her young husband looked up in a rapture of delight.
"Oh, Madaline," he said, "how long have you been away from me? It seems
like a hundred hours, yet I do not suppose it has been one. And how fair
you look, my love! That cloudy white robe suits your golden hair and
your sweet face, which has the same soft, sweet expression as when I saw
you first; and those pretty shoulders of yours gleam like polished
marble through the lace. No dress could be more coquettish or prettier."
The wide hanging sleeves were fastened back from the shoulders with
buttons of pearl, leaving the white, rounded arms bare; a bracelet of
pearls--Lady Peters' gift--was clasped round the graceful neck; the
waves of golden hair, half loose, half carelessly fastened, were like a
crown on the beautiful head.
"I am proud of my wife," he said. "I know that no fairer Lady Arleigh
has ever been at Beechgrove. When we have dined, Madaline, I will take
you to the picture-gallery, and introduce you to my ancestors and
ancestresses."
A _recherche_ little dinner had been hastily prepared, and was served in
the grand dining-room.
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