At such times it
seemed that one thought in his mind had swallowed all the rest, so
that he heard without understanding and saw without perceiving.
He was in such a humour when he came back to dinner. He passed
Desiree on the stairs without speaking and went to his room to
change his clothes, for he never relaxed his formal habits. At the
dinner-table he glanced at her as a dog, knowing that he is ill, may
be seen to glance with a secret air at his master, wondering whether
he is detected.
Desiree had always hoped that her father would speak to her when
this humour was upon him and tell her the meaning of it. Perhaps it
would come to-night, when they were alone. There was an unspoken
sympathy existing between them in which Mathilde took no share,
which had even shut out Charles as out of a room where there was no
light, into which Desiree and her father went at times and stood
hand-in-hand without speaking.
They dined in silence, while Lisa hurried about her duties,
oppressed by a sense of unknown fear. After dinner they went to the
drawing-room as usual. It had been a dull day, with great clouds
creeping up from the West. The evening fell early, and the lamps
were already alight. Desiree looked to the wicks with the eye of
experience when she entered the room. Then she went to the window.
Lisa did not always draw the curtains effectually. She glanced down
into the street, and turned suddenly on her heel, facing her father.
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