第44章 CHAPTER X(4)

"Oh!it's easy enough,when one has a natural propensity for catching hold of facts;and then,you know,I always had a weakness for machinery;I could stand for an hour watching a mill at work,especially if it's worked by a great water-wheel.""Would you like to be a mill-owner?"

"Shouldn't I!"--with a sunshiny flash,which soon clouded over.

"However,'tis idle talking;one cannot choose one's calling--at least,very few can.After all,it isn't the trade that signifies--it's the man.I'm a tanner,and a capital tanner I intend to be.

By-the-by,I wonder if Mrs.Tod,who talks so much about 'gentlefolk,'knows that latter fact about you and me?""I think not;I hope not.Oh,David!this one month at least let us get rid of the tan-yard."For I hated it more than ever now,in our quiet,free,Arcadian life;the very thought of it was insupportable,not only for myself,but for John.

He gently blamed me,yet,I think,he involuntarily felt much as Idid,if he would have allowed himself so to feel.

"Who would guess now that I who stand here,delighting myself in this fresh air and pleasant view,this dewy common,all thick with flowers--what a pretty blue cluster that is at your foot,Phineas!--who would guess that all yesterday I had been stirring up tan-pits,handling raw hides?Faugh!I wonder the little harebells don't sicken in these,my hands--such ugly hands,too!""Nonsense,John!they're not so bad,indeed;and if they were,what does it matter?""You are right;lad;it does not matter.They have done me good service,and will yet,though they were not made for carrying nosegays.""There is somebody besides yourself plucking posies on the Flat.

See,how large the figure looks against the sky.It might be your Titaness,John--'Like Proserpina gathering flowers,Herself the fairest--'

--no,not fairest;for I declare she looks very like your friend Grey-gown--I beg her pardon--Miss March.""It is she,"said John,so indifferently that I suspect that fact had presented itself to him for at least two minutes before I found it out.

"There's certainly a fatality about your meeting her.""Not the least.She has this morning taken her walk in a different direction,as I did;and we both chanced again to hit upon the same,"answered John,gravely and explanatorily."Come away down the slope.

We must not intrude upon a lady's enjoyments."He carried me off,much against my will,for I had a great wish to see again that fresh young face,so earnest,cheerful,and good.

Also,as I laboured in vain to convince my companion,the said face indicated an independent dignity which would doubtless make its owner perfectly indifferent whether her solitary walk were crossed by two gentlemen or two hundred.

John agreed to this;nevertheless,he was inexorable.And,since he was "a man of the world"--having,in his journeys up and down the country for my father,occasionally fallen into "polite"society--Iyielded the point to him and submitted to his larger experience of good breeding.

However,Fate,kinder than he,took the knot of etiquette into her own hands,and broke it.

Close to the cottage door,our two paths converging,and probably our breakfast-hours likewise,brought us suddenly face to face with Miss March.

She saw us,and we had a distinct sight of her.

I was right:we and our contiguity were not of the smallest importance to Miss March.Her fresh morning roses did not deepen,nor her eyes droop,as she looked for a moment at us both--a quiet,maidenly look of mere observation.Of course no recognition passed;but there was a merry dimple beside her mouth,as if she quite well knew who we were,and owned to a little harmless feminine curiosity in observing us.

She had to pass our door,where stood Mrs.Tod and the baby.It stretched out its little arms to come to her,with that pretty,babyish gesture which I suppose no woman can resist.Miss March could not.She stopped,and began tossing up the child.

Truly,they made a pleasant picture,the two--she with her hooded cloak dropping off,showing her graceful shape,and her dark-brown hair,all gathered up in a mass of curls at the top of her head,as the fashion then was.As she stood,with her eyes sparkling,and the young blood flushing through her clear brunette cheeks,I was not sure whether I had not judged too hastily in calling her "no beauty."Probably,by his look,John thought the same.