At
his entrance she turned and gazed at him fixedly.
"Forgive my intrusion, Mrs. Wade," Denzil began, in a genial voice.
"I have come to look over the house, and was just told that you were
here. As we are not absolute strangers"----
He had never met her in the social way, though she had been a
resident at Polterham for some six years. Through Mrs. Liversedge,
her repute had long ago reached him; she was universally considered
eccentric, and, by many people, hardly proper for an acquaintance.
On her first arrival in the town she wore the garb of recent
widowhood; relatives here she had none, but an old friendship
existed between her and the occupants of this house, a childless
couple named Hornibrook. Her age was now about thirty.
Quarrier was far from regarding her as an attractive woman. He
thought better of her intelligence than before hearing her speak,
and it was not difficult for him to imagine that the rumour of
Polterham went much astray when it concerned itself with her
characteristics; but the face now directed to him had no power
whatever over his sensibilities. It might be that of a high-spirited
and large-brained woman; beautiful it could not be called. There was
something amiss with the eyes. All the other features might pass:
they were neither plain nor comely: a forehead of good type, a very
ordinary nose, largish lips, chin suggesting the masculine; but the
eyes, to begin with, were prominent, and they glistened in a way
which made it very difficult to determine their colour.
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