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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Trumpet-Major, by Thomas Hardy
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Trumpet-Major
+
+
+Author: Thomas Hardy
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2007  [eBook #2864]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUMPET-MAJOR***
+
+
+
+This etext was prepared by Les Bowler.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUMPET-MAJOR
+JOHN LOVEDAY
+
+
+A SOLDIER IN THE WAR WITH BUONAPARTE
+AND
+ROBERT HIS BROTHER
+FIRST MATE IN THE MERCHANT SERVICE
+
+A TALE
+
+BY
+THOMAS HARDY
+
+WITH A MAP OF WESSEX
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
+1920
+
+COPYRIGHT
+
+_First Edition_ (3 _vols._) 1880.  _New Edition_ (1 _vol._) _and
+reprints_ 1881-1893
+_New Edition and reprints_ 1896-1900
+_First published by Macmillan and Co._, _Crown_ 8_vo_, 1903.  _Reprinted_
+1906, 1910, 1914
+_Pocket Edition_ 1907.  _Reprinted_ 1909, 1912, 1915, 1917, 1919, 1920
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The present tale is founded more largely on testimony--oral and
+written--than any other in this series.  The external incidents which
+direct its course are mostly an unexaggerated reproduction of the
+recollections of old persons well known to the author in childhood, but
+now long dead, who were eye-witnesses of those scenes.  If wholly
+transcribed their recollections would have filled a volume thrice the
+length of 'The Trumpet-Major.'
+
+Down to the middle of this century, and later, there were not wanting, in
+the neighbourhood of the places more or less clearly indicated herein,
+casual relics of the circumstances amid which the action moves--our
+preparations for defence against the threatened invasion of England by
+Buonaparte.  An outhouse door riddled with bullet-holes, which had been
+extemporized by a solitary man as a target for firelock practice when the
+landing was hourly expected, a heap of bricks and clods on a beacon-hill,
+which had formed the chimney and walls of the hut occupied by the beacon-
+keeper, worm-eaten shafts and iron heads of pikes for the use of those
+who had no better weapons, ridges on the down thrown up during the
+encampment, fragments of volunteer uniform, and other such lingering
+remains, brought to my imagination in early childhood the state of
+affairs at the date of the war more vividly than volumes of history could
+have done.
+
+Those who have attempted to construct a coherent narrative of past times
+from the fragmentary information furnished by survivors, are aware of the
+difficulty of ascertaining the true sequence of events indiscriminately
+recalled.  For this purpose the newspapers of the date were
+indispensable.  Of other documents consulted I may mention, for the
+satisfaction of those who love a true story, that the 'Address to all
+Ranks and Descriptions of Englishmen' was transcribed from an original
+copy in a local museum; that the hieroglyphic portrait of Napoleon
+existed as a print down to the present day in an old woman's cottage near
+'Overcombe;' that the particulars of the King's doings at his favourite
+watering-place were augmented by details from records of the time.  The
+drilling scene of the local militia received some additions from an
+account given in so grave a work as Gifford's 'History of the Wars of the
+French Revolution' (London, 1817).  But on reference to the History I
+find I was mistaken in supposing the account to be advanced as authentic,
+or to refer to rural England.  However, it does in a large degree accord
+with the local traditions of such scenes that I have heard recounted,
+times without number, and the system of drill was tested by reference to
+the Army Regulations of 1801, and other military handbooks.  Almost the
+whole narrative of the supposed landing of the French in the Bay is from
+oral relation as aforesaid.  Other proofs of the veracity of this
+chronicle have escaped my recollection.
+
+T. H.
+
+_October_ 1895.
+
+
+
+
+I.  WHAT WAS SEEN FROM THE WINDOW OVERLOOKING THE DOWN
+
+
+In the days of high-waisted and muslin-gowned women, when the vast amount
+of soldiering going on in the country was a cause of much trembling to
+the sex, there lived in a village near the Wessex coast two ladies of
+good report, though unfortunately of limited means.  The elder was a Mrs.
+Martha Garland, a landscape-painter's widow, and the other was her only
+daughter Anne.
+
+Anne was fair, very fair, in a poetical sense; but in complexion she was
+of that particular tint between blonde and brunette which is
+inconveniently left without a name.  Her eyes were honest and inquiring,
+her mouth cleanly cut and yet not classical, the middle point of her
+upper lip scarcely descending so far as it should have done by rights, so
+that at the merest pleasant thought, not to mention a smile, portions of
+two or three white teeth were uncovered whether she would or not.  Some
+people said that this was very attractive.  She was graceful and slender,
+and, though but little above five feet in height, could draw herself up
+to look tall.  In her manner, in her comings and goings, in her 'I'll do
+this,' or 'I'll do that,' she combined dignity with sweetness as no other
+girl could do; and any impressionable stranger youths who passed by were
+led to yearn for a windfall of speech from her, and to see at the same
+time that they would not get it.  In short, beneath all that was charming
+and simple in this young woman there lurked a real firmness, unperceived
+at first, as the speck of colour lurks unperceived in the heart of the
+palest parsley flower.
+
+She wore a white handkerchief to cover her white neck, and a cap on her
+head with a pink ribbon round it, tied in a bow at the front.  She had a
+great variety of these cap-ribbons, the young men being fond of sending
+them to her as presents until they fell definitely in love with a special
+sweetheart elsewhere, when they left off doing so.  Between the border of
+her cap and her forehead were ranged a row of round brown curls, like
+swallows' nests under eaves.
+
+She lived with her widowed mother in a portion of an ancient building
+formerly a manor-house, but now a mill, which, being too large for his
+own requirements, the miller had found it convenient to divide and
+appropriate in part to these highly respectable tenants.  In this
+dwelling Mrs. Garland's and Anne's ears were soothed morning, noon, and
+night by the music of the mill, the wheels and cogs of which, being of
+wood, produced notes that might have borne in their minds a remote
+resemblance to the wooden tones of the stopped diapason in an organ.
+Occasionally, when the miller was bolting, there was added to these
+continuous sounds the cheerful clicking of the hopper, which did not
+deprive them of rest except when it was kept going all night; and over
+and above all this they had the pleasure of knowing that there crept in
+through every crevice, door, and window of their dwelling, however
+tightly closed, a subtle mist of superfine flour from the grinding room,
+quite invisible, but making its presence known in the course of time by
+giving a pallid and ghostly look to the best furniture.  The miller
+frequently apologized to his tenants for the intrusion of this insidious
+dry fog; but the widow was of a friendly and thankful nature, and she
+said that she did not mind it at all, being as it was, not nasty dirt,
+but the blessed staff of life.
+
+By good-humour of this sort, and in other ways, Mrs. Garland acknowledged
+her friendship for her neighbour, with whom Anne and herself associated
+to an extent which she never could have anticipated when, tempted by the
+lowness of the rent, they first removed thither after her husband's death
+from a larger house at the other end of the village.  Those who have
+lived in remote places where there is what is called no society will
+comprehend the gradual levelling of distinctions that went on in this
+case at some sacrifice of gentility on the part of one household.  The
+widow was sometimes sorry to find with what readiness Anne caught up some
+dialect-word or accent from the miller and his friends; but he was so
+good and true-hearted a man, and she so easy-minded, unambitious a woman,
+that she would not make life a solitude for fastidious reasons.  More
+than all, she had good ground for thinking that the miller secretly
+admired her, and this added a piquancy to the situation.
+
+* * * * *
+
+On a fine summer morning, when the leaves were warm under the sun, and
+the more industrious bees abroad, diving into every blue and red cup that
+could possibly be considered a flower, Anne was sitting at the back
+window of her mother's portion of the house, measuring out lengths of
+worsted for a fringed rug that she was making, which lay, about three-
+quarters finished, beside her.  The work, though chromatically brilliant,
+was tedious: a hearth-rug was a thing which nobody worked at from morning
+to night; it was taken up and put down; it was in the chair, on the
+floor, across the hand-rail, under the bed, kicked here, kicked there,
+rolled away in the closet, brought out again, and so on more capriciously
+perhaps than any other home-made article.  Nobody was expected to finish
+a rug within a calculable period, and the wools of the beginning became
+faded and historical before the end was reached.  A sense of this
+inherent nature of worsted-work rather than idleness led Anne to look
+rather frequently from the open casement.
+
+Immediately before her was the large, smooth millpond, over-full, and
+intruding into the hedge and into the road.  The water, with its flowing
+leaves and spots of froth, was stealing away, like Time, under the dark
+arch, to tumble over the great slimy wheel within.  On the other side of
+the mill-pond was an open place called the Cross, because it was three-
+quarters of one, two lanes and a cattle-drive meeting there.  It was the
+general rendezvous and arena of the surrounding village.  Behind this a
+steep slope rose high into the sky, merging in a wide and open down, now
+littered with sheep newly shorn.  The upland by its height completely
+sheltered the mill and village from north winds, making summers of
+springs, reducing winters to autumn temperatures, and permitting myrtle
+to flourish in the open air.
+
+The heaviness of noon pervaded the scene, and under its influence the
+sheep had ceased to feed.  Nobody was standing at the Cross, the few
+inhabitants being indoors at their dinner.  No human being was on the
+down, and no human eye or interest but Anne's seemed to be concerned with
+it.  The bees still worked on, and the butterflies did not rest from
+roving, their smallness seeming to shield them from the stagnating effect
+that this turning moment of day had on larger creatures.  Otherwise all
+was still.
+
+The girl glanced at the down and the sheep for no particular reason; the
+steep margin of turf and daisies rising above the roofs, chimneys, apple-
+trees, and church tower of the hamlet around her, bounded the view from
+her position, and it was necessary to look somewhere when she raised her
+head.  While thus engaged in working and stopping her attention was
+attracted by the sudden rising and running away of the sheep squatted on
+the down; and there succeeded sounds of a heavy tramping over the hard
+sod which the sheep had quitted, the tramp being accompanied by a
+metallic jingle.  Turning her eyes further she beheld two cavalry
+soldiers on bulky grey chargers, armed and accoutred throughout,
+ascending the down at a point to the left where the incline was
+comparatively easy.  The burnished chains, buckles, and plates of their
+trappings shone like little looking-glasses, and the blue, red, and white
+about them was unsubdued by weather or wear.
+
+The two troopers rode proudly on, as if nothing less than crowns and
+empires ever concerned their magnificent minds.  They reached that part
+of the down which lay just in front of her, where they came to a halt.  In
+another minute there appeared behind them a group containing some half-
+dozen more of the same sort.  These came on, halted, and dismounted
+likewise.
+
+Two of the soldiers then walked some distance onward together, when one
+stood still, the other advancing further, and stretching a white line of
+tape between them.  Two more of the men marched to another outlying
+point, where they made marks in the ground.  Thus they walked about and
+took distances, obviously according to some preconcerted scheme.
