Helbeck of Bannisdale — Volume I

by Mrs. Humphry Ward

Mrs. Fountain sighed.

"And as to Mrs. Denton, I see—that explains the manners. No improvement—till Lent's over?"

"Laura!"

But her stepdaughter, who was at the window again looking out, paid no heed, and presently Augustina said with timid softness:

"Won't you have your breakfast, Laura? You know it's here—on my tray."

Laura turned, and Augustina to her infinite relief saw not frowns, but a face all radiance.

"I've been watching the lambs in the field across the river. Such ridiculous enchanting things!—such jumps—and affectations. And the river's heavenly—and all the general feel of it! I really don't know, Augustina, how you ever came to leave this country when you'd once been born in it."

Mrs. Fountain pushed away her tray, shook her head sadly, and said nothing.

"What is it?—and who is it?" cried Laura, standing amazed before a picture in the drawing-room at Bannisdale.

In front of her, on the panelled wall, hung a dazzling portrait of a girl in white, a creature light as a flower under wind; eyes upraised and eager, as though to welcome a lover; fair hair bound turban-like with a white veil; the pretty hands playing with a book. It shone from the brown wall with a kind of natural sovereignty over all below it and around it, so brilliant was the picture, so beautiful the woman.