And those few who passed, and saw her sitting there under the
pepper-tree, wondered no doubt at the stillness of this dame bien mise,
who had risen so early.
V
In the small hours, which so many wish were smaller, the Colonel had
awakened, with the affair of the handkerchief swelling visibly. His
niece's husband was not a man that he had much liking for—a taciturn
fellow, with possibly a bit of the brute in him, a man who rather rode
people down; but, since Dolly and he were in charge of Olive, the notion
that young Lennan was falling in love with her under their very noses
was alarming to one naturally punctilious. It was not until he fell
asleep again, and woke in full morning light, that the remedy occurred
to him. She must be taken out of herself! Dolly and he had been slack;
too interested in this queer place, this queer lot of people! They had
neglected her, left her to. . . Boys and girls!—One ought always to
remember. But it was not too late. She was old Lindsay's daughter; would
not forget herself. Poor old Lindsay—fine fellow; bit too much, perhaps,
of the—Huguenot in him! Queer, those throw-backs! Had noticed in horses,
time and again—white hairs about the tail, carriage of the head—skip
generations and then pop out. And Olive had something of his look—the
same ivory skin, same colour of eyes and hair! Only she was not severe,
like her father, not exactly! And once more there shot through the
Colonel a vague dread, as of a trusteeship neglected. It disappeared,
however, in his bath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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