+
+At the end of this systematic proceeding one solitary horseman--a
+commissioned officer, if his uniform could be judged rightly at that
+distance--rode up the down, went over the ground, looked at what the
+others had done, and seemed to think that it was good.  And then the girl
+heard yet louder tramps and clankings, and she beheld rising from where
+the others had risen a whole column of cavalry in marching order.  At a
+distance behind these came a cloud of dust enveloping more and more
+troops, their arms and accoutrements reflecting the sun through the haze
+in faint flashes, stars, and streaks of light.  The whole body approached
+slowly towards the plateau at the top of the down.
+
+Anne threw down her work, and letting her eyes remain on the nearing
+masses of cavalry, the worsteds getting entangled as they would, said,
+'Mother, mother; come here!  Here's such a fine sight!  What does it
+mean?  What can they be going to do up there?'
+
+The mother thus invoked ran upstairs and came forward to the window.  She
+was a woman of sanguine mouth and eye, unheroic manner, and pleasant
+general appearance; a little more tarnished as to surface, but not much
+worse in contour than the girl herself.
+
+Widow Garland's thoughts were those of the period. 'Can it be the
+French,' she said, arranging herself for the extremest form of
+consternation.  'Can that arch-enemy of mankind have landed at last?'  It
+should be stated that at this time there were two arch-enemies of
+mankind--Satan as usual, and Buonaparte, who had sprung up and eclipsed
+his elder rival altogether.  Mrs. Garland alluded, of course, to the
+junior gentleman.
+
+'It cannot be he,' said Anne.  'Ah! there's Simon Burden, the man who
+watches at the beacon.  He'll know!'
+
+She waved her hand to an aged form of the same colour as the road, who
+had just appeared beyond the mill-pond, and who, though active, was bowed
+to that degree which almost reproaches a feeling observer for standing
+upright.  The arrival of the soldiery had drawn him out from his drop of
+drink at the 'Duke of York' as it had attracted Anne.  At her call he
+crossed the mill-bridge, and came towards the window.
+
+Anne inquired of him what it all meant; but Simon Burden, without
+answering, continued to move on with parted gums, staring at the cavalry
+on his own private account with a concern that people often show about
+temporal phenomena when such matters can affect them but a short time
+longer.  'You'll walk into the millpond!' said Anne.  'What are they
+doing?  You were a soldier many years ago, and ought to know.'
+
+'Don't ask me, Mis'ess Anne,' said the military relic, depositing his
+body against the wall one limb at a time.  'I were only in the foot, ye
+know, and never had a clear understanding of horses.  Ay, I be a old man,
+and of no judgment now.'  Some additional pressure, however, caused him
+to search further in his worm-eaten magazine of ideas, and he found that
+he did know in a dim irresponsible way.  The soldiers must have come
+there to camp: those men they had seen first were the markers: they had
+come on before the rest to measure out the ground.  He who had
+accompanied them was the quartermaster.  'And so you see they have got
+all the lines marked out by the time the regiment have come up,' he
+added.  'And then they will--well-a-deary! who'd ha' supposed that
+Overcombe would see such a day as this!'
+
+'And then they will--'
+
+'Then-- Ah, it's gone from me again!' said Simon.  'O, and then they will
+raise their tents, you know, and picket their horses.  That was it; so it
+was.'
+
+By this time the column of horse had ascended into full view, and they
+formed a lively spectacle as they rode along the high ground in marching
+order, backed by the pale blue sky, and lit by the southerly sun.  Their
+uniform was bright and attractive; white buckskin pantaloons,
+three-quarter boots, scarlet shakos set off with lace, mustachios waxed
+to a needle point; and above all, those richly ornamented blue jackets
+mantled with the historic pelisse--that fascination to women, and
+encumbrance to the wearers themselves.
+
+''Tis the York Hussars!' said Simon Burden, brightening like a dying
+ember fanned.  'Foreigners to a man, and enrolled long since my time.  But
+as good hearty comrades, they say, as you'll find in the King's service.'
+
+'Here are more and different ones,' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+Other troops had, during the last few minutes, been ascending the down at
+a remoter point, and now drew near.  These were of different weight and
+build from the others; lighter men, in helmet hats, with white plumes.
+
+'I don't know which I like best,' said Anne.  'These, I think, after
+all.'
+
+Simon, who had been looking hard at the latter, now said that they were
+the --th Dragoons.
+
+'All Englishmen they,' said the old man.  'They lay at Budmouth barracks
+a few years ago.'
+
+'They did.  I remember it,' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+'And lots of the chaps about here 'listed at the time,' said Simon.  'I
+can call to mind that there was--ah, 'tis gone from me again!  However,
+all that's of little account now.'
+
+The dragoons passed in front of the lookers-on as the others had done,
+and their gay plumes, which had hung lazily during the ascent, swung to
+northward as they reached the top, showing that on the summit a fresh
+breeze blew.  'But look across there,' said Anne.  There had entered upon
+the down from another direction several battalions of foot, in white
+kerseymere breeches and cloth gaiters.  They seemed to be weary from a
+long march, the original black of their gaiters and boots being whity-
+brown with dust.  Presently came regimental waggons, and the private
+canteen carts which followed at the end of a convoy.
+
+The space in front of the mill-pond was now occupied by nearly all the
+inhabitants of the village, who had turned out in alarm, and remained for
+pleasure, their eyes lighted up with interest in what they saw; for
+trappings and regimentals, war horses and men, in towns an attraction,
+were here almost a sublimity.
+
+The troops filed to their lines, dismounted, and in quick time took off
+their accoutrements, rolled up their sheep-skins, picketed and unbitted
+their horses, and made ready to erect the tents as soon as they could be
+taken from the waggons and brought forward.  When this was done, at a
+given signal the canvases flew up from the sod; and thenceforth every man
+had a place in which to lay his head.
+
+Though nobody seemed to be looking on but the few at the window and in
+the village street, there were, as a matter of fact, many eyes converging
+upon that military arrival in its high and conspicuous position, not to
+mention the glances of birds and other wild creatures.  Men in distant
+gardens, women in orchards and at cottage-doors, shepherds on remote
+hills, turnip-hoers in blue-green enclosures miles away, captains with
+spy-glasses out at sea, were regarding the picture keenly.  Those three
+or four thousand men of one machine-like movement, some of them
+swashbucklers by nature; others, doubtless, of a quiet shop-keeping
+disposition who had inadvertently got into uniform--all of them had
+arrived from nobody knew where, and hence were matter of great curiosity.
+They seemed to the mere eye to belong to a different order of beings from
+those who inhabited the valleys below.  Apparently unconscious and
+careless of what all the world was doing elsewhere, they remained
+picturesquely engrossed in the business of making themselves a habitation
+on the isolated spot which they had chosen.
+
+Mrs. Garland was of a festive and sanguine turn of mind, a woman soon set
+up and soon set down, and the coming of the regiments quite excited her.
+She thought there was reason for putting on her best cap, thought that
+perhaps there was not; that she would hurry on the dinner and go out in
+the afternoon; then that she would, after all, do nothing unusual, nor
+show any silly excitements whatever, since they were unbecoming in a
+mother and a widow.  Thus circumscribing her intentions till she was
+toned down to an ordinary person of forty, Mrs. Garland accompanied her
+daughter downstairs to dine, saying, 'Presently we will call on Miller
+Loveday, and hear what he thinks of it all.'
+
+
+
+
+II.  SOMEBODY KNOCKS AND COMES IN
+
+
+Miller Loveday was the representative of an ancient family of
+corn-grinders whose history is lost in the mists of antiquity.  His
+ancestral line was contemporaneous with that of De Ros, Howard, and De La
+Zouche; but, owing to some trifling deficiency in the possessions of the
+house of Loveday, the individual names and intermarriages of its members
+were not recorded during the Middle Ages, and thus their private lives in
+any given century were uncertain.  But it was known that the family had
+formed matrimonial alliances with farmers not so very small, and once
+with a gentleman-tanner, who had for many years purchased after their
+death the horses of the most aristocratic persons in the county--fiery
+steeds that earlier in their career had been valued at many hundred
+guineas.
+
+It was also ascertained that Mr. Loveday's great-grandparents had been
+eight in number, and his great-great-grandparents sixteen, every one of
+whom reached to years of discretion: at every stage backwards his sires
+and gammers thus doubled and doubled till they became a vast body of
+Gothic ladies and gentlemen of the rank known as ceorls or villeins, full
+of importance to the country at large, and ramifying throughout the
+unwritten history of England.  His immediate father had greatly improved
+the value of their residence by building a new chimney, and setting up an
+additional pair of millstones.
+
+Overcombe Mill presented at one end the appearance of a hard-worked house
+slipping into the river, and at the other of an idle, genteel place, half-
+cloaked with creepers at this time of the year, and having no visible
+connexion with flour.  It had hips instead of gables, giving it a round-
+shouldered look, four chimneys with no smoke coming out of them, two
+zigzag cracks in the wall, several open windows, with a looking-glass
+here and there inside, showing its warped back to the passer-by; snowy
+dimity curtains waving in the draught; two mill doors, one above the
+other, the upper enabling a person to step out upon nothing at a height
+of ten feet from the ground; a gaping arch vomiting the river, and a
+lean, long-nosed fellow looking out from the mill doorway, who was the
+hired grinder, except when a bulging fifteen stone man occupied the same
+place, namely, the miller himself.
+
+Behind the mill door, and invisible to the mere wayfarer who did not
+visit the family, were chalked addition and subtraction sums, many of
+them originally done wrong, and the figures half rubbed out and
+corrected, noughts being turned into nines, and ones into twos.  These
+were the miller's private calculations.  There were also chalked in the
+same place rows and rows of strokes like open palings, representing the
+calculations of the grinder, who in his youthful ciphering studies had
+not gone so far as Arabic figures.
+
+In the court in front were two worn-out millstones, made useful again by
+being let in level with the ground.  Here people stood to smoke and
+consider things in muddy weather; and cats slept on the clean surfaces
+when it was hot.  In the large stubbard-tree at the corner of the garden
+was erected a pole of larch fir, which the miller had bought with others
+at a sale of small timber in Damer's Wood one Christmas week.  It rose
+from the upper boughs of the tree to about the height of a fisherman's
+mast, and on the top was a vane in the form of a sailor with his arm
+stretched out.  When the sun shone upon this figure it could be seen that
+the greater part of his countenance was gone, and the paint washed from
+his body so far as to reveal that he had been a soldier in red before he
+became a sailor in blue.  The image had, in fact, been John, one of our
+coming characters, and was then turned into Robert, another of them.  This
+revolving piece of statuary could not, however, be relied on as a vane,
+owing to the neighbouring hill, which formed variable currents in the
+wind.
