When he awoke the next morning at the Lord-Quantock-Arms Hotel
Somerset felt quite morbid on recalling the intelligence he
had received from Mrs. Camperton. But as the day for serious
practical consultation about the castle works, to which Paula
had playfully alluded, was now close at hand, he determined to
banish sentimental reflections on the frailties that were
besieging her nature, by active preparation for his
professional undertaking. To be her high-priest in art, to
elaborate a structure whose cunning workmanship would be
meeting her eye every day till the end of her natural life,
and saying to her, 'He invented it,' with all the eloquence of
an inanimate thing long regarded--this was no mean
satisfaction, come what else would.
He returned to town the next day to set ma
