Mr. and Mrs. Macjean, after the funeral, took their departure to Dunkeld Castle, on a visit to the old lord, and after installing Minnie Pelch as mistress of the house in Delphson Square, Eustace went down to Castle Grim, in order to tell Lady Errington about the will.
It was a terribly bitter situation altogether. Husband parted from wife by a miserable misunderstanding, and this man, wealthy and clever, wavering between honour and dishonour, between respect for Guy and love for Alizon.
[CHAPTER XXXIV.]
THE ASSAULTS OF THE EVIL ONE.
"I sit beside the gate of the heart
That bars the soul of this woman from me;
The little white soul, that dwelleth apart,
Safe from temptation and evil dart,
Nor one chink in the gate can I see.
"Would I could open this gate of the heart,
Enter within, as a conqueror wild;
Nay, but I see a sentinel start,
To guard its treasure from earthly smart,
Evil shrinks from this little white child."
It was summer down at Denfield, and the noble woods around Errington Hall were waving their heavily foliaged branches over the flower-pranked earth. The wayside hedges were gay with blossoms, the swallows wheeled aloft in the bright blue sky, the farmer looking over the green fields was calculating the promise of harvest, and there was sunshine throughout the land.
Sunshine from dawn till eve over the teeming earth: sunshine in the hearts of village maidens, thinking of plighted troths; sunshine in the stolid faces of farming lads, tramping beside their sleek horses; sunshine among the cronies, seated outside the alehouse, in the warm summer air, but, in the heart of Alizon Errington--ah, there was no sunshine there!
She was walking slowly up and down the terrace of the Hall, dividing her attention between her own sad thoughts, and the gambols of Sammy, who was rolling amid his toys on an outspread bearskin. Straight and slender as an arrow, in her clinging white dress, with a red cluster of summer roses at her throat, but in her face a stern look, which melted into an adoring smile when she looked upon the child.
Since her husband's departure, Lady Errington had not been happy. Perhaps she had been too hasty in judging him, perhaps she might have won him back from his evil ways by kindly words, but there, it was no use regretting the past, he was an exile on the Continent, and she was alone in her beautiful home. Not quite alone, however, for the child was there; her darling child, who was the joy of her life, the light of her eyes, and the comfort of her heart!