+
+The leafy and quieter wing of the mill-house was the part occupied by
+Mrs. Garland and her daughter, who made up in summer-time for the
+narrowness of their quarters by overflowing into the garden on stools and
+chairs.  The parlour or dining-room had a stone floor--a fact which the
+widow sought to disguise by double carpeting, lest the standing of Anne
+and herself should be lowered in the public eye.  Here now the mid-day
+meal went lightly and mincingly on, as it does where there is no greedy
+carnivorous man to keep the dishes about, and was hanging on the close
+when somebody entered the passage as far as the chink of the parlour
+door, and tapped.  This proceeding was probably adopted to kindly avoid
+giving trouble to Susan, the neighbour's pink daughter, who helped at
+Mrs. Garland's in the mornings, but was at that moment particularly
+occupied in standing on the water-butt and gazing at the soldiers, with
+an inhaling position of the mouth and circular eyes.
+
+There was a flutter in the little dining-room--the sensitiveness of
+habitual solitude makes hearts beat for preternaturally small reasons--and
+a guessing as to who the visitor might be.  It was some military
+gentleman from the camp perhaps?  No; that was impossible.  It was the
+parson?  No; he would not come at dinner-time.  It was the well-informed
+man who travelled with drapery and the best Birmingham earrings?  Not at
+all; his time was not till Thursday at three.  Before they could think
+further the visitor moved forward another step, and the diners got a
+glimpse of him through the same friendly chink that had afforded him a
+view of the Garland dinner-table.
+
+'O!  It is only Loveday.'
+
+This approximation to nobody was the miller above mentioned, a hale man
+of fifty-five or sixty--hale all through, as many were in those days, and
+not merely veneered with purple by exhilarating victuals and drinks,
+though the latter were not at all despised by him.  His face was indeed
+rather pale than otherwise, for he had just come from the mill.  It was
+capable of immense changes of expression: mobility was its essence, a
+roll of flesh forming a buttress to his nose on each side, and a deep
+ravine lying between his lower lip and the tumulus represented by his
+chin.  These fleshy lumps moved stealthily, as if of their own accord,
+whenever his fancy was tickled.
+
+His eyes having lighted on the table-cloth, plates, and viands, he found
+himself in a position which had a sensible awkwardness for a modest man
+who always liked to enter only at seasonable times the presence of a girl
+of such pleasantly soft ways as Anne Garland, she who could make apples
+seem like peaches, and throw over her shillings the glamour of guineas
+when she paid him for flour.
+
+'Dinner is over, neighbour Loveday; please come in,' said the widow,
+seeing his case.  The miller said something about coming in presently;
+but Anne pressed him to stay, with a tender motion of her lip as it
+played on the verge of a solicitous smile without quite lapsing into
+one--her habitual manner when speaking.
+
+Loveday took off his low-crowned hat and advanced.  He had not come about
+pigs or fowls this time.  'You have been looking out, like the rest o'
+us, no doubt, Mrs. Garland, at the mampus of soldiers that have come upon
+the down?  Well, one of the horse regiments is the --th Dragoons, my son
+John's regiment, you know.'
+
+The announcement, though it interested them, did not create such an
+effect as the father of John had seemed to anticipate; but Anne, who
+liked to say pleasant things, replied, 'The dragoons looked nicer than
+the foot, or the German cavalry either.'
+
+'They are a handsome body of men,' said the miller in a disinterested
+voice.  'Faith! I didn't know they were coming, though it may be in the
+newspaper all the time.  But old Derriman keeps it so long that we never
+know things till they be in everybody's mouth.'
+
+This Derriman was a squireen living near, who was chiefly distinguished
+in the present warlike time by having a nephew in the yeomanry.
+
+'We were told that the yeomanry went along the turnpike road yesterday,'
+said Anne; 'and they say that they were a pretty sight, and quite
+soldierly.'
+
+'Ah! well--they be not regulars,' said Miller Loveday, keeping back
+harsher criticism as uncalled for.  But inflamed by the arrival of the
+dragoons, which had been the exciting cause of his call, his mind would
+not go to yeomanry.  'John has not been home these five years,' he said.
+
+'And what rank does he hold now?' said the widow.
+
+'He's trumpet-major, ma'am; and a good musician.'  The miller, who was a
+good father, went on to explain that John had seen some service, too.  He
+had enlisted when the regiment was lying in this neighbourhood, more than
+eleven years before, which put his father out of temper with him, as he
+had wished him to follow on at the mill.  But as the lad had enlisted
+seriously, and as he had often said that he would be a soldier, the
+miller had thought that he would let Jack take his chance in the
+profession of his choice.
+
+Loveday had two sons, and the second was now brought into the
+conversation by a remark of Anne's that neither of them seemed to care
+for the miller's business.
+
+'No,' said Loveday in a less buoyant tone.  'Robert, you see, must needs
+go to sea.'
+
+'He is much younger than his brother?' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+About four years, the miller told her.  His soldier son was
+two-and-thirty, and Bob was twenty-eight.  When Bob returned from his
+present voyage, he was to be persuaded to stay and assist as grinder in
+the mill, and go to sea no more.
+
+'A sailor-miller!' said Anne.
+
+'O, he knows as much about mill business as I do,' said Loveday; 'he was
+intended for it, you know, like John.  But, bless me!' he continued, 'I
+am before my story.  I'm come more particularly to ask you, ma'am, and
+you, Anne my honey, if you will join me and a few friends at a leetle
+homely supper that I shall gi'e to please the chap now he's come?  I can
+do no less than have a bit of a randy, as the saying is, now that he's
+here safe and sound.'
+
+Mrs. Garland wanted to catch her daughter's eye; she was in some doubt
+about her answer.  But Anne's eye was not to be caught, for she hated
+hints, nods, and calculations of any kind in matters which should be
+regulated by impulse; and the matron replied, 'If so be 'tis possible,
+we'll be there.  You will tell us the day?'
+
+He would, as soon as he had seen son John.  ''Twill be rather untidy, you
+know, owing to my having no womenfolks in the house; and my man David is
+a poor dunder-headed feller for getting up a feast.  Poor chap! his sight
+is bad, that's true, and he's very good at making the beds, and oiling
+the legs of the chairs and other furniture, or I should have got rid of
+him years ago.'
+
+'You should have a woman to attend to the house, Loveday,' said the
+widow.
+
+'Yes, I should, but--.  Well, 'tis a fine day, neighbours.  Hark!  I
+fancy I hear the noise of pots and pans up at the camp, or my ears
+deceive me.  Poor fellows, they must be hungry!  Good day t'ye, ma'am.'
+And the miller went away.
+
+All that afternoon Overcombe continued in a ferment of interest in the
+military investment, which brought the excitement of an invasion without
+the strife.  There were great discussions on the merits and appearance of
+the soldiery.  The event opened up, to the girls unbounded possibilities
+of adoring and being adored, and to the young men an embarrassment of
+dashing acquaintances which quite superseded falling in love.  Thirteen
+of these lads incontinently stated within the space of a quarter of an
+hour that there was nothing in the world like going for a soldier.  The
+young women stated little, but perhaps thought the more; though, in
+justice, they glanced round towards the encampment from the corners of
+their blue and brown eyes in the most demure and modest manner that could
+be desired.
+
+In the evening the village was lively with soldiers' wives; a tree full
+of starlings would not have rivalled the chatter that was going on.  These
+ladies were very brilliantly dressed, with more regard for colour than
+for material.  Purple, red, and blue bonnets were numerous, with bunches
+of cocks' feathers; and one had on an Arcadian hat of green sarcenet,
+turned up in front to show her cap underneath.  It had once belonged to
+an officer's lady, and was not so much stained, except where the
+occasional storms of rain, incidental to a military life, had caused the
+green to run and stagnate in curious watermarks like peninsulas and
+islands.  Some of the prettiest of these butterfly wives had been
+fortunate enough to get lodgings in the cottages, and were thus spared
+the necessity of living in huts and tents on the down.  Those who had not
+been so fortunate were not rendered more amiable by the success of their
+sisters-in-arms, and called them names which brought forth retorts and
+rejoinders; till the end of these alternative remarks seemed dependent
+upon the close of the day.
+
+One of these new arrivals, who had a rosy nose and a slight thickness of
+voice, which, as Anne said, she couldn't help, poor thing, seemed to have
+seen so much of the world, and to have been in so many campaigns, that
+Anne would have liked to take her into their own house, so as to acquire
+some of that practical knowledge of the history of England which the lady
+possessed, and which could not be got from books.  But the narrowness of
+Mrs. Garland's rooms absolutely forbade this, and the houseless treasury
+of experience was obliged to look for quarters elsewhere.
+
+That night Anne retired early to bed.  The events of the day, cheerful as
+they were in themselves, had been unusual enough to give her a slight
+headache.  Before getting into bed she went to the window, and lifted the
+white curtains that hung across it.  The moon was shining, though not as
+yet into the valley, but just peeping above the ridge of the down, where
+the white cones of the encampment were softly touched by its light.  The
+quarter-guard and foremost tents showed themselves prominently; but the
+body of the camp, the officers' tents, kitchens, canteen, and
+appurtenances in the rear were blotted out by the ground, because of its
+height above her.  She could discern the forms of one or two sentries
+moving to and fro across the disc of the moon at intervals.  She could
+hear the frequent shuffling and tossing of the horses tied to the
+pickets; and in the other direction the miles-long voice of the sea,
+whispering a louder note at those points of its length where hampered in
+its ebb and flow by some jutting promontory or group of boulders.  Louder
+sounds suddenly broke this approach to silence; they came from the camp
+of dragoons, were taken up further to the right by the camp of the
+Hanoverians, and further on still by the body of infantry.  It was
+tattoo.  Feeling no desire to sleep, she listened yet longer, looked at
+Charles's Wain swinging over the church tower, and the moon ascending
+higher and higher over the right-hand streets of tents, where, instead of
+parade and bustle, there was nothing going on but snores and dreams, the
+tired soldiers lying by this time under their proper canvases, radiating
+like spokes from the pole of each tent.
+
+At last Anne gave up thinking, and retired like the rest.  The night wore
+on, and, except the occasional 'All's well' of the sentries, no voice was
+heard in the camp or in the village below.
+
+
+
+
+III.  THE MILL BECOMES AN IMPORTANT CENTRE OF OPERATIONS
+
+
+The next morning Miss Garland awoke with an impression that something
+more than usual was going on, and she recognized as soon as she could
+clearly reason that the proceedings, whatever they might be, lay not far
+away from her bedroom window.  The sounds were chiefly those of pickaxes
+and shovels.  Anne got up, and, lifting the corner of the curtain about
+an inch, peeped out.
+
+A number of soldiers were busily engaged in making a zigzag path down the
+incline from the camp to the river-head at the back of the house, and
+judging from the quantity of work already got through they must have
+begun very early.  Squads of men were working at several equidistant
+points in the proposed pathway, and by the time that Anne had dressed
+herself each section of the length had been connected with those above
+and below it, so that a continuous and easy track was formed from the
+crest of the down to the bottom of the steep.
