Part 5 (2/2)
Marty was stirred at the name, so closely connected with her last night's experiences. ”Is this her carriage?” she whispered.
”Yes; she's inside.”
Marty reflected, and perceived that Mrs. Charmond must have recognized her plodding up the hill under the blaze of the lamp; recognized, probably, her stubbly poll (since she had kept away her face), and thought that those stubbles were the result of her own desire.
Marty South was not so very far wrong. Inside the carriage a pair of bright eyes looked from a ripely handsome face, and though behind those bright eyes was a mind of unfathomed mysteries, beneath them there beat a heart capable of quick extempore warmth--a heart which could, indeed, be pa.s.sionately and imprudently warm on certain occasions. At present, after recognizing the girl, she had acted on a mere impulse, possibly feeling gratified at the denuded appearance which signified the success of her agent in obtaining what she had required.
”'Tis wonderful that she should ask ye,” observed the magisterial coachman, presently. ”I have never known her do it before, for as a rule she takes no interest in the village folk at all.”
Marty said no more, but occasionally turned her head to see if she could get a glimpse of the Olympian creature who as the coachman had truly observed, hardly ever descended from her clouds into the Tempe of the paris.h.i.+oners. But she could discern nothing of the lady. She also looked for Miss Melbury and Winterborne. The nose of their horse sometimes came quite near the back of Mrs. Charmond's carriage. But they never attempted to pa.s.s it till the latter conveyance turned towards the park gate, when they sped by. Here the carriage drew up that the gate might be opened, and in the momentary silence Marty heard a gentle oral sound, soft as a breeze.
”What's that?” she whispered.
”Mis'ess yawning.”
”Why should she yawn?”
”Oh, because she's been used to such wonderfully good life, and finds it dull here. She'll soon be off again on account of it.”
”So rich and so powerful, and yet to yawn!” the girl murmured. ”Then things don't fay with she any more than with we!”
Marty now alighted; the lamp again shone upon her, and as the carriage rolled on, a soft voice said to her from the interior, ”Good-night.”
”Good-night, ma'am,” said Marty. But she had not been able to see the woman who began so greatly to interest her--the second person of her own s.e.x who had operated strongly on her mind that day.
CHAPTER VI.
Meanwhile, Winterborne and Grace Melbury had also undergone their little experiences of the same homeward journey.
As he drove off with her out of the town the glances of people fell upon them, the younger thinking that Mr. Winterborne was in a pleasant place, and wondering in what relation he stood towards her.
Winterborne himself was unconscious of this. Occupied solely with the idea of having her in charge, he did not notice much with outward eye, neither observing how she was dressed, nor the effect of the picture they together composed in the landscape.
Their conversation was in briefest phrase for some time, Grace being somewhat disconcerted, through not having understood till they were about to start that Giles was to be her sole conductor in place of her father. When they were in the open country he spoke.
”Don't Brownley's farm-buildings look strange to you, now they have been moved bodily from the hollow where the old ones stood to the top of the hill?”
She admitted that they did, though she should not have seen any difference in them if he had not pointed it out.
”They had a good crop of bitter-sweets; they couldn't grind them all”
(nodding towards an orchard where some heaps of apples had been left lying ever since the ingathering).
She said ”Yes,” but looking at another orchard.
”Why, you are looking at John-apple-trees! You know bitter-sweets--you used to well enough!”
”I am afraid I have forgotten, and it is getting too dark to distinguish.”
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