Rollo sank into a chair and smiled ever so faintly at the Wrotsleys,
just a momentary baring of the teeth; an otter, escaping from the
fangs of the hounds into the safety of a deep pool, might have given
a similar demonstration of feelings.
From the library came the sound of moving furniture. Agnes was
leaving nothing unturned in her quest for the mythical chocolates.
And then came a more blessed sound, wheels crunching wet gravel.
"It has been a most enjoyable evening," said Rollo to his hostess.
CROSS CURRENTS
Vanessa Pennington had a husband who was poor, with few extenuating
circumstances, and an admirer who, though comfortably rich, was
cumbered with a sense of honour. His wealth made him welcome in
Vanessa's eyes, but his code of what was right impelled him to go
away and forget her, or at the most to think of her in the intervals
of doing a great many other things. And although Alaric Clyde loved
Vanessa, and thought he should always go on loving her, he gradually
and unconsciously allowed himself to be wooed and won by a more
alluring mistress; he fancied that his continued shunning of the
haunts of men was a self-imposed exile, but his heart was caught in
the spell of the Wilderness, and the Wilderness was kind and
beautiful to him. When one is young and strong and unfettered the
wild earth can be very kind and very beautiful. Witness the legion
of men who were once young and unfettered and now eat out their
souls in dustbins, because, having erstwhile known and loved the
Wilderness, they broke from her thrall and turned aside into beaten
paths.
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