[CHAPTER VII.]
THE BIG HOUSE AND THE LADY
"The light of love, the purity of grace;
The mind, the music breathing from her face;
The heart, whose softness harmonised the whole."
Mrs. Conyfer was waiting for Gratian at the gate of the schoolhouse when he came out.
"We must make haste," she said; "I think it's going to rain."
Gratian looked up at the sky, and sniffed the cold evening air.
"Yes," he said, "I think it is."
"It's not so cold quite as it was when I came down," Mrs. Conyfer went on—the dwellers at Four Winds often spoke of "coming down," when they meant going to the village—"that's perhaps because the rain is coming. I don't want to get my bonnet spoilt—I might have known it was going to rain when father said the wind was in the west."
"Why does the west wind bring rain?" asked Gratian; "is it because it comes from the sea?"