106  WOTTON  REINFKED


CHAPTER  VI

The  inmates  of  the  House  in  the  Wold  were  a
fluctuating  brotherhood;  now  coming,  now  depart-
ing ;  so  that  week  after  week,  often  day  after  day,  a
new  assortment  of  characters  appeared  upon  the
scene.  Bernard  had  not  yet  returned ;  and  Wotton
was  spending  the  morning  in  a  richly-furnished
picture-gallery,  under  the  conduct  of  his  fair  hostess,
who  had  herself  proposed  this  indoors  occupation,
less  with  the  view  of  instructing  her  new  friend  in
pictorial  art,  for  which,  however,  she  was  well
qualified,  than  of  gradually  dispelling  his  reserve,
and  winning  her  way  into  more  free  communication
with  him.  For  such  an  object,  which  besides  she
carefully  kept  out  of  sight,  this  place  was  not  ill
chosen.  Wotton  knew  little  of  art,  but  his  suscepti-
bility for  it  was  deep  and  keen  ;  these  noble  pictures
could  not  but  pleasantly  engage  him;  and  while
under  the  clear  and  graceful  commentary  of  one
speaking  from  the  heart  and  to  the  heart,  many  a
figure  rose  with  fresh  loveliness  before  his  eyes,  and
revealed  to  him  in  glimpses  the  secret  of  its  beauty,
he  felt  as  if  acquiring  some  new  sense,  and  distant


WOTTON  REINFEED  107

anticipations  of  unknown  glories  finally  predisposed
him  for  giving  and  receiving,  at  intervals,  some
friendlier  expression  of  personal  feeling,  with  which  the
pictorial  lesson  might  be  intermingled.  He  began  to
be  at  home  with  his  fan*  critic,  and  had  the  satis-
faction to  perceive  that  here  and  there  an  observation
which  he  haisarded  was  partially  approved  of,  and
given  back  to  him  by  new  examples,  and  in  new
elucidation  and  expansion.  The  thought  of  bemg  in-
terrupted could  not  have  been  welcome  to  either,  when
the  rolling  of  a  carriage  rapidly  approached  the  house,
and  terminated  in  as  loud  an  explosion  of  sound  as
the  gravel  would  admit  of  before  the  main  door.
