"If ever
you mention that cursed hole again I'll kick you out of the house."
Malcolm's eyes flashed and a fierce answer rose to his lips, but he
had seen that his master was in trouble, and sympathy supplanted rage.
He turned and left the room in silence.
Lord Lossie paced up and down the library for a whole hour--a
long time for him to be in one mood. The mood changed color pretty
frequently during the hour, however, and by degrees his wrath
assuaged. But at the end of it he knew no more what he was going to do
than when he left Miss Horn in the study. Then came the gnawing of his
usual ennui and restlessness: he must find something to do.
The thing he always thought of first was a ride, but the only animal
of horse-kind about the place which he liked was the bay mare, and her
he had lamed. He would go and see what the rascal had come bothering
about--alone, though, for he could not endure the sight of the
fisher-fellow, damn him!
In a few minutes he stood in the wizard's chamber, and glanced around
it with a feeling of discomfort rather than sorrow--of annoyance at
the trouble of which it had been for him both fountain and storehouse,
rather than regret for the agony and contempt which his selfishness
had brought upon the woman he loved: then spying the door in the
farthest corner, he made for it, and in a moment more, his curiosity
now thoroughly roused, was slowly gyrating down the steps of the old
screw-stair.
Pages:
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169