+
+The down rested on a bed of solid chalk, and the surface exposed by the
+roadmakers formed a white ribbon, serpenting from top to bottom.
+
+Then the relays of working soldiers all disappeared, and, not long after,
+a troop of dragoons in watering order rode forward at the top and began
+to wind down the new path.  They came lower and closer, and at last were
+immediately beneath her window, gathering themselves up on the space by
+the mill-pond.  A number of the horses entered it at the shallow part,
+drinking and splashing and tossing about.  Perhaps as many as thirty,
+half of them with riders on their backs, were in the water at one time;
+the thirsty animals drank, stamped, flounced, and drank again, letting
+the clear, cool water dribble luxuriously from their mouths.  Miller
+Loveday was looking on from over his garden hedge, and many admiring
+villagers were gathered around.
+
+Gazing up higher, Anne saw other troops descending by the new road from
+the camp, those which had already been to the pond making room for these
+by withdrawing along the village lane and returning to the top by a
+circuitous route.
+
+Suddenly the miller exclaimed, as in fulfilment of expectation, 'Ah,
+John, my boy; good morning!'  And the reply of 'Morning, father,' came
+from a well-mounted soldier near him, who did not, however, form one of
+the watering party.  Anne could not see his face very clearly, but she
+had no doubt that this was John Loveday.
+
+There were tones in the voice which reminded her of old times, those of
+her very infancy, when Johnny Loveday had been top boy in the village
+school, and had wanted to learn painting of her father.  The deeps and
+shallows of the mill-pond being better known to him than to any other man
+in the camp, he had apparently come down on that account, and was
+cautioning some of the horsemen against riding too far in towards the
+mill-head.
+
+Since her childhood and his enlistment Anne had seen him only once, and
+then but casually, when he was home on a short furlough.  His figure was
+not much changed from what it had been; but the many sunrises and sunsets
+which had passed since that day, developing her from a comparative child
+to womanhood, had abstracted some of his angularities, reddened his skin,
+and given him a foreign look.  It was interesting to see what years of
+training and service had done for this man.  Few would have supposed that
+the white and the blue coats of miller and soldier covered the forms of
+father and son.
+
+Before the last troop of dragoons rode off they were welcomed in a body
+by Miller Loveday, who still stood in his outer garden, this being a plot
+lying below the mill-tail, and stretching to the water-side.  It was just
+the time of year when cherries are ripe, and hang in clusters under their
+dark leaves.  While the troopers loitered on their horses, and chatted to
+the miller across the stream, he gathered bunches of the fruit, and held
+them up over the garden hedge for the acceptance of anybody who would
+have them; whereupon the soldiers rode into the water to where it had
+washed holes in the garden bank, and, reining their horses there, caught
+the cherries in their forage-caps, or received bunches of them on the
+ends of their switches, with the dignified laugh that became martial men
+when stooping to slightly boyish amusement.  It was a cheerful, careless,
+unpremeditated half-hour, which returned like the scent of a flower to
+the memories of some of those who enjoyed it, even at a distance of many
+years after, when they lay wounded and weak in foreign lands.
+
+Then dragoons and horses wheeled off as the others had done; and troops
+of the German Legion next came down and entered in panoramic procession
+the space below Anne's eyes, as if on purpose to gratify her.  These were
+notable by their mustachios, and queues wound tightly with brown ribbon
+to the level of their broad shoulder-blades.  They were charmed, as the
+others had been, by the head and neck of Miss Garland in the little
+square window overlooking the scene of operations, and saluted her with
+devoted foreign civility, and in such overwhelming numbers that the
+modest girl suddenly withdrew herself into the room, and had a private
+blush between the chest of drawers and the washing-stand.
+
+When she came downstairs her mother said, 'I have been thinking what I
+ought to wear to Miller Loveday's to-night.'
+
+'To Miller Loveday's?' said Anne.
+
+'Yes.  The party is to-night.  He has been in here this morning to tell
+me that he has seen his son, and they have fixed this evening.'
+
+'Do you think we ought to go, mother?' said Anne slowly, and looking at
+the smaller features of the window-flowers.
+
+'Why not?' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+'He will only have men there except ourselves, will he?  And shall we be
+right to go alone among 'em?'
+
+Anne had not recovered from the ardent gaze of the gallant York Hussars,
+whose voices reached her even now in converse with Loveday.
+
+'La, Anne, how proud you are!' said Widow Garland.  'Why, isn't he our
+nearest neighbour and our landlord? and don't he always fetch our faggots
+from the wood, and keep us in vegetables for next to nothing?'
+
+'That's true,' said Anne.
+
+'Well, we can't be distant with the man.  And if the enemy land next
+autumn, as everybody says they will, we shall have quite to depend upon
+the miller's waggon and horses.  He's our only friend.'
+
+'Yes, so he is,' said Anne.  'And you had better go, mother; and I'll
+stay at home.  They will be all men; and I don't like going.'
+
+Mrs. Garland reflected.  'Well, if you don't want to go, I don't,' she
+said.  'Perhaps, as you are growing up, it would be better to stay at
+home this time.  Your father was a professional man, certainly.'  Having
+spoken as a mother, she sighed as a woman.
+
+'Why do you sigh, mother?'
+
+'You are so prim and stiff about everything.'
+
+'Very well--we'll go.'
+
+'O no--I am not sure that we ought.  I did not promise, and there will be
+no trouble in keeping away.'
+
+Anne apparently did not feel certain of her own opinion, and, instead of
+supporting or contradicting, looked thoughtfully down, and abstractedly
+brought her hands together on her bosom, till her fingers met tip to tip.
+
+As the day advanced the young woman and her mother became aware that
+great preparations were in progress in the miller's wing of the house.
+The partitioning between the Lovedays and the Garlands was not very
+thorough, consisting in many cases of a simple screwing up of the doors
+in the dividing walls; and thus when the mill began any new performances
+they proclaimed themselves at once in the more private dwelling.  The
+smell of Miller Loveday's pipe came down Mrs. Garland's chimney of an
+evening with the greatest regularity.  Every time that he poked his fire
+they knew from the vehemence or deliberateness of the blows the precise
+state of his mind; and when he wound his clock on Sunday nights the whirr
+of that monitor reminded the widow to wind hers.  This transit of noises
+was most perfect where Loveday's lobby adjoined Mrs. Garland's pantry;
+and Anne, who was occupied for some time in the latter apartment, enjoyed
+the privilege of hearing the visitors arrive and of catching stray sounds
+and words without the connecting phrases that made them entertaining, to
+judge from the laughter they evoked.  The arrivals passed through the
+house and went into the garden, where they had tea in a large
+summer-house, an occasional blink of bright colour, through the foliage,
+being all that was visible of the assembly from Mrs. Garland's windows.
+When it grew dusk they all could be heard coming indoors to finish the
+evening in the parlour.
+
+Then there was an intensified continuation of the above-mentioned signs
+of enjoyment, talkings and haw-haws, runnings upstairs and runnings down,
+a slamming of doors and a clinking of cups and glasses; till the proudest
+adjoining tenant without friends on his own side of the partition might
+have been tempted to wish for entrance to that merry dwelling, if only to
+know the cause of these fluctuations of hilarity, and to see if the
+guests were really so numerous, and the observations so very amusing as
+they seemed.
+
+The stagnation of life on the Garland side of the party-wall began to
+have a very gloomy effect by the contrast.  When, about half-past nine
+o'clock, one of these tantalizing bursts of gaiety had resounded for a
+longer time than usual, Anne said, 'I believe, mother, that you are
+wishing you had gone.'
+
+'I own to feeling that it would have been very cheerful if we had joined
+in,' said Mrs. Garland, in a hankering tone.  'I was rather too nice in
+listening to you and not going.  The parson never calls upon us except in
+his spiritual capacity.  Old Derriman is hardly genteel; and there's
+nobody left to speak to.  Lonely people must accept what company they can
+get.'
+
+'Or do without it altogether.'
+
+'That's not natural, Anne; and I am surprised to hear a young woman like
+you say such a thing.  Nature will not be stifled in that way. . . .'
+(Song and powerful chorus heard through partition.)  'I declare the room
+on the other side of the wall seems quite a paradise compared with this.'
+
+'Mother, you are quite a girl,' said Anne in slightly superior accents.
+'Go in and join them by all means.'
+
+'O no--not now,' said her mother, resignedly shaking her head.  'It is
+too late now.  We ought to have taken advantage of the invitation.  They
+would look hard at me as a poor mortal who had no real business there,
+and the miller would say, with his broad smile, "Ah, you be obliged to
+come round."'
+
+While the sociable and unaspiring Mrs. Garland continued thus to pass the
+evening in two places, her body in her own house and her mind in the
+miller's, somebody knocked at the door, and directly after the elder
+Loveday himself was admitted to the room.  He was dressed in a suit
+between grand and gay, which he used for such occasions as the present,
+and his blue coat, yellow and red waistcoat with the three lower buttons
+unfastened, steel-buckled shoes and speckled stockings, became him very
+well in Mrs. Martha Garland's eyes.
+
+'Your servant, ma'am,' said the miller, adopting as a matter of propriety
+the raised standard of politeness required by his higher costume.  'Now,
+begging your pardon, I can't hae this.  'Tis unnatural that you two
+ladies should be biding here and we under the same roof making merry
+without ye.  Your husband, poor man--lovely picters that a' would make to
+be sure--would have been in with us long ago if he had been in your
+place.  I can take no nay from ye, upon my honour.  You and maidy Anne
+must come in, if it be only for half-an-hour.  John and his friends have
+got passes till twelve o'clock to-night, and, saving a few of our own
+village folk, the lowest visitor present is a very genteel German
+corporal.  If you should hae any misgivings on the score of
+respectability, ma'am, we'll pack off the underbred ones into the back
+kitchen.'
+
+Widow Garland and Anne looked yes at each other after this appeal.
+
+'We'll follow you in a few minutes,' said the elder, smiling; and she
+rose with Anne to go upstairs.
+
+'No, I'll wait for ye,' said the miller doggedly; 'or perhaps you'll
+alter your mind again.'
+
+While the mother and daughter were upstairs dressing, and saying
+laughingly to each other, 'Well, we must go now,' as if they hadn't
+wished to go all the evening, other steps were heard in the passage; and
+the miller cried from below, 'Your pardon, Mrs. Garland; but my son John
+has come to help fetch ye.  Shall I ask him in till ye be ready?'
+
+'Certainly; I shall be down in a minute,' screamed Anne's mother in a
+slanting voice towards the staircase.
+
+When she descended, the outline of the trumpet-major appeared half-way
+down the passage.  'This is John,' said the miller simply.  'John, you
+can mind Mrs. Martha Garland very well?'
+
+'Very well, indeed,' said the dragoon, coming in a little further.  'I
+should have called to see her last time, but I was only home a week.  How
+is your little girl, ma'am?'
