That one must expect. Well, now
then--you have seen Broadstone?"
She rose to question him, the political passion in her veins asserting
itself against her weariness. She was still in her travelling dress.
From her small, haggard face the reddish hair was drawn tightly back;
the spectacled eyes, the dry lips, expressed a woman whose life had
hardened to dusty uses. Her mere aspect chilled and repelled her
brother, and he answered her questions shortly.
"Broadstone has treated you shabbily!" she remarked, with decision;
"but I suppose you will have to put up with it. And this terrible thing
that has happened to-day may tell against you when it comes to the
election. Ferrier will be looked upon as a martyr, and we shall suffer."
Oliver turned his eyes for relief to Alicia. She, in a soft black dress,
with many slender chains, studded with beautiful turquoises, about her
white neck, rested and cheered his sight. The black was for sympathy
with the family sorrow; the turquoises were there because he specially
admired them; he understood them both. The night was hot, and without
teasing him with questions she had brought him a glass of iced lemonade,
touching him caressingly on the arm while he drank it.
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