The Man in Possession — page 310: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE MAN IN POSSESSION. 305 He asked Cornelius if he had noticed the alteration in his daughter. That cheerful individual admitted that he had observed she was paler and quieter than seemed natural, but airily hinted that love and anx- iety were no doubt at the bottom of it. She would be all right once the wedding-day was fixed. A few weeks back Sir Wilfred might have believed this, but if his illness had done no other good, it had at least sharpened his drink-soddened intellect, andhe was fully capable now of reflection and judgment. He said nothing to Kate, but for hours and hours together he brooded over the subject and wondered dismally whether he should ever see the old light in her eyes, the old proud brilliant smile on her lovely lips, the grace and verve and vitality in her every movement that had so attracted his errant fancy. This quiet, sad-faced girl, whose eyes haunted him like a perpetual reproach, had nothing in common with that brilliant Irish beauty at Croft, who had made all the women envious and the men ad- Miring. On the second afternoon that he came downstairs Mrs, Lafaye dropped in and brought Colonel Law- rence with her. Kate had not yet seen him. The first glance at the quiet impressive face, bronzed with exposure to all seasons and all weather, and bearing marks of thought and care even in its new radiance of con- tentment, attracted her greatly. ‘‘He looks so severe, and yet so gentle,” she thought, and she wondered no longer that Annette Lafaye had found such a combination irresistible. 20 COMicloe (Sri C(O)