+
+Mrs. Garland said Anne was quite well.  'She is grown-up now.  She will
+be down in a moment.'
+
+There was a slight noise of military heels without the door, at which the
+trumpet-major went and put his head outside, and said, 'All right--coming
+in a minute,' when voices in the darkness replied, 'No hurry.'
+
+'More friends?' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+'O, it is only Buck and Jones come to fetch me,' said the soldier.  'Shall
+I ask 'em in a minute, Mrs Garland, ma'am?'
+
+'O yes,' said the lady; and the two interesting forms of Trumpeter Buck
+and Saddler-sergeant Jones then came forward in the most friendly manner;
+whereupon other steps were heard without, and it was discovered that
+Sergeant-master-tailor Brett and Farrier-extraordinary Johnson were
+outside, having come to fetch Messrs. Buck and Jones, as Buck and Jones
+had come to fetch the trumpet-major.
+
+As there seemed a possibility of Mrs. Garland's small passage being
+choked up with human figures personally unknown to her, she was relieved
+to hear Anne coming downstairs.
+
+'Here's my little girl,' said Mrs. Garland, and the trumpet-major looked
+with a sort of awe upon the muslin apparition who came forward, and stood
+quite dumb before her.  Anne recognized him as the trooper she had seen
+from her window, and welcomed him kindly.  There was something in his
+honest face which made her feel instantly at home with him.
+
+At this frankness of manner Loveday--who was not a ladies' man--blushed,
+and made some alteration in his bodily posture, began a sentence which
+had no end, and showed quite a boy's embarrassment.  Recovering himself,
+he politely offered his arm, which Anne took with a very pretty grace.  He
+conducted her through his comrades, who glued themselves perpendicularly
+to the wall to let her pass, and then they went out of the door, her
+mother following with the miller, and supported by the body of troopers,
+the latter walking with the usual cavalry gait, as if their thighs were
+rather too long for them.  Thus they crossed the threshold of the mill-
+house and up the passage, the paving of which was worn into a gutter by
+the ebb and flow of feet that had been going on there ever since Tudor
+times.
+
+
+
+
+IV.  WHO WERE PRESENT AT THE MILLER'S LITTLE ENTERTAINMENT
+
+
+When the group entered the presence of the company a lull in the
+conversation was caused by the sight of new visitors, and (of course) by
+the charm of Anne's appearance; until the old men, who had daughters of
+their own, perceiving that she was only a half-formed girl, resumed their
+tales and toss-potting with unconcern.
+
+Miller Loveday had fraternized with half the soldiers in the camp since
+their arrival, and the effect of this upon his party was striking--both
+chromatically and otherwise.  Those among the guests who first attracted
+the eye were the sergeants and sergeant-majors of Loveday's regiment,
+fine hearty men, who sat facing the candles, entirely resigned to
+physical comfort.  Then there were other non-commissioned officers, a
+German, two Hungarians, and a Swede, from the foreign hussars--young men
+with a look of sadness on their faces, as if they did not much like
+serving so far from home.  All of them spoke English fairly well.  Old
+age was represented by Simon Burden the pensioner, and the shady side of
+fifty by Corporal Tullidge, his friend and neighbour, who was hard of
+hearing, and sat with his hat on over a red cotton handkerchief that was
+wound several times round his head.  These two veterans were employed as
+watchers at the neighbouring beacon, which had lately been erected by the
+Lord-Lieutenant for firing whenever the descent on the coast should be
+made.  They lived in a little hut on the hill, close by the heap of
+faggots; but to-night they had found deputies to watch in their stead.
+
+On a lower plane of experience and qualifications came neighbour James
+Comfort, of the Volunteers, a soldier by courtesy, but a blacksmith by
+rights; also William Tremlett and Anthony Cripplestraw, of the local
+forces.  The two latter men of war were dressed merely as villagers, and
+looked upon the regulars from a humble position in the background.  The
+remainder of the party was made up of a neighbouring dairyman or two, and
+their wives, invited by the miller, as Anne was glad to see, that she and
+her mother should not be the only women there.
+
+The elder Loveday apologized in a whisper to Mrs. Garland for the
+presence of the inferior villagers.  'But as they are learning to be
+brave defenders of their home and country, ma'am, as fast as they can
+master the drill, and have worked for me off and on these many years,
+I've asked 'em in, and thought you'd excuse it.'
+
+'Certainly, Miller Loveday,' said the widow.
+
+'And the same of old Burden and Tullidge.  They have served well and long
+in the Foot, and even now have a hard time of it up at the beacon in wet
+weather.  So after giving them a meal in the kitchen I just asked 'em in
+to hear the singing.  They faithfully promise that as soon as ever the
+gunboats appear in view, and they have fired the beacon, to run down here
+first, in case we shouldn't see it.  'Tis worth while to be friendly with
+'em, you see, though their tempers be queer.'
+
+'Quite worth while, miller,' said she.
+
+Anne was rather embarrassed by the presence of the regular military in
+such force, and at first confined her words to the dairymen's wives she
+was acquainted with, and to the two old soldiers of the parish.
+
+'Why didn't ye speak to me afore, chiel?' said one of these, Corporal
+Tullidge, the elderly man with the hat, while she was talking to old
+Simon Burden.  'I met ye in the lane yesterday,' he added reproachfully,
+'but ye didn't notice me at all.'
+
+'I am very sorry for it,' she said; but, being afraid to shout in such a
+company, the effect of her remark upon the corporal was as if she had not
+spoken at all.
+
+'You was coming along with yer head full of some high notions or other no
+doubt,' continued the uncompromising corporal in the same loud voice.
+'Ah, 'tis the young bucks that get all the notice nowadays, and old folks
+are quite forgot!  I can mind well enough how young Bob Loveday used to
+lie in wait for ye.'
+
+Anne blushed deeply, and stopped his too excursive discourse by hastily
+saying that she always respected old folks like him.  The corporal
+thought she inquired why he always kept his hat on, and answered that it
+was because his head was injured at Valenciennes, in July, Ninety-three.
+'We were trying to bomb down the tower, and a piece of the shell struck
+me.  I was no more nor less than a dead man for two days.  If it hadn't a
+been for that and my smashed arm I should have come home none the worse
+for my five-and-twenty years' service.'
+
+'You have got a silver plate let into yer head, haven't ye, corpel?' said
+Anthony Cripplestraw, who had drawn near.  'I have heard that the way
+they morticed yer skull was a beautiful piece of workmanship.  Perhaps
+the young woman would like to see the place?  'Tis a curious sight,
+Mis'ess Anne; you don't see such a wownd every day.'
+
+'No, thank you,' said Anne hurriedly, dreading, as did all the young
+people of Overcombe, the spectacle of the corporal uncovered.  He had
+never been seen in public without the hat and the handkerchief since his
+return in Ninety-four; and strange stories were told of the ghastliness
+of his appearance bare-headed, a little boy who had accidentally beheld
+him going to bed in that state having been frightened into fits.
+
+'Well, if the young woman don't want to see yer head, maybe she'd like to
+hear yer arm?' continued Cripplestraw, earnest to please her.
+
+'Hey?' said the corporal.
+
+'Your arm hurt too?' cried Anne.
+
+'Knocked to a pummy at the same time as my head,' said Tullidge
+dispassionately.
+
+'Rattle yer arm, corpel, and show her,' said Cripplestraw.
+
+'Yes, sure,' said the corporal, raising the limb slowly, as if the glory
+of exhibition had lost some of its novelty, though he was willing to
+oblige.  Twisting it mercilessly about with his right hand he produced a
+crunching among the bones at every motion, Cripplestraw seeming to derive
+great satisfaction from the ghastly sound.
+
+'How very shocking!' said Anne, painfully anxious for him to leave off.
+
+'O, it don't hurt him, bless ye.  Do it, corpel?' said Cripplestraw.
+
+'Not a bit,' said the corporal, still working his arm with great energy.
+
+'There's no life in the bones at all.  No life in 'em, I tell her,
+corpel!'
+
+'None at all.'
+
+'They be as loose as a bag of ninepins,' explained Cripplestraw in
+continuation.  'You can feel 'em quite plain, Mis'ess Anne.  If ye would
+like to, he'll undo his sleeve in a minute to oblege ye?'
+
+'O no, no, please not!  I quite understand,' said the young woman.
+
+'Do she want to hear or see any more, or don't she?' the corporal
+inquired, with a sense that his time was getting wasted.
+
+Anne explained that she did not on any account; and managed to escape
+from the corner.
+
+
+
+
+V.  THE SONG AND THE STRANGER
+
+
+The trumpet-major now contrived to place himself near her, Anne's
+presence having evidently been a great pleasure to him since the moment
+of his first seeing her.  She was quite at her ease with him, and asked
+him if he thought that Buonaparte would really come during the summer,
+and many other questions which the gallant dragoon could not answer, but
+which he nevertheless liked to be asked.  William Tremlett, who had not
+enjoyed a sound night's rest since the First Consul's menace had become
+known, pricked up his ears at sound of this subject, and inquired if
+anybody had seen the terrible flat-bottomed boats that the enemy were to
+cross in.
+
+'My brother Robert saw several of them paddling about the shore the last
+time he passed the Straits of Dover,' said the trumpet-major; and he
+further startled the company by informing them that there were supposed
+to be more than fifteen hundred of these boats, and that they would carry
+a hundred men apiece.  So that a descent of one hundred and fifty
+thousand men might be expected any day as soon as Boney had brought his
+plans to bear.
+
+'Lord ha' mercy upon us!' said William Tremlett.
+
+'The night-time is when they will try it, if they try it at all,' said
+old Tullidge, in the tone of one whose watch at the beacon must, in the
+nature of things, have given him comprehensive views of the situation.
+'It is my belief that the point they will choose for making the shore is
+just over there,' and he nodded with indifference towards a section of
+the coast at a hideous nearness to the house in which they were
+assembled, whereupon Fencible Tremlett, and Cripplestraw of the Locals,
+tried to show no signs of trepidation.
+
+'When d'ye think 'twill be?' said Volunteer Comfort, the blacksmith.
+
+'I can't answer to a day,' said the corporal, 'but it will certainly be
+in a down-channel tide; and instead of pulling hard against it, he'll let
+his boats drift, and that will bring 'em right into Budmouth Bay.  'Twill
+be a beautiful stroke of war, if so be 'tis quietly done!'
+
+'Beautiful,' said Cripplestraw, moving inside his clothes.  'But how if
+we should be all abed, corpel?  You can't expect a man to be brave in his
+shirt, especially we Locals, that have only got so far as shoulder fire-
+locks.'
+
+'He's not coming this summer.  He'll never come at all,' said a tall
+sergeant-major decisively.
