Her downcast face was very pale.

She ate but little, and that little only when urged thereto by Billy, whose appetite was rampant notwithstanding the decorum of his behaviour.
Scott, breakfasting with his brother at a table only a few yards distant, observed the trio with unobtrusive interest.
He had made acquaintance with the Colonel on the previous evening, and after a time the latter caught his eye and threw him a brief greeting.
Most people were polite to Scott.

But the Colonel's whole aspect was forbidding that morning, and his courtesy went no further.
Sir Eustace did not display the smallest interest in anyone.

His black brows were drawn, and he looked even more haughtily unapproachable than the Colonel.
He conversed with his brother in low tones on the subject of the morning's mail which lay at Scott's elbow and which he was investigating while he ate.

Now and then he gave concise and somewhat peremptory instructions, which Scott jotted down in a note-book with business-like rapidity.