第73章

No satisfactory conjuncture offered itself on this first evening of his return for presenting Elfride with what he had been at such pains to procure.He was fastidious in his reading of opportunities for such an intended act.The next morning chancing to break fine after a week of cloudy weather,it was proposed and decided that they should all drive to Barwith Strand,a local lion which neither Mrs.Swancourt nor Knight had seen.Knight scented romantic occasions from afar,and foresaw that such a one might be expected before the coming night.

The journey was along a road by neutral green hills,upon which hedgerows lay trailing like ropes on a quay.Gaps in these uplands revealed the blue sea,flecked with a few dashes of white and a solitary white sail,the whole brimming up to a keen horizon which lay like a line ruled from hillside to hillside.Then they rolled down a pass,the chocolate-toned rocks forming a wall on both sides,from one of which fell a heavy jagged shade over half the roadway.A spout of fresh water burst from an occasional crevice,and pattering down upon broad green leaves,ran along as a rivulet at the bottom.Unkempt locks of heather overhung the brow of each steep,whence at divers points a bramble swung forth into mid-air,snatching at their head-dresses like a claw.

They mounted the last crest,and the bay which was to be the end of their pilgrimage burst upon them.The ocean blueness deepened its colour as it stretched to the foot of the crags,where it terminated in a fringe of white--silent at this distance,though moving and heaving like a counterpane upon a restless sleeper.

The shadowed hollows of the purple and brown rocks would have been called blue had not that tint been so entirely appropriated by the water beside them.

The carriage was put up at a little cottage with a shed attached,and an ostler and the coachman carried the hamper of provisions down to the shore.

Knight found his opportunity.I did not forget your wish,he began,when they were apart from their friends.

Elfride looked as if she did not understand.

And I have brought you these,he continued,awkwardly pulling out the case,and opening it while holding it towards her.

O Mr.Knight!said Elfride confusedly,and turning to a lively red;I didnt know you had any intention or meaning in what you said.I thought it a mere supposition.I dont want them.

A thought which had flashed into her mind gave the reply a greater decisiveness than it might otherwise have possessed.To-morrow was the day for Stephens letter.

But will you not accept them?Knight returned,feeling less her master than heretofore.

I would rather not.They are beautiful--more beautiful than any I have ever seen,she answered earnestly,looking half-wishfully at the temptation,as Eve may have looked at the apple.But I dont want to have them,if you will kindly forgive me,Mr.Knight.

No kindness at all,said Mr.Knight,brought to a full stop at this unexpected turn of events.

A silence followed.Knight held the open case,looking rather wofully at the glittering forms he had forsaken his orbit to procure;turning it about and holding it up as if,feeling his gift to be slighted by her,he were endeavouring to admire it very much himself.

Shut them up,and dont let me see them any longer--do!she said laughingly,and with a quaint mixture of reluctance and entreaty.

Why,Elfie?

Not Elfie to you,Mr.Knight.Oh,because I shall want them.

There,I am silly,I know,to say that!But I have a reason for not taking them--now.She kept in the last word for a moment,intending to imply that her refusal was finite,but somehow the word slipped out,and undid all the rest.

You will take them some day?

I dont want to.

Why dont you want to,Elfride Swancourt?

Because I dont.I dont like to take them.

I have read a fact of distressing significance in that,said Knight.Since you like them,your dislike to having them must be towards me?

No,it isnt.

What,then?Do you like me?

Elfride deepened in tint,and looked into the distance with features shaped to an expression of the nicest criticism as regarded her answer.

I like you pretty well,she at length murmured mildly.

Not very much?

You are so sharp with me,and say hard things,and so how can I?she replied evasively.

You think me a fogey,I suppose?

No,I dont--I mean I do--I dont know what I think you,I mean.

Let us go to papa,responded Elfride,with somewhat of a flurried delivery.

Well,Ill tell you my object in getting the present,said Knight,with a composure intended to remove from her mind any possible impression of his being what he was--her lover.You see it was the very least I could do in common civility.

Elfride felt rather blank at this lucid statement.

Knight continued,putting away the case:I felt as anybody naturally would have,you know,that my words on your choice the other day were invidious and unfair,and thought an apology should take a practical shape.

Oh yes.

Elfride was sorry--she could not tell why--that he gave such a legitimate reason.It was a disappointment that he had all the time a cool motive,which might be stated to anybody without raising a smile.Had she known they were offered in that spirit,she would certainly have accepted the seductive gift.And the tantalizing feature was that perhaps he suspected her to imagine them offered as a lovers token,which was mortifying enough if they were not.

Mrs.Swancourt came now to where they were sitting,to select a flat boulder for spreading their table-cloth upon,and,amid the discussion on that subject,the matter pending between Knight and Elfride was shelved for a while.He read her refusal so certainly as the bashfulness of a girl in a novel position,that,upon the whole,he could tolerate such a beginning.Could Knight have been told that it was a sense of fidelity struggling against new love,whilst no less assuring as to his ultimate victory,it might have entirely abstracted the wish to secure it.