+
+Loveday the soldier was too much engaged in attending upon Anne and her
+mother to join in these surmises, bestirring himself to get the ladies
+some of the best liquor the house afforded, which had, as a matter of
+fact, crossed the Channel as privately as Buonaparte wished his army to
+do, and had been landed on a dark night over the cliff.  After this he
+asked Anne to sing, but though she had a very pretty voice in private
+performances of that nature, she declined to oblige him; turning the
+subject by making a hesitating inquiry about his brother Robert, whom he
+had mentioned just before.
+
+'Robert is as well as ever, thank you, Miss Garland,' he said.  'He is
+now mate of the brig Pewit--rather young for such a command; but the
+owner puts great trust in him.'  The trumpet-major added, deepening his
+thoughts to a profounder view of the person discussed, 'Bob is in love.'
+
+Anne looked conscious, and listened attentively; but Loveday did not go
+on.
+
+'Much?' she asked.
+
+'I can't exactly say.  And the strange part of it is that he never tells
+us who the woman is.  Nobody knows at all.'
+
+'He will tell, of course?' said Anne, in the remote tone of a person with
+whose sex such matters had no connexion whatever.
+
+Loveday shook his head, and the tete-a-tete was put an end to by a burst
+of singing from one of the sergeants, who was followed at the end of his
+song by others, each giving a ditty in his turn; the singer standing up
+in front of the table, stretching his chin well into the air, as though
+to abstract every possible wrinkle from his throat, and then plunging
+into the melody.  When this was over one of the foreign hussars--the
+genteel German of Miller Loveday's description, who called himself a
+Hungarian, and in reality belonged to no definite country--performed at
+Trumpet-major Loveday's request the series of wild motions that he
+denominated his national dance, that Anne might see what it was like.
+Miss Garland was the flower of the whole company; the soldiers one and
+all, foreign and English, seemed to be quite charmed by her presence, as
+indeed they well might be, considering how seldom they came into the
+society of such as she.
+
+Anne and her mother were just thinking of retiring to their own dwelling
+when Sergeant Stanner of the --th Foot, who was recruiting at Budmouth,
+began a satirical song:--
+
+   When law'-yers strive' to heal' a breach',
+   And par-sons prac'-tise what' they preach';
+   Then lit'-tle Bo-ney he'll pounce down',
+   And march' his men' on Lon'-don town'!
+
+   Chorus.--Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lo'-rum,
+         Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lay.
+
+   When jus'-ti-ces' hold e'qual scales',
+   And rogues' are on'-ly found' in jails';
+   Then lit'tle Bo'-ney he'll pounce down',
+   And march' his men' on Lon'-don town'!
+
+   Chorus.--Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lo'-rum,
+        Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lay.
+
+   When rich' men find' their wealth' a curse',
+   And fill' there-with' the poor' man's purse';
+   Then lit'-tle Bo'-ney he'll pounce down',
+   And march' his men' on Lon'-don town'!
+
+   Chorus.--Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lo'-rum,
+        Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lay.
+
+Poor Stanner! In spite of his satire, he fell at the bloody battle of
+Albuera a few years after this pleasantly spent summer at the Georgian
+watering-place, being mortally wounded and trampled down by a French
+hussar when the brigade was deploying into line under Beresford.
+
+While Miller Loveday was saying 'Well done, Mr. Stanner!' at the close of
+the thirteenth stanza, which seemed to be the last, and Mr. Stanner was
+modestly expressing his regret that he could do no better, a stentorian
+voice was heard outside the window shutter repeating,
+
+   Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lo'-rum,
+   Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lay.
+
+The company was silent in a moment at this reinforcement, and only the
+military tried not to look surprised.  While all wondered who the singer
+could be somebody entered the porch; the door opened, and in came a young
+man, about the size and weight of the Farnese Hercules, in the uniform of
+the yeomanry cavalry.
+
+''Tis young Squire Derriman, old Mr. Derriman's nephew,' murmured voices
+in the background.
+
+Without waiting to address anybody, or apparently seeing who were
+gathered there, the colossal man waved his cap above his head and went on
+in tones that shook the window-panes:--
+
+   When hus'-bands with' their wives' agree'.
+   And maids' won't wed' from mod'-es-ty',
+   Then lit'-tle Bo'-ney he'll pounce down',
+   And march' his men' on Lon'-don town'!
+
+   Chorus.--Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lo'-rum,
+         Rol'-li-cum ro'-rum, tol'-lol-lay.
+
+It was a verse which had been omitted by the gallant Stanner, out of
+respect to the ladies.
+
+The new-comer was red-haired and of florid complexion, and seemed full of
+a conviction that his whim of entering must be their pleasure, which for
+the moment it was.
+
+'No ceremony, good men all,' he said; 'I was passing by, and my ear was
+caught by the singing.  I like singing; 'tis warming and cheering, and
+shall not be put down.  I should like to hear anybody say otherwise.'
+
+'Welcome, Master Derriman,' said the miller, filling a glass and handing
+it to the yeoman.  'Come all the way from quarters, then?  I hardly
+knowed ye in your soldier's clothes.  You'd look more natural with a spud
+in your hand, sir.  I shouldn't ha' known ye at all if I hadn't heard
+that you were called out.'
+
+'More natural with a spud!--have a care, miller,' said the young giant,
+the fire of his complexion increasing to scarlet.  'I don't mean anger,
+but--but--a soldier's honour, you know!'
+
+The military in the background laughed a little, and the yeoman then for
+the first time discovered that there were more regulars present than one.
+He looked momentarily disconcerted, but expanded again to full assurance.
+
+'Right, right, Master Derriman, no offence--'twas only my joke,' said the
+genial miller.  'Everybody's a soldier nowadays.  Drink a drap o' this
+cordial, and don't mind words.'
+
+The young man drank without the least reluctance, and said, 'Yes, miller,
+I am called out.  'Tis ticklish times for us soldiers now; we hold our
+lives in our hands--What are those fellows grinning at behind the
+table?--I say, we do!'
+
+'Staying with your uncle at the farm for a day or two, Mr. Derriman?'
+
+'No, no; as I told you, six mile off.  Billeted at Casterbridge.  But I
+have to call and see the old, old--'
+
+'Gentleman?'
+
+'Gentleman!--no, skinflint.  He lives upon the sweepings of the barton;
+ha, ha!'  And the speaker's regular white teeth showed themselves like
+snow in a Dutch cabbage.  'Well, well, the profession of arms makes a man
+proof against all that.  I take things as I find 'em.'
+
+'Quite right, Master Derriman.  Another drop?'
+
+'No, no.  I'll take no more than is good for me--no man should; so don't
+tempt me.'
+
+The yeoman then saw Anne, and by an unconscious gravitation went towards
+her and the other women, flinging a remark to John Loveday in passing.
+'Ah, Loveday!  I heard you were come; in short, I come o' purpose to see
+you.  Glad to see you enjoying yourself at home again.'
+
+The trumpet-major replied civilly, though not without grimness, for he
+seemed hardly to like Derriman's motion towards Anne.
+
+'Widow Garland's daughter!--yes, 'tis! surely.  You remember me?  I have
+been here before.  Festus Derriman, Yeomanry Cavalry.'
+
+Anne gave a little curtsey.  'I know your name is Festus--that's all.'
+
+'Yes, 'tis well known--especially latterly.'  He dropped his voice to
+confidence pitch.  'I suppose your friends here are disturbed by my
+coming in, as they don't seem to talk much?  I don't mean to interrupt
+the party; but I often find that people are put out by my coming among
+'em, especially when I've got my regimentals on.'
+
+'La! and are they?'
+
+'Yes; 'tis the way I have.'  He further lowered his tone, as if they had
+been old friends, though in reality he had only seen her three or four
+times.  'And how did you come to be here?  Dash my wig, I don't like to
+see a nice young lady like you in this company.  You should come to some
+of our yeomanry sprees in Casterbridge or Shottsford-Forum.  O, but the
+girls do come!  The yeomanry are respected men, men of good substantial
+families, many farming their own land; and every one among us rides his
+own charger, which is more than these cussed fellows do.'  He nodded
+towards the dragoons.
+
+'Hush, hush!  Why, these are friends and neighbours of Miller Loveday,
+and he is a great friend of ours--our best friend,' said Anne with great
+emphasis, and reddening at the sense of injustice to their host.  'What
+are you thinking of, talking like that?  It is ungenerous in you.'
+
+'Ha, ha!  I've affronted you.  Isn't that it, fair angel, fair--what do
+you call it?--fair vestal?  Ah, well! would you was safe in my own house!
+But honour must be minded now, not courting.  Rollicum-rorum, tol-lol-
+lorum.  Pardon me, my sweet, I like ye!  It may be a come down for me,
+owning land; but I do like ye.'
+
+'Sir, please be quiet,' said Anne, distressed.
+
+'I will, I will.  Well, Corporal Tullidge, how's your head?' he said,
+going towards the other end of the room, and leaving Anne to herself.
+
+The company had again recovered its liveliness, and it was a long time
+before the bouncing Rufus who had joined them could find heart to tear
+himself away from their society and good liquors, although he had had
+quite enough of the latter before he entered.  The natives received him
+at his own valuation, and the soldiers of the camp, who sat beyond the
+table, smiled behind their pipes at his remarks, with a pleasant twinkle
+of the eye which approached the satirical, John Loveday being not the
+least conspicuous in this bearing.  But he and his friends were too
+courteous on such an occasion as the present to challenge the young man's
+large remarks, and readily permitted him to set them right on the details
+of camping and other military routine, about which the troopers seemed
+willing to let persons hold any opinion whatever, provided that they
+themselves were not obliged to give attention to it; showing, strangely
+enough, that if there was one subject more than another which never
+interested their minds, it was the art of war.  To them the art of
+enjoying good company in Overcombe Mill, the details of the miller's
+household, the swarming of his bees, the number of his chickens, and the
+fatness of his pigs, were matters of infinitely greater concern.
+
+The present writer, to whom this party has been described times out of
+number by members of the Loveday family and other aged people now passed
+away, can never enter the old living-room of Overcombe Mill without
+beholding the genial scene through the mists of the seventy or eighty
+years that intervene between then and now.  First and brightest to the
+eye are the dozen candles, scattered about regardless of expense, and
+kept well snuffed by the miller, who walks round the room at intervals of
+five minutes, snuffers in hand, and nips each wick with great precision,
+and with something of an executioner's grim look upon his face as he
+closes the snuffers upon the neck of the candle.  Next to the
+candle-light show the red and blue coats and white breeches of the
+soldiers--nearly twenty of them in all besides the ponderous Derriman--the
+head of the latter, and, indeed, the heads of all who are standing up,
+being in dangerous proximity to the black beams of the ceiling.  There is
+not one among them who would attach any meaning to 'Vittoria,' or gather
+from the syllables 'Waterloo' the remotest idea of his own glory or
+death.  Next appears the correct and innocent Anne, little thinking what
+things Time has in store for her at no great distance off.  She looks at
+Derriman with a half-uneasy smile as he clanks hither and thither, and
+hopes he will not single her out again to hold a private dialogue
+with--which, however, he does, irresistibly attracted by the white muslin
+figure.  She must, of course, look a little gracious again now, lest his
+mood should turn from sentimental to quarrelsome--no impossible
+contingency with the yeoman-soldier, as her quick perception had noted.
