Part 21 (1/2)

”Perhaps she will have--some day,” said the other woman quickly. ”I agree with your sister, that she needs it.”

”Sister says you look like her,” the clerk went on, with a laugh. ”The hair and eyes, she says. Of course, I see what she means, but, gracious--if you could have seen her the day she came in last winter!

A sable wrap to her knees, and her hair all waved, and besides, her figure was different--much taller.”

”All dark women with thick grey hair resemble each other, more or less, I think,” said Mrs. Stranger.

When she walked down the landing plank to the Tilbury dock, Mrs.

Stranger stood for a moment, scanning the little crowd that waited on the water's edge. She appeared to expect some one, for her tin box lay at her feet, and she stood negligently by it, her head raised rather haughtily for a woman of her general appearance. Suddenly she smiled oddly, drew again that deep-lunged breath of relief, stooped and picked up the box, and carried it una.s.sisted to the great train-shed.

From London she travelled south and west, and beyond purchasing at Salisbury a warm red-hooded cape bought nothing and transacted no business except for a brief cablegram to New York despatched from London, signed with initials only, and a telegram to a small town in the south of England. On arriving at this town, she waited fully an hour at the little station, but if the time were wasted, she did not seem to feel the waste annoying, for she sat comfortably on a bench, her box and umbrella at her stout-shod feet, her eyes placidly on the distance. A stray dog attached himself to her and laid his black head on her umbrella; she made no motion to drive him away.

About noon a red-faced teamster drove into the square before the station, looked about inquiringly, caught her eye and dismounted.

”Name o' Stranger?” he asked gruffly; she nodded.

”Have you the wagon?” she asked.

”Horse ain't none too fond o' they engines,” he responded. ”He's waiting by the Crown and Stirrup--will you step across?”

By the little sleepy inn stood a roomy, covered cart drawn by a solid middle-aged bay, with heavy bra.s.s tips on his high collar. The vehicle had evidently been freshly painted, for the red and black twinkled in the sunlight and the harness looked strong and new. As Mrs. Stranger lifted the back curtain and threw a quick, keen glance around the interior she smiled briefly. Rows of tins, coppers and kettles hung there; bales of cotton prints, notions and such lay on narrow, fenced-in shelves on the sides; a sort of bunk filled one-half, covered with a neat patch-work quilt, and thick waterproof curtains' were rolled in readiness all around.

”There's oats in the box and a nose-bag,” said the carter, ”but there's good cropping all about. Will that be your pup, Missis?”

”If no one else claims him,” she said brusquely, and examined the horse carefully, foot by foot. All seeming to suit her, she took a small canvas bag from her wallet and handed it to him.

”Count it, please,” she said and the carter with much biting and inspection of each gold piece, signed a receipt and handed her, formally, a new stout whip.

”You'll wet the bargain, I hope,” the interested landlord suggested, and Mrs. Stranger having ordered a quart of his best ale, and gravely taken a gla.s.s, the carter finished the rest with due ceremony.

She mounted the seat deftly, nodded all 'round, and drove off at a steady jog through the village, the dog under the cart.

”_That's_ no new hand,” said the landlord. ”It's well you provided a good animal, carter!”

”First letter showed me I'd best do so,” said the carter briefly. ”A tidy bit of savings she had, for a woman.”

”She'll earn as much more, _I'll_ lay. There's money on the road, as much as ever there was, for them as knows the business and don't drink,” said the landlord. ”She'll be one of that gypsy sort, by her looks.”

Mrs. Stranger drove steadily along through the countryside. The road lay clear before her, the emerald gra.s.s and the white may of the hedges smelled sweet from a week's rain, the clap-clap of the big bay's feet and the birds' twitter were the only sounds. She was between two villages, and only a straggling farm or two at either side broke the distant view; a grey church tower caught the sun far away. The driver's eyes never left the road, as became a good driver, but they seemed to be turned inward, too, and to see more--or less--than that empty road offered to the ordinary sight. One would have said that something other than the present unrolled before those absorbed brown eyes under the straight, dark brows, but whether it was the past or the future was not shown. Either was full enough, probably, in the case of Mrs. Stranger.

Shortly after noon she began to study the roadside more carefully and soon, pausing by a particularly lush, green spot, she dismounted, led the horse off from the road and quickly traced the green area back to a tiny bubbling spring. Unharnessing the horse deftly, she fastened him to a pointed iron picket she took from the cart and drove firmly into the ground, lifted out a little portable tin oven which she propped between two rocks, kindled a fire from some dried f.a.gots tied below the axle-tree, and taking a slice of fresh beef from a stone crock on the seat, cut it slowly into small pieces with an onion and a yellow turnip from the crock. She filled a small iron pot at the spring, dropped in the meat and vegetables, set a potato to bake in the ashes and measured out a little coffee from a cannister. While the stew simmered, she watered and fed the horse, threw a bone to the dog, and then spread her red cloak on the ground, sat on it, and resumed her inward contemplation. When the savoury fumes smelled rich enough, she threw a pinch of pepper and salt into the pot from another small cannister, poured boiling water from her kettle over the coffee, cut a slice from a fresh cottage loaf, ladled her stew out on a new tin plate, and ate and drank with a sort of eager deliberation, inhaling at intervals the aroma of the coffee and the cooking food. When a generous plateful had vanished, she gave the anxious dog the rest, cut herself a block of orange-coloured dairy cheese and ate it with a handful of small biscuits from a square tin. Then, leaning against the great rock from under which the spring gushed, she took from her ample pocket a small worn volume, opened it at random, filled and emptied her lungs with a third great breath, like only two others in her life, and began to read.

The book's t.i.tle page read, ”Compensation, and Other Essays, by R. W.

Emerson,” and on the fly leaf was written in a firm, masculine hand, ”L. L. from her father, Boston, 1870.”

The horse grazed quietly, the dog rested a grateful head on her skirt, the spring trickled on, and the woman read--if that can be called reading where the eyes wander inward after every sentence.

After a little of this she was disturbed by a thick-set, middle-aged farmer rattling by in a springless cart. At sight of her he stopped, stared, but not too curiously, got out and addressed her:

”Peddler's goods, I see,” he said.