Part 13 (1/2)

Foremost among these advancing groups of well-clad people, there are some whom we shall recognize, in spite of Time, who has laid his hand on them all. The tall blond man of forty is not much changed in feature from the G.o.dfrey Ca.s.s of six-and-twenty: he is only fuller in flesh, and has only lost the indefinable look of youth--a loss which is marked even when the eye is undulled and the wrinkles are not yet come.

Perhaps the pretty woman, not much younger than he, who is leaning on his arm, is more changed than her husband: the lovely bloom that used to be always on her cheek now comes but fitfully, with the fresh morning air or with some strong surprise; yet to all who love human faces best for what they tell of human experience, Nancy's beauty has a heightened interest. Often the soul is ripened into fuller goodness while age has spread an ugly film, so that mere glances can never divine the preciousness of the fruit. But the years have not been so cruel to Nancy. The firm yet placid mouth, the clear veracious glance of the brown eyes, speak now of a nature that has been tested and has kept its highest qualities; and even the costume, with its dainty neatness and purity, has more significance now the coquetries of youth can have nothing to do with it.

Mr. and Mrs. G.o.dfrey Ca.s.s (any higher t.i.tle has died away from Raveloe lips since the old Squire was gathered to his fathers and his inheritance was divided) have turned round to look for the tall aged man and the plainly dressed woman who are a little behind--Nancy having observed that they must wait for ”father and Priscilla”--and now they all turn into a narrower path leading across the churchyard to a small gate opposite the Red House. We will not follow them now; for may there not be some others in this departing congregation whom we should like to see again--some of those who are not likely to be handsomely clad, and whom we may not recognize so easily as the master and mistress of the Red House?

But it is impossible to mistake Silas Marner. His large brown eyes seem to have gathered a longer vision, as is the way with eyes that have been short-sighted in early life, and they have a less vague, a more answering gaze; but in everything else one sees signs of a frame much enfeebled by the lapse of the sixteen years. The weaver's bent shoulders and white hair give him almost the look of advanced age, though he is not more than five-and-fifty; but there is the freshest blossom of youth close by his side--a blonde dimpled girl of eighteen, who has vainly tried to chastise her curly auburn hair into smoothness under her brown bonnet: the hair ripples as obstinately as a brooklet under the March breeze, and the little ringlets burst away from the restraining comb behind and show themselves below the bonnet-crown.

Eppie cannot help being rather vexed about her hair, for there is no other girl in Raveloe who has hair at all like it, and she thinks hair ought to be smooth. She does not like to be blameworthy even in small things: you see how neatly her prayer-book is folded in her spotted handkerchief.

That good-looking young fellow, in a new fustian suit, who walks behind her, is not quite sure upon the question of hair in the abstract, when Eppie puts it to him, and thinks that perhaps straight hair is the best in general, but he doesn't want Eppie's hair to be different. She surely divines that there is some one behind her who is thinking about her very particularly, and mustering courage to come to her side as soon as they are out in the lane, else why should she look rather shy, and take care not to turn away her head from her father Silas, to whom she keeps murmuring little sentences as to who was at church and who was not at church, and how pretty the red mountain-ash is over the Rectory wall?

”I wish _we_ had a little garden, father, with double daisies in, like Mrs. Winthrop's,” said Eppie, when they were out in the lane; ”only they say it 'ud take a deal of digging and bringing fresh soil--and you couldn't do that, could you, father? Anyhow, I shouldn't like you to do it, for it 'ud be too hard work for you.”

”Yes, I could do it, child, if you want a bit o' garden: these long evenings, I could work at taking in a little bit o' the waste, just enough for a root or two o' flowers for you; and again, i' the morning, I could have a turn wi' the spade before I sat down to the loom. Why didn't you tell me before as you wanted a bit o' garden?”

”_I_ can dig it for you, Master Marner,” said the young man in fustian, who was now by Eppie's side, entering into the conversation without the trouble of formalities. ”It'll be play to me after I've done my day's work, or any odd bits o' time when the work's slack. And I'll bring you some soil from Mr. Ca.s.s's garden--he'll let me, and willing.”

