Nor until now had Mr.Hammond ever addressed her by her Christian name without the ceremonious prefix.

There was a deeper tone in his voice, a graver look in his eyes, than she had ever noticed before.
She rose, and took up her sunshade, and went with him meekly through the cultivated shrubbery of ornamental timber to the rougher pathway that wound through a copse of Scotch fir, which formed the outer boundary of Lady Maulevrier's domain.

Beyond the fir trees rose the grassy slope of the hill, on the brow of which sheep were feeding.

Deep down in the hollow below the lawns and shrubberries of Fellside the placid bosom of the lake shone like an emerald floor in the sunlight, reflecting the verdure of the hill, and the white sheep dotted about here and there.
There was not a breath in the air around them as those two sauntered slowly side by side in the pine wood, not a cloud in the dazzling blue sky above; and for a little time they too were silent, as if bound by a spell which neither dared to break.

Then at last Hammond spoke.
'Lesbia, you know that I love you,' he began, in his low, grave voice, tremulous with feeling.