Dawn

Chapter 46

The departure of the Bellamys left Arthur in very low spirits. His

sensations were similar to those which one can well imagine an ancient

Greek might have experienced who, having sent to consult the Delphic

oracle, had got for his pains a very unsatisfactory reply,

foreshadowing evils but not actually defining them. Lady Bellamy was

in some way connected with the idea of an oracle in his mind. She

looked oracular. Her dark face and inscrutable eyes, the stamp of

power upon her brow, all suggested that she was a mistress of the

black arts. Her words, too, were mysterious, and fraught with bitter

wisdom and a deep knowledge distilled from the poisonous weeds of

life.

Arthur felt with something like a shudder that, if Lady Bellamy

prophesied evil, evil was following hard upon her