He returned by way of Hungary, and
sent telegrams like shouts of excitement whenever the train stopped
for a sufficient time. "Old Leopard, I am coming, I am coming," he
telegraphed, announcing his coming for the fourth time. It was to
be the briefest of visits, very passionate, the mutual refreshment
of two noble lovers, and then he was returning to Russia again.
Amanda was at Chexington, and there he found her installed in the
utmost dignity of expectant maternity. Like many other people he
had been a little disposed to regard the bearing of children as a
common human experience; at Chexington he came to think of it as a
rare and sacramental function. Amanda had become very beautiful in
quiet, grey, dove-like tones; her sun-touched, boy's complexion had
given way to a soft glow of the utmost loveliness, her brisk little
neck that had always reminded him of the stalk of a flower was now
softened and rounded; her eyes were tender, and she moved about the
place in the manner of one who is vowed to a great sacrifice. She
dominated the scene, and Lady Marayne, with a certain astonishment
in her eyes and a smouldering disposition to irony, was the half-
sympathetic, half-resentful priestess of her daughter-in-law's
unparalleled immolation.
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