As they were looking, the door opened and Michael Watford came into the room.  By that time all had recovered their self-possession, and there was nothing out of the common to attract his attention.  As he came in, seeing inquiring looks all around him, he said: 

“The new influx of birds is only the annual migration of pigeons from Africa.  I am told that it will soon be over.”

The second victory of Mimi Watford made Edgar Caswall more moody than ever.  He felt thrown back on himself, and this, added to his absorbing interest in the hope of a victory of his mesmeric powers, became a deep and settled purpose of revenge.  The chief object of his animosity was, of course, Mimi, whose will had overcome his, but it was obscured in greater or lesser degree by all who had opposed him.  Lilla was next to Mimi in his hate—­Lilla, the harmless, tender-hearted, sweet-natured girl, whose heart was so full of love for all things that in it was no room for the passions of ordinary life—­whose nature resembled those doves of St. Columba, whose colour she wore, whose appearance she reflected.  Adam Salton came next—­after a gap; for against him Caswall had no direct animosity.  He regarded him as an interference, a difficulty to be got rid of or destroyed.  The young Australian had been so discreet that the most he had against him was his knowledge of what had been.  Caswall did not understand him, and to such a nature as his, ignorance was a cause of alarm, of dread.

Caswall resumed his habit of watching the great kite straining at its cord, varying his vigils in this way by a further examination of the mysterious treasures of his house, especially Mesmer’s chest.  He sat much on the roof of the tower, brooding over his thwarted passion.  The vast extent of his possessions, visible to him at that altitude, might, one would have thought, have restored some of his complacency.  But the very extent of his ownership, thus perpetually brought before him, created a fresh sense of grievance.  How was it, he thought, that with so much at command that others wished for, he could not achieve the dearest wishes of his heart?

In this state of intellectual and moral depravity, he found a solace in the renewal of his experiments with the mechanical powers of the kite.  For a couple of weeks he did not see Lady Arabella, who was always on the watch for a chance of meeting him; neither did he see the Watford girls, who studiously kept out of his way.  Adam Salton simply marked time, keeping ready to deal with anything that might affect his friends.  He called at the farm and heard from Mimi of the last battle of wills, but it had only one consequence.  He got from Ross several more mongooses, including a second king-cobra-killer, which he generally carried with him in its box whenever he walked out.