A haughty and uncontrollable gesture from the husband succeeded in
diverting the offender's notice to himself for one instant--not
more. But in that flash he detected a shade of difference in the
expression that irked him; a ray, that was inquiry, sharp and eager,
tempered by compassion, yet still contemptuous.
All this passed in less time than it has taken me to write a line
descriptive of the pantomime. The mound was shaped, and the
decorously mournful train turned from it to retrace their course to
the house, Frederic Chilton imitating the example of those about
him, but moving like a sleep-walker, his brows corrugated and eyes
sightless to all surrounding objects. He had awakened when the
Ridgeley carriage drove to the door. Mrs. Sutton detained Mabel in
one of the upper chambers to concert plans for a visit to the
homestead while the Dorrances should be there. Aunt and niece had
not met since the arrival of the latter in Virginia, a fortnight
before, the elder lady being in constant attendance upon Mrs.
Tazewell.
"This is very stupid! And I am getting hungry!" said Mrs. Aylett,
aside to her lord, as she stood near a front window, tapping the
floor with her feet, while vehicle after vehicle received its load
and rolled off. "We shall be the last on the ground. Herbert! can't
you intimate to Mabel that we are impatient to be gone?"
"I don't know where she is!" growled the brother, for once
non-complaisant to her behest, and not stirring from the chair in
the corner into which he had dropped at his entrance.
His head hung upon his breast, and he appeared to study the lining
of his hat-crown, balancing the brim by his forefingers between his
knees. Mrs. Aylett had lowered her veil in the burying-ground or on
her way thither, but it was a flimsy mass of black lace--richly
wrought, yet insufficient to hide the paleness of the upper part of
her visage. Mr. Aylett watched and wondered, with but one definite
idea in his brain beyond the resolve to ferret out the entire
mystery in his stealthy, taciturn fashion. Herbert Dorrance had
been, in some manner, compromised by his association with this
Chilton, had reason to dread exposure from him, and his sister was
the confidante of his guilty secret.
"I shall know all about it in due season," thought the master of
himself and his dependents.
Not that he meant to extort or wheedle it from his consort's
keeping, but he had implicit faith in his own detective talents.
"Here she is at last!" he said, when Mabel came down the staircase,
holding Aunt Rachel's hand, and talking low and earnestly, her noble
face and even gliding step a refreshing contrast to Mrs. Aylett's
nervousness and Herbert's dogged sullenness.