Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/305

 fair, frank forehead, and wishing that he were less stupid in managing things; he had never in his life before presumed to condemn and counsel his sister—and this was the result!

Suddenly an idea struck him, and he rose.

"I will tell him," he thought. "I will tell him himself. And then I shall see what sort of stuff he is made of;—I can fight him afterwards if he don't satisfy me;—I'll tell him as if I suspected nothing—I can make an excuse, but when he hears it he'll show what he's made of;—oh, Lord, if it were only an Englishman she'd taken a liking to!—and to think that she's treated half the best men in Europe as if they were only so many stones under her feet!"

With a groan, Lord Clairvaux took up his hat, and went forth towards the Palazzo Della Rocca.

At six o'clock that evening he had to take his departure without seeing his sister again. He went away with a heavy heart.

"How extraordinary she is!" he thought. "Never even to ask me if I told the man anything or not. And never to bid one good-bye!