第90章

Mine own familiar friend.

During these days of absence Stephen lived under alternate conditions.Whenever his emotions were active,he was in agony.

Whenever he was not in agony,the business in hand had driven out of his mind by sheer force all deep reflection on the subject of Elfride and love.

By the time he took his return journey at the weeks end,Stephen had very nearly worked himself up to an intention to call and see her face to face.On this occasion also he adopted his favourite route--by the little summer steamer from Bristol to Castle Boterel;the time saved by speed on the railway being wasted at junctions,and in following a devious course.

It was a bright silent evening at the beginning of September when Smith again set foot in the little town.He felt inclined to linger awhile upon the quay before ascending the hills,having formed a romantic intention to go home by way of her house,yet not wishing to wander in its neighbourhood till the evening shades should sufficiently screen him from observation.

And thus waiting for nights nearer approach,he watched the placid scene,over which the pale luminosity of the west cast a sorrowful monochrome,that became slowly embrowned by the dusk.Astar appeared,and another,and another.They sparkled amid the yards and rigging of the two coal brigs lying alangside,as if they had been tiny lamps suspended in the ropes.The masts rocked sleepily to the infinitesimal flux of the tide,which clucked and gurgled with idle regularity in nooks and holes of the harbour wall.

The twilight was now quite pronounced enough for his purpose;and as,rather sad at heart,he was about to move on,a little boat containing two persons glided up the middle of the harbour with the lightness of a shadow.The boat came opposite him,passed on,and touched the landing-steps at the further end.One of its occupants was a man,as Stephen had known by the easy stroke of the oars.When the pair ascended the steps,and came into greater prominence,he was enabled to discern that the second personage was a woman;also that she wore a white decoration--apparently a feather--in her hat or bonnet,which spot of white was the only distinctly visible portion of her clothing.

Stephen remained a moment in their rear,and they passed on,when he pursued his way also,and soon forgot the circumstance.Having crossed a bridge,forsaken the high road,and entered the footpath which led up the vale to West Endelstow,he heard a little wicket click softly together some yards ahead.By the time that Stephen had reached the wicket and passed it,he heard another click of precisely the same nature from another gate yet further on.

Clearly some person or persons were preceding him along the path,their footsteps being rendered noiseless by the soft carpet of turf.Stephen now walked a little quicker,and perceived two forms.One of them bore aloft the white feather he had noticed in the womans hat on the quay:they were the couple he had seen in the boat.Stephen dropped a little further to the rear.

From the bottom of the valley,along which the path had hitherto lain,beside the margin of the trickling streamlet,another path now diverged,and ascended the slope of the left-hand hill.This footway led only to the residence of Mrs.Swancourt and a cottage or two in its vicinity.No grass covered this diverging path in portions of its length,and Stephen was reminded that the pair in front of him had taken this route by the occasional rattle of loose stones under their feet.Stephen climbed in the same direction,but for some undefined reason he trod more softly than did those preceding him.His mind was unconsciously in exercise upon whom the woman might be--whether a visitor to The Crags,a servant,or Elfride.He put it to himself yet more forcibly;could the lady be Elfride?A possible reason for her unaccountable failure to keep the appointment with him returned with painful force.

They entered the grounds of the house by the side wicket,whence the path,now wide and well trimmed,wound fantastically through the shrubbery to an octagonal pavilion called the Belvedere,by reason of the comprehensive view over the adjacent district that its green seats afforded.The path passed this erection and went on to the house as well as to the gardeners cottage on the other side,straggling thence to East Endelstow;so that Stephen felt no hesitation in entering a promenade which could scarcely be called private.

He fancied that he heard the gate open and swing together again behind him.Turning,he saw nobody.

The people of the boat came to the summer-house.One of them spoke.

I am afraid we shall get a scolding for being so late.

Stephen instantly recognised the familiar voice,richer and fuller now than it used to be.Elfride!he whispered to himself,and held fast by a sapling,to steady himself under the agitation her presence caused him.His heart swerved from its beat;he shunned receiving the meaning he sought.

A breeze is rising again;how the ash tree rustles!said Elfride.Dont you hear it?I wonder what the time is.

Stephen relinquished the sapling.

I will get a light and tell you.Step into the summer-house;the air is quiet there.

The cadence of that voice--its peculiarity seemed to come home to him like that of some notes of the northern birds on his return to his native clime,as an old natural thing renewed,yet not particularly noticed as natural before that renewal.

They entered the Belvedere.In the lower part it was formed of close wood-work nailed crosswise,and had openings in the upper by way of windows.