第76章

The origin of their acquaintanceship had been such as to render their manner towards each other peculiar and uncommon.It was of a kind to cause them to speak out their minds on any feelings of objection and difference:to be reticent on gentler matters.

I have a good mind to go away and never trouble you again,continued Knight.

She said nothing,but the eloquent expression of her eyes and wan face was enough to reproach him for harshness.

Do you like me to be here,then?inquired Knight gently.

Yes,she said.Fidelity to the old love and truth to the new were ranged on opposite sides,and truth virtuelessly prevailed.

Then Ill stay a little longer,said Knight.

Dont be vexed if I keep by myself a good deal,will you?Perhaps something may happen,and I may tell you something.

Mere coyness,said Knight to himself;and went away with a lighter heart.The trick of reading truly the enigmatical forces at work in women at given times,which with some men is an unerring instinct,is peculiar to minds less direct and honest than Knights.

The next evening,about five oclock,before Knight had returned from a pilgrimage along the shore,a man walked up to the house.

He was a messenger from Camelton,a town a few miles off,to which place the railway had been advanced during the summer.

A telegram for Miss Swancourt,and three and sixpence to pay for the special messenger.Miss Swancourt sent out the money,signed the paper,and opened her letter with a trembling hand.She read:

Johnson,Liverpool,to Miss Swancourt,Endelstow,near Castle Boterel.

Amaryllis telegraphed off Holyhead,four oclock.Expect will dock and land passengers at Cannings Basin ten oclock to-morrow morning.

Her father called her into the study.

Elfride,who sent you that message?he asked suspiciously.

Johnson.

Who is Johnson,for Heavens sake?

I dont know.

The deuce you dont!Who is to know,then?

I have never heard of him till now.

Thats a singular story,isnt it.

I dont know.

Come,come,miss!What was the telegram?

Do you really wish to know,papa?

Well,I do.

Remember,I am a full-grown woman now.

Well,what then?

Being a woman,and not a child,I may,I think,have a secret or two.

You will,it seems.

Women have,as a rule.

But dont keep them.So speak out.

If you will not press me now,I give my word to tell you the meaning of all this before the week is past.

On your honour?

On my honour.

Very well.I have had a certain suspicion,you know;and I shall be glad to find it false.I dont like your manner lately.

At the end of the week,I said,papa.

Her father did not reply,and Elfride left the room.

She began to look out for the postman again.Three mornings later he brought an inland letter from Stephen.It contained very little matter,having been written in haste;but the meaning was bulky enough.Stephen said that,having executed a commission in Liverpool,he should arrive at his fathers house,East Endelstow,at five or six oclock that same evening;that he would after dusk walk on to the next village,and meet her,if she would,in the church porch,as in the old time.He proposed this plan because he thought it unadvisable to call formally at her house so late in the evening;yet he could not sleep without having seen her.The minutes would seem hours till he clasped her in his arms.

Elfride was still steadfast in her opinion that honour compelled her to meet him.Probably the very longing to avoid him lent additional weight to the conviction;for she was markedly one of those who sigh for the unattainable--to whom,superlatively,a hope is pleasing because not a possession.And she knew it so well that her intellect was inclined to exaggerate this defect in herself.

So during the day she looked her duty steadfastly in the face;read Wordsworths astringent yet depressing ode to that Deity;committed herself to her guidance;and still felt the weight of chance desires.

But she began to take a melancholy pleasure in contemplating the sacrifice of herself to the man whom a maidenly sense of propriety compelled her to regard as her only possible husband.She would meet him,and do all that lay in her power to marry him.To guard against a relapse,a note was at once despatched to his fathers cottage for Stephen on his arrival,fixing an hour for the interview.