She laid aside her hat in serene silence, and
sauntered languidly into the morning-room to keep her mother company.
She lunched on dire forebodings of a quarrel between Frank and his
father, with accidental interruptions in the shape of cold chicken and
cheese-cakes. She trifled away half an hour at the piano; and played,
in that time, selections from the Songs of Mendelssohn, the Mazurkas of
Chopin, the Operas of Verdi, and the Sonatas of Mozart--all of whom
had combined together on this occasion and produced one immortal work,
entitled "Frank." She closed the piano and went up to her room, to dream
away the hours luxuriously in visions of her married future. The green
shutters were closed, the easy-chair was pushed in front of the glass,
the maid w as summoned as usual; and the comb assisted the mistress's
reflections, through the medium of the mistress's hair, till heat and
idleness asserted their narcotic influences together, and Magdalen fell
asleep.
It was past three o'clock when she woke. On going downstairs again she
found her mother, Norah and Miss Garth all sitting together enjoying the
shade and the coolness under the open portico in front of the house.
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