The colour was gone from her cheeks, and her dark eyes, heavily fringed by the black brows and lashes, shone out strangely; the contrast between the white flaxen hair, drawn back in simple massive waves like a Greek statue, and the broad level eyes as dark as night, was almost startling this evening in the singularity of its beauty.

She sat like a queenly marble at the end of the table, not silent, by any means, but so evidently out of spirits that John Westonhaugh, who did not know that Isaacs was going in the morning, and would not have supposed that his sister could care so much, if he had known, remarked upon her depression.
"What is the matter, Katharine ?" he asked kindly.

"Have you a headache this evening ?" She was just then staring rather blankly into space.
"Oh no," she said, trying to smile.

"I was thinking." "Ah," said Mr.Ghyrkins merrily, "that is why you look so unlike yourself, my dear!" And he laughed at his rough little joke.
"Do I ?" asked the girl absently.
But Ghyrkins was not to be repressed, and as Kildare and the Pegnugger man were gay and wide awake, the dinner was not as dull as might have been expected.

When it was over, Isaacs announced his intention of leaving early the next morning.