But this matter had not tended to make his mother more at ease in her
enforced stay at Belforest, which was becoming a kind of gilded
prison.
CHAPTER XXXI. SLACK TIDE.
If...
Thou hide thine eyes and make thy peevish moan
Over some broken reed of earth beneath,
Some darling of blind fancy dead and gone.
Keble.
There is such a thing as slack tide in the affairs of men, when a
crisis seems as if it would never come, and all things stagnate.
The Law Courts had as yet not concerned themselves about the will,
vacation time had come and all was at a standstill, nor could any
steps be taken for Lucas's exchange till it was certain into what
part of India Sir Philip Cameron was going. In the meantime his
regiment had gone into camp, and he could not get away until the
middle of September, and then only for a few days. Arriving very
late on a Friday night, he saw nobody but his mother over his supper,
and thought her looking very tired. When he met her in the morning,
there was the same weary, harassed countenance, there were worn marks
round the dark wistful eyes, and the hair, whitened at Schwarenbach,
did not look as incongruous with the face as hitherto.
No one else except Barbara had come down to prayers, so Jock's first
inquiry was for Armine.
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