+
+'Well, well; this idling won't do for me, folks,' he at last said, to
+Anne's relief.  'I ought not to have come in, by rights; but I heard you
+enjoying yourselves, and thought it might be worth while to see what you
+were up to; I have several miles to go before bedtime;' and stretching
+his arms, lifting his chin, and shaking his head, to eradicate any
+unseemly curve or wrinkle from his person, the yeoman wished them an off-
+hand good-night, and departed.
+
+'You should have teased him a little more, father,' said the
+trumpet-major drily.  'You could soon have made him as crabbed as a
+bear.'
+
+'I didn't want to provoke the chap--'twasn't worth while.  He came in
+friendly enough,' said the gentle miller without looking up.
+
+'I don't think he was overmuch friendly,' said John.
+
+''Tis as well to be neighbourly with folks, if they be not quite
+onbearable,' his father genially replied, as he took off his coat to go
+and draw more ale--this periodical stripping to the shirt-sleeves being
+necessitated by the narrowness of the cellar and the smeary effect of its
+numerous cobwebs upon best clothes.
+
+Some of the guests then spoke of Fess Derriman as not such a bad young
+man if you took him right and humoured him; others said that he was
+nobody's enemy but his own; and the elder ladies mentioned in a tone of
+interest that he was likely to come into a deal of money at his uncle's
+death.  The person who did not praise was the one who knew him best, who
+had known him as a boy years ago, when he had lived nearer to Overcombe
+than he did at present.  This unappreciative person was the
+trumpet-major.
+
+
+
+
+VI.  OLD MR. DERRIMAN OF OXWELL HALL
+
+
+At this time in the history of Overcombe one solitary newspaper
+occasionally found its way into the village.  It was lent by the
+postmaster at Budmouth (who, in some mysterious way, got it for nothing
+through his connexion with the mail) to Mr. Derriman at the Hall, by whom
+it was handed on to Mrs. Garland when it was not more than a fortnight
+old.  Whoever remembers anything about the old farmer-squire will, of
+course, know well enough that this delightful privilege of reading
+history in long columns was not accorded to the Widow Garland for
+nothing.  It was by such ingenuous means that he paid her for her
+daughter's occasional services in reading aloud to him and making out his
+accounts, in which matters the farmer, whose guineas were reported to
+touch five figures--some said more--was not expert.
+
+Mrs. Martha Garland, as a respectable widow, occupied a twilight rank
+between the benighted villagers and the well-informed gentry, and kindly
+made herself useful to the former as letter-writer and reader, and
+general translator from the printing tongue.  It was not without
+satisfaction that she stood at her door of an evening, newspaper in hand,
+with three or four cottagers standing round, and poured down their open
+throats any paragraph that she might choose to select from the stirring
+ones of the period.  When she had done with the sheet Mrs. Garland passed
+it on to the miller, the miller to the grinder, and the grinder to the
+grinder's boy, in whose hands it became subdivided into half pages,
+quarter pages, and irregular triangles, and ended its career as a paper
+cap, a flagon bung, or a wrapper for his bread and cheese.
+
+Notwithstanding his compact with Mrs. Garland, old Mr. Derriman kept the
+paper so long, and was so chary of wasting his man's time on a merely
+intellectual errand, that unless she sent for the journal it seldom
+reached her hands.  Anne was always her messenger.  The arrival of the
+soldiers led Mrs. Garland to despatch her daughter for it the day after
+the party; and away she went in her hat and pelisse, in a direction at
+right angles to that of the encampment on the hill.
+
+Walking across the fields for the distance of a mile or two, she came out
+upon the high-road by a wicket-gate.  On the other side of the way was
+the entrance to what at first sight looked like a neglected meadow, the
+gate being a rotten one, without a bottom rail, and broken-down palings
+lying on each side.  The dry hard mud of the opening was marked with
+several horse and cow tracks, that had been half obliterated by fifty
+score sheep tracks, surcharged with the tracks of a man and a dog.  Beyond
+this geological record appeared a carriage-road, nearly grown over with
+grass, which Anne followed.  It descended by a gentle slope, dived under
+dark-rinded elm and chestnut trees, and conducted her on till the hiss of
+a waterfall and the sound of the sea became audible, when it took a bend
+round a swamp of fresh watercress and brooklime that had once been a fish
+pond.  Here the grey, weather-worn front of a building edged from behind
+the trees.  It was Oxwell Hall, once the seat of a family now extinct,
+and of late years used as a farmhouse.
+
+Benjamin Derriman, who owned the crumbling place, had originally been
+only the occupier and tenant-farmer of the fields around.  His wife had
+brought him a small fortune, and during the growth of their only son
+there had been a partition of the Oxwell estate, giving the farmer, now a
+widower, the opportunity of acquiring the building and a small portion of
+the land attached on exceptionally low terms.  But two years after the
+purchase the boy died, and Derriman's existence was paralyzed forthwith.
+It was said that since that event he had devised the house and fields to
+a distant female relative, to keep them out of the hands of his detested
+nephew; but this was not certainly known.
+
+The hall was as interesting as mansions in a state of declension usually
+are, as the excellent county history showed.  That popular work in folio
+contained an old plate dedicated to the last scion of the original
+owners, from which drawing it appeared that in 1750, the date of
+publication, the windows were covered with little scratches like black
+flashes of lightning; that a horn of hard smoke came out of each of the
+twelve chimneys; that a lady and a lap-dog stood on the lawn in a
+strenuously walking position; and a substantial cloud and nine flying
+birds of no known species hung over the trees to the north-east.
+
+The rambling and neglected dwelling had all the romantic excellencies and
+practical drawbacks which such mildewed places share in common with
+caves, mountains, wildernesses, glens, and other homes of poesy that
+people of taste wish to live and die in.  Mustard and cress could have
+been raised on the inner plaster of the dewy walls at any height not
+exceeding three feet from the floor; and mushrooms of the most refined
+and thin-stemmed kinds grew up through the chinks of the larder paving.
+As for the outside, Nature, in the ample time that had been given her,
+had so mingled her filings and effacements with the marks of human wear
+and tear upon the house, that it was often hard to say in which of the
+two or if in both, any particular obliteration had its origin.  The
+keenness was gone from the mouldings of the doorways, but whether worn
+out by the rubbing past of innumerable people's shoulders, and the moving
+of their heavy furniture, or by Time in a grander and more abstract form,
+did not appear.  The iron stanchions inside the window-panes were eaten
+away to the size of wires at the bottom where they entered the stone, the
+condensed breathings of generations having settled there in pools and
+rusted them.  The panes themselves had either lost their shine altogether
+or become iridescent as a peacock's tail.  In the middle of the porch was
+a vertical sun-dial, whose gnomon swayed loosely about when the wind
+blew, and cast its shadow hither and thither, as much as to say, 'Here's
+your fine model dial; here's any time for any man; I am an old dial; and
+shiftiness is the best policy.'
+
+Anne passed under the arched gateway which screened the main front; over
+it was the porter's lodge, reached by a spiral staircase.  Across the
+archway was fixed a row of wooden hurdles, one of which Anne opened and
+closed behind her.  Their necessity was apparent as soon as she got
+inside.  The quadrangle of the ancient pile was a bed of mud and manure,
+inhabited by calves, geese, ducks, and sow pigs surprisingly large, with
+young ones surprisingly small.  In the groined porch some heifers were
+amusing themselves by stretching up their necks and licking the carved
+stone capitals that supported the vaulting.  Anne went on to a second and
+open door, across which was another hurdle to keep the live stock from
+absolute community with the inmates.  There being no knocker, she knocked
+by means of a short stick which was laid against the post for that
+purpose; but nobody attending, she entered the passage, and tried an
+inner door.
+
+A slight noise was heard inside, the door opened about an inch, and a
+strip of decayed face, including the eye and some forehead wrinkles,
+appeared within the crevice.
+
+'Please I have come for the paper,' said Anne.
+
+'O, is it you, dear Anne?' whined the inmate, opening the door a little
+further.  'I could hardly get to the door to open it, I am so weak.'
+
+The speaker was a wizened old gentleman, in a coat the colour of his
+farmyard, breeches of the same hue, unbuttoned at the knees, revealing a
+bit of leg above his stocking and a dazzlingly white shirt-frill to
+compensate for this untidiness below.  The edge of his skull round his
+eye-sockets was visible through the skin, and he had a mouth whose
+corners made towards the back of his head on the slightest provocation.
+He walked with great apparent difficulty back into the room, Anne
+following him.
+
+'Well, you can have the paper if you want it; but you never give me much
+time to see what's in en!  Here's the paper.'  He held it out, but before
+she could take it he drew it back again, saying, 'I have not had my share
+o' the paper by a good deal, what with my weak sight, and people coming
+so soon for en.  I am a poor put-upon soul; but my "Duty of Man" will be
+left to me when the newspaper is gone.'  And he sank into his chair with
+an air of exhaustion.
+
+Anne said that she did not wish to take the paper if he had not done with
+it, and that she was really later in the week than usual, owing to the
+soldiers.
+
+'Soldiers, yes--rot the soldiers!  And now hedges will be broke, and
+hens' nests robbed, and sucking-pigs stole, and I don't know what all.
+Who's to pay for't, sure?  I reckon that because the soldiers be come you
+don't mean to be kind enough to read to me what I hadn't time to read
+myself.'
+
+She would read if he wished, she said; she was in no hurry.  And sitting
+herself down she unfolded the paper.
+
+'"Dinner at Carlton House"?'
+
+'No, faith.  'Tis nothing to I.'
+
+'"Defence of the country"?'
+
+'Ye may read that if ye will.  I hope there will be no billeting in this
+parish, or any wild work of that sort; for what would a poor old lamiger
+like myself do with soldiers in his house, and nothing to feed 'em with?'
+
+Anne began reading, and continued at her task nearly ten minutes, when
+she was interrupted by the appearance in the quadrangular slough without
+of a large figure in the uniform of the yeomanry cavalry.
+
+'What do you see out there?' said the farmer with a start, as she paused
+and slowly blushed.
+
+'A soldier--one of the yeomanry,' said Anne, not quite at her ease.
+
+'Scrounch it all--'tis my nephew!' exclaimed the old man, his face
+turning to a phosphoric pallor, and his body twitching with innumerable
+alarms as he formed upon his face a gasping smile of joy, with which to
+welcome the new-coming relative.  'Read on, prithee, Miss Garland.'
+
+Before she had read far the visitor straddled over the door-hurdle into
+the passage and entered the room.
