But the look of
it was as sharp as steel; like a slender rapier, fragile and thin, yet
keen enough to run a man through. The power of it, in a word, was out of
all measure with the slightness of the face.... Then the face dropped;
and Marjorie watched the back of the head bending this way and that,
till the nodding heads that followed hid it from sight.
Marjorie drew a deep breath and turned. The faces of her friends were as
pale and intent as her own. Only the priest was as easy as ever.
"So that is our Eliza," he said.
Then he did a strange thing.
He lifted his cap once more with grave seriousness. "God save her
Grace!" he said.
CHAPTER IV
I
Robin bowed to her very carefully, and stood upright again.
* * * * *
She had seen in an instant how changed he was, in that swift instant in
which her eyes had singled him out from the little crowd of men that had
come into the room with Anthony at their head. It was a change which she
could scarcely have put into words, unless she had said that it was the
conception of the Levite within his soul. He was dressed soberly and
richly, with a sword at his side, in great riding-boots splashed to the
knees with mud, with his cloak thrown back; and he carried his great
brimmed hat in his hand. All this was as it might have been in Derby,
though, perhaps, his dress was a shade more dignified than that in which
she had ever seen him.
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