There were people staying at the Hall, and they and Frank engrossed
all my mother's attention. At least, she did not appear to notice my
absence from home.
My brother Frank, however, was not so unobservant (he was two years
older than myself). Early one morning, before breakfast, curiosity
led him to follow me, and he came upon us in Graylingham Wood as we
were sitting under a tree close to the cliff, eating the wild honey
we had found in the Wilderness.
He stood there swinging a ground-ash cane, and looking at her in a
lordly, patronising way, the very personification no doubt of boyish
beauty. I became troubled to see him look so handsome. The contrast
between him and a cripple was not fair, I thought, as I observed an
expression of passing admiration on little Winifred's face. Yet I
thought there was not the pleased smile with which she had first
greeted me, and a weight of anxiety was partially removed, for it had
now become quite evident to me that I was as much in love as any
swain of eighteen--it had become quite evident that without Winifred
the poor little shattered sea-gull must perish altogether.
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