In the end, however, he was spared the necessity of falsehood. For
the truth itself reached Lady O'Moy in an unexpected manner. It
came about a month after that day when O'Moy had first received news
of the escapade at Tavora. It was a resplendent morning of early
June, and the adjutant was detained a few moments from breakfast by
the arrival of a mail-bag from headquarters, now established at
Vizeu. Leaving Captain Tremayne to deal with it, Sir Terence went
down to breakfast, bearing with him only a few letters of a personal
character which had reached him from friends on the frontier.
The architecture of the house at Monsanto was of a semiclaustral
character; three sides of it enclosed a sheltered luxuriant garden,
whilst on the fourth side a connecting corridor, completing the
quadrangle, spanned bridgewise the spacious archway through which
admittance was gained directly from the parklands that sloped gently
to Alcantara. This archway, closed at night by enormous wooden
doors, opened wide during the day upon a grassy terrace bounded by a
baluster of white marble that gleamed now in the brilliant sunshine.
It was O'Moy's practice to breakfast out-of-doors in that genial
climate, and during April, before the sun had reached its present
intensity, the table had been spread out there upon the terrace.
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