If he was absent from the room an hour，a perceptible dulness seemed to steal over the spirits of his guests; and his re-entrance was sure to give a fresh impulse to the vivacity of conversation.

The want of his animating influence appeared to be peculiarly felt one day that he had been summoned to Millcote on business，and was not likely to return till late. The afternoon was wet: a walk the party had proposed to take to see a gipsy camp，lately pitched on a mon beyond Hay，was consequently deferred. Some of the gentlemen were gone to the stables: the younger ones，together with the younger ladies，were playing billiards in the billiard-room. The dowagers Ingram and Lynn sought solace in a quiet game at cards.

Blanche Ingram，after having repelled，by supercilious taciturnity，some efforts of Mrs. Dent and Mrs. Eshton to draw her into conversation，had first murmured over some sentimental tunes and airs on the piano，and then，having fetched a novel from the library，had flung herself in haughty listlessness on a sofa，and prepared to beguile，by the spell of fiction，the tedious hours of absence. The room and the house were silent: only now and then the merriment of the billiard-players was heard from above.

It was verging on dusk，and the dock had already given warning of the hour to dress for dinner，when little Adele，who knelt by me in the drawing-room window-seat，suddenly exclaimed-