Chapter 4
Lord Windlesham sat under the cedar¹ tree. His eyes rested on the graceful² proportions of Wode
Hall. There was nothing to mar³ its old world beauty; the new buildings and additions were out of
sight round the corner. It was a fair and peaceful sight bathed in the Autumn sunshine.
Nevertheless, as he gazed, it was no longer Wode Hall that Charles Windlesham saw. Instead, he
seemed to see a more imposing⁴ Elizabethan mansion⁵, a long sweep of park, a more bleak⁶
background. It was his own family seat, Charltonbury, and in the foreground stood a figure - a
girl's figure, with bright golden hair and an eager confident face... Linnet as mistress of
Charltonbury!
He felt very hopeful. That refusal of hers had not been at all a definite refusal. It had been little
more than a plea for time. Well, he could afford to wait a little.
How amazingly suitable the whole thing was. It was certainly advisable that he should marry
money, but not such a matter of necessity that he could regard himself as forced to put his own
feelings on one side. And he loved Linnet. He would have wanted to marry her even if she had
been practically penniless, instead of one of the richest girls in England. Only, fortunately, she was
one of the richest girls in England...
His mind played with attractive plans for the future. The Mastership of the Roxdale perhaps, the
restoration of the west wing, no need to let the Scotch⁷ shooting...
Charles Windlesham dreamed in the sun.
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