The same zeal in his brother's service which had saved Oscar's life at the Trial, might well be the zeal that animated him now.

The perplexity that I felt was not roused in me by the course that he had taken--but by the language in which he justified himself, and, more still, by his behavior to me while he was speaking.

The well-bred brilliant young fellow of my previous experience, had now turned as dogged and as ungracious as a man could be.

He waited to hear what I had to say to him next, with a hard defiance and desperation of manner entirely uncalled for by the circumstances, and entirely out of harmony with his character, so far as I had observed it.

That there was something lurking under the surface, some inner motive at work in him which he was concealing from his brother and concealing from me, was as plainly visible as the sunshine and shade on the view that I was looking at from the summer-house.