”Eh, Aaron, my lad, are you there?” said Silas; ”I wasn't aware of you; for when Eppie's talking o' things, I see nothing but what she's a-saying. Well, if you could help me with the digging, we might get her a bit o' garden all the sooner.”

”Then, if you think well and good,” said Aaron, ”I'll come to the Stone-pits this afternoon, and we'll settle what land's to be taken in, and I'll get up an hour earlier i' the morning, and begin on it.”

”But not if you don't promise me not to work at the hard digging, father,” said Eppie. ”For I shouldn't ha' said anything about it,” she added, half-bashfully, half-roguishly, ”only Mrs. Winthrop said as Aaron 'ud be so good, and--”

”And you might ha' known it without mother telling you,” said Aaron.

”And Master Marner knows too, I hope, as I'm able and willing to do a turn o' work for him, and he won't do me the unkindness to anyways take it out o' my hands.”

”There, now, father, you won't work in it till it's all easy,” said Eppie, ”and you and me can mark out the beds, and make holes and plant the roots. It'll be a deal livelier at the Stone-pits when we've got some flowers, for I always think the flowers can see us and know what we're talking about. And I'll have a bit o' rosemary, and bergamot, and thyme, because they're so sweet-smelling; but there's no lavender only in the gentlefolks' gardens, I think.”

”That's no reason why you shouldn't have some,” said Aaron, ”for I can bring you slips of anything; I'm forced to cut no end of 'em when I'm gardening, and throw 'em away mostly. There's a big bed o' lavender at the Red House: the missis is very fond of it.”

”Well,” said Silas, gravely, ”so as you don't make free for us, or ask for anything as is worth much at the Red House: for Mr. Ca.s.s's been so good to us, and built us up the new end o' the cottage, and given us beds and things, as I couldn't abide to be imposin' for garden-stuff or anything else.”

”No, no, there's no imposin',” said Aaron; ”there's never a garden in all the parish but what there's endless waste in it for want o'

somebody as could use everything up. It's what I think to myself sometimes, as there need n.o.body run short o' victuals if the land was made the most on, and there was never a morsel but what could find its way to a mouth. It sets one thinking o' that--gardening does. But I must go back now, else mother 'ull be in trouble as I aren't there.”

”Bring her with you this afternoon, Aaron,” said Eppie; ”I shouldn't like to fix about the garden, and her not know everything from the first--should _you_, father?”

”Aye, bring her if you can, Aaron,” said Silas; ”she's sure to have a word to say as'll help us to set things on their right end.”

Aaron turned back up the village, while Silas and Eppie went on up the lonely sheltered lane.

”O daddy!” she began, when they were in privacy, clasping and squeezing Silas's arm, and skipping round to give him an energetic kiss. ”My little old daddy! I'm so glad. I don't think I shall want anything else when we've got a little garden; and I knew Aaron would dig it for us,” she went on with roguish triumph--”I knew that very well.”

”You're a deep little puss, you are,” said Silas, with the mild pa.s.sive happiness of love-crowned age in his face; ”but you'll make yourself fine and beholden to Aaron.”

”Oh, no, I shan't,” said Eppie, laughing and frisking; ”he likes it.”

”Come, come, let me carry your prayer-book, else you'll be dropping it, jumping i' that way.”

Eppie was now aware that her behaviour was under observation, but it was only the observation of a friendly donkey, browsing with a log fastened to his foot--a meek donkey, not scornfully critical of human trivialities, but thankful to share in them, if possible, by getting his nose scratched; and Eppie did not fail to gratify him with her usual notice, though it was attended with the inconvenience of his following them, painfully, up to the very door of their home.

But the sound of a sharp bark inside, as Eppie put the key in the door, modified the donkey's views, and he limped away again without bidding.

The sharp bark was the sign of an excited welcome that was awaiting them from a knowing brown terrier, who, after dancing at their legs in a hysterical manner, rushed with a worrying noise at a tortoise-sh.e.l.l kitten under the loom, and then rushed back with a sharp bark again, as much as to say, ”I have done my duty by this feeble creature, you perceive”; while the lady-mother of the kitten sat sunning her white bosom in the window, and looked round with a sleepy air of expecting caresses, though she was not going to take any trouble for them.