The touch of colour heightened the beauty
of her clear ivory face and brightened up the old habit; but she looked
at herself in the glass with something like shamefacedness: why was she
so anxious about her appearance this morning of all the mornings? For
an instant she was tempted to snatch off the tie; but in the end she
let it remain; and she brushed the soft tendrils of her hair at her
forehead with unusual care before she fastened on her hat.
Her father was walking up and down the terrace slowly as she came out,
and he raised his head and looked at her absently.
"I shall probably ride into Bryndermere, father," she said. "Shall I
post your letters? I know you will be anxious for that one to the
book-sellers to go," she added, with a smile.
His eyes dropped and he seemed disconcerted for a minute, then he said:
"No, no; I'll send it by Jason; I've not written it yet;" and he turned
away from her and resumed his pacing to and fro.
Ida went to the stable-yard and got on to Rupert by the aid of the
stone "mounting block" from which Charles the Second had climbed,
laughingly, to the white horse which figures in so many pictures of the
Merry Monarch, and rode out of the court-yard, watched with pride by
Jason.
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