She did not move. She was looking up with a new sweet gravity in her face.
'I don't care about the shops. The things are all faded. Let us walk round the cathedral; I want to have a good look at it.'
The expression of her face changed. She sighed, and a soft light of hopefulness came into her eyes. It was a quiet light, like the morning light in a wood.
'You look your loveliest now,' he said. He thought,--'Mad or drunk, or mad and drunk, what can I do?'
'Yes, as far as I know,' he answered. 'Mad or drunk, no matter which,' he thought.
'And you will treat me as a woman capable of respecting things that deserve respect?'
'Certainly.' He was not paying attention to what she was saying, his whole being was centred upon what she was looking. Mentally he said,--'Drunk or mad, or--love? No matter!'
'Suppose I made up my mind to take a rest, and think seriously of serious things, would you advise me to settle in the country or town?'
He stopped suddenly, raised his right arm, and made a slow gesture round. 'What place can you find better than here?' Throwing up his arm to its full height from his shoulder, he added,--'Under St Paul's?'
'O'CONNOR, you are to do my hair plain to-day,' said the mistress dreamily, as she sat before her glass.
'Plain, miss! Plain!' exclaimed the maid, in astonishment. 'Are you going to sit in your room all day?'
'No. I am going down to breakfast, and after breakfast I am going to see Westminster Abbey,' said Miss Gordon, with a sigh. 'I will wear my light-blue silk.
'And my pearl-grey hat with the blue feathers.'
O'Connor sat down and looked uneasily at her mistress. After a few seconds she asked,--
'And wouldn't you like to put green paint on your eyebrows and a blue stripe down your nose?'
'Come, O'Connor, and do my hair, or I shall be late.'
'I'll have no hand, act, or part in it,' said the maid quietly, as she folded her arms and stared with scrupulous sincerity at the window.
'Come at once, I say, O'Connor; no more nonsense. You really must learn to do what I tell you at once, or you and I shall part.'
For a moment the maid remained immoveable. Suddenly she rose to her feet, turned round, and placed herself between her mistress and the glass, and said excitedly,--
