By the interest and pleasure with which Mr. Brander followed her as she proceeded slowly and cautiously with her conjectures, Olivia felt sure that she was describing his wife, and also that she was getting near the truth. But then a look of pain came into his dark face, which set her wondering whether they had had a severe quarrel, whether there was some serious estrangement between them, or whether the trouble from which he was evidently suffering was caused merely by the absence of the woman of his heart. This singular clergyman, with his unconventional dress and manners, his worn face, and his great kindness, was so different from any of the stiff curates and unctuous vicars she had ever met, that he and his surroundings awoke in her the liveliest interest, even apart from the mysterious warning of Sarah Wall, and the surly insolence shown towards him by Farmer Oldshaw. After a short pause, he said—
“Right in every particular. Now we will see if you can find the lady.”
On the mantelpiece was a collection of photographs, most of them of more or less beautiful women, all handsomely framed. Mr. Brander invited Olivia to come up and inspect them. With another slight feeling of surprise, which she would have found it hard to account for, she stepped on to the soft fur hearthrug and made a careful review of the whole gallery. But here she was quite at a loss.
“I must lose my character for divination,” she said at last, shaking her head as she stepped back. “I don’t see any face that I could point out with any certainty.”
“Try.”
She chose one. Mr. Brander shook his head.
“Wrong,” he said. “You have disappointed me. What made you choose that one? Give me the nearest approach you can to a reason.”
“It looks a good, kind, sensible face.”
“It belongs to a good, kind, sensible woman—a Miss Williams—a striking contrast to the rest of her family,” he added as a comment to himself. “But she is not the lady who chose the fittings of this room. What do you say to this one?”
It was Olivia’s turn to be disappointed, and her face showed her surprise. The photograph was that of a woman who was very handsome, and there your reflections concerning her portrait ended. Mr. Brander laughed.