midday
I can only explain it by remembering the unworldliness of our lives at Beechwood , the heavy cares which now pressed upon us from without , and the notable fact -- which our own family experience ought to have taught us , yet did not -- that in cases like this , often those whom one would have expected to be most quick-sighted , are the most strangely , irretrievably , mournfully blind . When , the very next day , Lord Ravenel , not on horse-back but in his rarely-used luxurious coronetted carriage , drove up to Beechwood , every one in the house except myself was inconceivably astonished to see him back again . He said that he had delayed his journey to Paris , and gave no explanation of that delay . He joined as usual in our midday dinner ; and after dinner , still as usual , took a walk with me and Maud . It happened to be through the beech-wood , almost the identical path that I remembered taking , years and years ago , with John and Ursula . I was surprised to hear Lord Ravenel allude to the fact , a well-known fact in our family ; for I think all fathers and mothers like to relate , and all children to hear , the slightest incidents of the parents ' courting days . `` You did not know father and mother when they were young ? ''