Not a
beauty--not at all; but, as the Rector had said, 'striking.'
As for Pamela, what was the matter with the child? Until Beryl's
name was mentioned, there was not a smile to be got out of her. And
it was a very fleeting one when it came. Desmond's name fared a
little better. At that the girl did at last raise her beautiful
eyes, which till then she had hardly allowed to be seen, and there
was a ray in them.
'He's here on leave,' she said; 'a few days. He's just got his
Commission and been accepted for the artillery. He goes into camp
next week. He thinks he'll be out by January.'
'We must certainly manage to see him before he goes,' said Sir Henry
heartily. Then turning to Miss Bremerton with the slightly
over-emphatic civility of a man who prides himself on his manners in
all contingencies, he asked her if she was already acquainted with
the Mannering neighbourhood.
Miss Bremerton replied that it was quite unknown to her. 'You'll
admire our trees,' said Sir Henry. 'They're very fine.'
'Are they?' said the lady rather absently, giving a perfunctory
glance to the woods sloping away on her right towards a little
stream winding in the hollow.
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