midday
How her cousin might occupy himself , whom even he might receive , during the time spent in those rooms , she did not know . And it was idle to inquire . Neither of her servants , though skilful enough , as a rule , in the acquisition of information , could , in this case , acquire any . And so it came about that during those many still bright hours , following on her rather agitated parting with Richard at midday , while she paced the noble rooms of the first floor -- once more taking note of their costly furnishings and fine pictures , meeting her own restless image again and again in their many mirrors -- and later , near sundown , when she walked the dry , brown pathways of the ilex and cypress grove , the wildest suspicions of his possible doings assailed her . For she was constrained to admit that , though she had spent a full week now under his roof , it was but the veriest fringe , after all , of the young man 's habits and thought with which she was actually acquainted . And this not only desperately intrigued her curiosity , but the apartness , behind which he entrenched himself and his doings , was as a slight put upon her and consequent source of sharp mortification . So to-day she ranged all permitted spaces of the villa and its grounds softly , yet lithe , watchful , fierce as a she-panther -- her ears strained to hear , her eyes to see , driven the while by jealousy of that nameless rival , to remembrance of whom all the whole place was dedicated , and by baffled passion , as with whips .