in a choice dish:  their presence was pungent, but their absence would be felt as comparatively insipid.  And as for the vague something —­ was it a sinister or a sorrowful, a designing or a desponding expression? —­ that opened upon a careful observer, now and then, in his eye, and closed again before one could fathom the strange depth partially disclosed; that something which used to make me fear and shrink, as if I had been wandering amongst volcanic-looking hills, and had suddenly felt the ground quiver and seen it gape:  that something, I, at intervals, beheld still; and with throbbing heart, but not with palsied nerves.  Instead of wishing to shun, I longed only to dare —­ to divine it; and I thought Miss Ingram happy, because one day she might look into the abyss at her leisure, explore its secrets and analyse their nature.

Meantime, while I thought only of my master and his future bride —­ saw only them, heard only their discourse, and considered only their movements of importance —­ the rest of the party were occupied with their own separate interests and pleasures.  The Ladies Lynn and Ingram continued to consort in solemn conferences, where they nodded their two turbans at each other, and held up their four hands in confronting gestures of surprise, or mystery, or horror, according to the theme on which their gossip ran, like a pair of magnified puppets.  Mild Mrs. Dent talked with good-natured Mrs. Eshton; and the two sometimes bestowed a courteous word or smile on me.  Sir George Lynn, Colonel Dent, and Mr. Eshton discussed politics, or county affairs, or justice business.  Lord Ingram flirted with Amy Eshton; Louisa played and sang to and with one of the Messrs. Lynn; and Mary Ingram listened languidly to the gallant speeches of the other.  Sometimes all, as with one consent, suspended their by-play to observe and listen to the principal actors:  for, after all, Mr. Rochester and —­ because closely connected with him —­ Miss Ingram were the life and soul of the party.  If he was absent from the room an hour, a perceptible dulness seemed to steal over the spirits of his guests; and his re-entrance was sure to give a fresh impulse to the vivacity of conversation.

The want of his animating influence appeared to be peculiarly felt one day that he had been summoned to Millcote on business, and was not likely to return till late.  The afternoon was wet:  a walk the party had proposed to take to see a gipsy camp, lately pitched on a common beyond Hay, was consequently deferred.  Some of the gentlemen were gone to the stables:  the younger ones, together with the younger ladies, were playing billiards in the billiard-room.  The dowagers Ingram and Lynn sought solace in a quiet game at cards.  Blanche Ingram, after having repelled, by supercilious taciturnity, some efforts of Mrs. Dent and Mrs. Eshton to draw her into conversation, had first murmured over some sentimental tunes and airs on the piano, and then, having fetched a novel from the library, had flung herself in haughty listlessness on a sofa, and prepared to beguile, by the spell of fiction, the tedious hours of absence.  The room and the house were silent:  only now and then the merriment of the billiard-players was heard from above.