Publisher's Synopsis
It was the middle of autumn, and had rained all day. Through the lozenge-panes of the wideoriel window the world appeared in the slowly gathering dusk not a little dismal. The dropsthat clung trickling to the dim glass added rain and gloom to the landscape beyond, whitherthe eye passed, as if vaguely seeking that help in the distance, which the drippinghollyhocks and sodden sunflowers bordering the little lawn, or the honeysuckle coveringthe wide porch, from which the slow rain dropped ceaselessly upon the pebble-pavingbelow, could not give-steepy slopes, hedge-divided into small fields, some green anddotted with red cattle, others crowded with shocks of bedraggled and drooping corn, whichlooked suffering and patient.The room to which the window having this prospect belonged was large and low, with adark floor of uncarpeted oak. It opened immediately upon the porch, and although a goodfire of logs blazed on the hearth, was chilly to the sense of the old man, who, with his feeton the skin of a fallow-deer, sat gazing sadly into the flames, which shone rosy through thethin hands spread out before them. At the opposite corner of the great low-arched chimneysat a lady past the prime of life, but still beautiful, though the beauty was all but merged inthe loveliness that rises from the heart to the face of such as have taken the greatest step inlife-that is, as the old proverb says, the step out of doors. She was plainly yet rather richlydressed, in garments of an old-fashioned and well-preserved look. Her hair was cut shortabove her forehead, and frizzed out in bunches of little curls on each side. On her head wasa covering of dark stuff, like a nun's veil, which fell behind and on her shoulders. Closeround her neck was a string of amber beads, that gave a soft harmonious light to hercomplexion. Her dark eyes looked as if they found repose there, so quietly did they rest onthe face of the old man, who was plainly a clergyman. It was a small, pale, thin, delicatelyand symmetrically formed face, yet not the less a strong one, with endurance on thesomewhat sad brow, and force in the closed lips, while a good conscience looked clear outof the grey eyes.