There were other influences at work, more subtle and every bit as
rapacious. There were the long hours in the hall by the leaping light
of the fire and the torches, feasts to be eaten, songs to sing,
dances, revels, and such like. Prosper was a cheerful, very sociable
youth. He had the manners of his father and the light-hearted
impertinence of a hundred ancestors, all rulers of men and women. He
made love to no one, and laughed at what he got of it for nothing--
which was plenty. There were shaded hours in the Countess's chamber,
where the songs were softer and the pauses of the songs softer still;
morning hours in the grassy alleys between the yew hedges; hours in
the south walk in an air thick with the languors of warm earth and
garden flowers; intimate rides in the pine wood; the wild freedom of
hawking in the open downs; the grass paths; Yule; the music, the hopes
of youth, the sweet familiarity, the shared books, the timid
encroachments and gentle restraints, half-entreaties, half-denials:--
no young man can resist these things unless he thinks of them
suspectingly (as Prosper never did), and no woman wishes to resist
them. If Prosper found a sister, Isabel began to find more than a
brother. She grew younger as he grew older. They were more than likely
to meet half way.