She worked industriously and skillfully, and nothing disturbed her for several hours.
Johnnie had availed himself of the opportunity to make an excursion into the woods on his own account, and she was quite alone; but nothing alarmed her, and she worked on fearlessly amid the fragrant stillness of the lovely June day, whose calmness was broken by nothing louder than the hum of the bees among the flowers, or the joyous carol of the sky-lark as it soared from earth to heaven, losing itself, as it were, in the illimitable blue of the sky.
The midday sun climbed high and higher into the sky, and Leonora, pausing over her nearly completed sketch, pushed back her wide hat from her flushed face, and stopped to rest, glancing around at the quiet graves that encompassed her.
"What a still and peaceful company we are!" she said, aloud, quaintly, never thinking how strange it looked to see her sitting there—the only living thing among the silent tombs.
Then all at once, as if the tenants of the grave had come to life, Leonora heard a soft babel of voices and laughter.
With a start she turned her head.
A party of gay young ladies and gentlemen were strolling toward her across the level greensward. Foremost among them was Lord Lancaster, walking beside the earl's daughter.
It was too late for retreat.
Every eye turned on the graceful figure sitting there so quietly among the graves of the dead and gone Lancasters.
As they passed the low stone wall that divided them, Lancaster lifted his hat and bowed low and profoundly.