Then, again, Lomaque, the
land-steward--quiet, sharp, skinny Lomaque, with the submissive
manner, and the red-rimmed eyes--never looked up at his master's
future brother-in-law without looking away again rather uneasily,
and thoughtfully drilling holes in the grass with his long
sharp-pointed cane. Even the bride herself--the pretty, innocent
girl, with her childish shyness of manner--seemed to be affected
like the others. Doubt, if not distress, overshadowed her face
from time to time, and the hand which her lover held trembled a
little, and grew restless, when she accidentally caught her
brother's eye.
Strangely enough there was nothing to repel, but, on the
contrary, everything to attract in the look and manner of the
person whose mere presence seemed to exercise such a curiously
constraining influence over the wedding-party. Louis Trudaine
was a remarkably handsome man. His expression was singularly kind
and gentle; his manner irresistibly winning in its frank, manly
firmness and composure. His words, when he occasionally spoke,
seemed as unlikely to give offense as his looks; for he only
opened his lips in courteous reply to questions directly
addressed to him. Judging by a latent mournfulness in the tones
of his voice, and by the sorrowful tenderness which clouded his
kind, earnest eyes whenever they rested on his sister, his
thoughts were certainly not of the happy or the hopeful kind.
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