+
+'Well, nunc, how do you feel?' said the giant, shaking hands with the
+farmer in the manner of one violently ringing a hand-bell.  'Glad to see
+you.'
+
+'Bad and weakish, Festus,' replied the other, his person responding
+passively to the rapid vibrations imparted.  'O, be tender, please--a
+little softer, there's a dear nephew!  My arm is no more than a cobweb.'
+
+'Ah, poor soul!'
+
+'Yes, I am not much more than a skeleton, and can't bear rough usage.'
+
+'Sorry to hear that; but I'll bear your affliction in mind.  Why, you are
+all in a tremble, Uncle Benjy!'
+
+''Tis because I am so gratified,' said the old man.  'I always get all in
+a tremble when I am taken by surprise by a beloved relation.'
+
+'Ah, that's it!' said the yeoman, bringing his hand down on the back of
+his uncle's chair with a loud smack, at which Uncle Benjy nervously
+sprang three inches from his seat and dropped into it again.  'Ask your
+pardon for frightening ye, uncle.  'Tis how we do in the army, and I
+forgot your nerves.  You have scarcely expected to see me, I dare say,
+but here I am.'
+
+'I am glad to see ye.  You are not going to stay long, perhaps?'
+
+'Quite the contrary.  I am going to stay ever so long!'
+
+'O I see!  I am so glad, dear Festus.  Ever so long, did ye say?'
+
+'Yes, _ever_ so long,' said the young gentleman, sitting on the slope of
+the bureau and stretching out his legs as props.  'I am going to make
+this quite my own home whenever I am off duty, as long as we stay out.
+And after that, when the campaign is over in the autumn, I shall come
+here, and live with you like your own son, and help manage your land and
+your farm, you know, and make you a comfortable old man.'
+
+'Ah!  How you do please me!' said the farmer, with a horrified smile, and
+grasping the arms of his chair to sustain himself.
+
+'Yes; I have been meaning to come a long time, as I knew you'd like to
+have me, Uncle Benjy; and 'tisn't in my heart to refuse you.'
+
+'You always was kind that way!'
+
+'Yes; I always was.  But I ought to tell you at once, not to disappoint
+you, that I shan't be here always--all day, that is, because of my
+military duties as a cavalry man.'
+
+'O, not always?  That's a pity!' exclaimed the farmer with a cheerful
+eye.
+
+'I knew you'd say so.  And I shan't be able to sleep here at night
+sometimes, for the same reason.'
+
+'Not sleep here o' nights?' said the old gentleman, still more relieved.
+'You ought to sleep here--you certainly ought; in short, you must.  But
+you can't!'
+
+'Not while we are with the colours.  But directly that's over--the very
+next day--I'll stay here all day, and all night too, to oblige you, since
+you ask me so very kindly.'
+
+'Th-thank ye, that will be very nice!' said Uncle Benjy.
+
+'Yes, I knew 'twould relieve ye.'  And he kindly stroked his uncle's
+head, the old man expressing his enjoyment at the affectionate token by a
+death's-head grimace.  'I should have called to see you the other night
+when I passed through here,' Festus continued; 'but it was so late that I
+couldn't come so far out of my way.  You won't think it unkind?'
+
+'Not at all, if you _couldn't_.  I never shall think it unkind if you
+really _can't_ come, you know, Festy.'  There was a few minutes' pause,
+and as the nephew said nothing Uncle Benjy went on: 'I wish I had a
+little present for ye.  But as ill-luck would have it we have lost a deal
+of stock this year, and I have had to pay away so much.'
+
+'Poor old man--I know you have.  Shall I lend you a seven-shilling piece,
+Uncle Benjy?'
+
+'Ha, ha!--you must have your joke; well, I'll think o' that.  And so they
+expect Buonaparty to choose this very part of the coast for his landing,
+hey?  And that the yeomanry be to stand in front as the forlorn hope?'
+
+'Who says so?' asked the florid son of Mars, losing a little redness.
+
+'The newspaper-man.'
+
+'O, there's nothing in that,' said Festus bravely.  'The gover'ment
+thought it possible at one time; but they don't know.'
+
+Festus turned himself as he talked, and now said abruptly: 'Ah, who's
+this?  Why, 'tis our little Anne!'  He had not noticed her till this
+moment, the young woman having at his entry kept her face over the
+newspaper, and then got away to the back part of the room.  'And are you
+and your mother always going to stay down there in the mill-house
+watching the little fishes, Miss Anne?'
+
+She said that it was uncertain, in a tone of truthful precision which the
+question was hardly worth, looking forcedly at him as she spoke.  But she
+blushed fitfully, in her arms and hands as much as in her face.  Not that
+she was overpowered by the great boots, formidable spurs, and other
+fierce appliances of his person, as he imagined; simply she had not been
+prepared to meet him there.
+
+'I hope you will, I am sure, for my own good,' said he, letting his eyes
+linger on the round of her cheek.
+
+Anne became a little more dignified, and her look showed reserve.  But
+the yeoman on perceiving this went on talking to her in so civil a way
+that he irresistibly amused her, though she tried to conceal all feeling.
+At a brighter remark of his than usual her mouth moved, her upper lip
+playing uncertainly over her white teeth; it would stay still--no, it
+would withdraw a little way in a smile; then it would flutter down again;
+and so it wavered like a butterfly in a tender desire to be pleased and
+smiling, and yet to be also sedate and composed; to show him that she did
+not want compliments, and yet that she was not so cold as to wish to
+repress any genuine feeling he might be anxious to utter.
+
+'Shall you want any more reading, Mr. Derriman?' said she, interrupting
+the younger man in his remarks.  'If not, I'll go homeward.'
+
+'Don't let me hinder you longer,' said Festus.  'I'm off in a minute or
+two, when your man has cleaned my boots.'
+
+'Ye don't hinder us, nephew.  She must have the paper: 'tis the day for
+her to have 'n.  She might read a little more, as I have had so little
+profit out o' en hitherto.  Well, why don't ye speak?  Will ye, or won't
+ye, my dear?'
+
+'Not to two,' she said.
+
+'Ho, ho! damn it, I must go then, I suppose,' said Festus, laughing; and
+unable to get a further glance from her he left the room and clanked into
+the back yard, where he saw a man; holding up his hand he cried, 'Anthony
+Cripplestraw!'
+
+Cripplestraw came up in a trot, moved a lock of his hair and replaced it,
+and said, 'Yes, Maister Derriman.'  He was old Mr. Derriman's odd hand in
+the yard and garden, and like his employer had no great pretensions to
+manly beauty, owing to a limpness of backbone and speciality of mouth,
+which opened on one side only, giving him a triangular smile.
+
+'Well, Cripplestraw, how is it to-day?' said Festus, with
+socially-superior heartiness.
+
+'Middlin', considering, Maister Derriman.  And how's yerself?'
+
+'Fairish.  Well, now, see and clean these military boots of mine.  I'll
+cock my foot up on this bench.  This pigsty of my uncle's is not fit for
+a soldier to come into.'
+
+'Yes, Maister Derriman, I will.  No, 'tis not fit, Maister Derriman.'
+
+'What stock has uncle lost this year, Cripplestraw?'
+
+'Well, let's see, sir.  I can call to mind that we've lost three
+chickens, a tom-pigeon, and a weakly sucking-pig, one of a fare of ten.  I
+can't think of no more, Maister Derriman.'
+
+'H'm, not a large quantity of cattle.  The old rascal!'
+
+'No, 'tis not a large quantity.  Old what did you say, sir?'
+
+'O nothing.  He's within there.'  Festus flung his forehead in the
+direction of a right line towards the inner apartment.  'He's a regular
+sniche one.'
+
+'Hee, hee; fie, fie, Master Derriman!' said Cripplestraw, shaking his
+head in delighted censure.  'Gentlefolks shouldn't talk so.  And an
+officer, Mr. Derriman!  'Tis the duty of all cavalry gentlemen to bear in
+mind that their blood is a knowed thing in the country, and not to speak
+ill o't.'
+
+'He's close-fisted.'
+
+'Well, maister, he is--I own he is a little.  'Tis the nater of some old
+venerable gentlemen to be so.  We'll hope he'll treat ye well in yer
+fortune, sir.'
+
+'Hope he will.  Do people talk about me here, Cripplestraw?' asked the
+yeoman, as the other continued busy with his boots.
+
+'Well, yes, sir; they do off and on, you know.  They says you be as fine
+a piece of calvery flesh and bones as was ever growed on fallow-ground;
+in short, all owns that you be a fine fellow, sir.  I wish I wasn't no
+more afraid of the French than you be; but being in the Locals, Maister
+Derriman, I assure ye I dream of having to defend my country every night;
+and I don't like the dream at all.'
+
+'You should take it careless, Cripplestraw, as I do; and 'twould soon
+come natural to you not to mind it at all.  Well, a fine fellow is not
+everything, you know.  O no.  There's as good as I in the army, and even
+better.'
+
+'And they say that when you fall this summer, you'll die like a man.'
+
+'When I fall?'
+
+'Yes, sure, Maister Derriman.  Poor soul o' thee!  I shan't forget 'ee as
+you lie mouldering in yer soldier's grave.'
+
+'Hey?' said the warrior uneasily.  'What makes 'em think I am going to
+fall?'
+
+'Well, sir, by all accounts the yeomanry will be put in front.'
+
+'Front!  That's what my uncle has been saying.'
+
+'Yes, and by all accounts 'tis true.  And naterelly they'll be mowed down
+like grass; and you among 'em, poor young galliant officer!'
+
+'Look here, Cripplestraw.  This is a reg'lar foolish report.  How can
+yeomanry be put in front?  Nobody's put in front.  We yeomanry have
+nothing to do with Buonaparte's landing.  We shall be away in a safe
+place, guarding the possessions and jewels.  Now, can you see,
+Cripplestraw, any way at all that the yeomanry can be put in front?  Do
+you think they really can?'
+
+'Well, maister, I am afraid I do,' said the cheering Cripplestraw.  'And
+I know a great warrior like you is only too glad o' the chance.  'Twill
+be a great thing for ye, death and glory!  In short, I hope from my heart
+you will be, and I say so very often to folk--in fact, I pray at night
+for't.'
+
+'O! cuss you! you needn't pray about it.'
+
+'No, Maister Derriman, I won't.'
+
+'Of course my sword will do its duty.  That's enough.  And now be off
+with ye.'
+
+Festus gloomily returned to his uncle's room and found that Anne was just
+leaving.  He was inclined to follow her at once, but as she gave him no
+opportunity for doing this he went to the window, and remained tapping
+his fingers against the shutter while she crossed the yard.
+
+'Well, nephy, you are not gone yet?' said the farmer, looking dubiously
+at Festus from under one eyelid.  'You see how I am.  Not by any means
+better, you see; so I can't entertain 'ee as well as I would.'
+
+'You can't, nunc, you can't.  I don't think you are worse--if I do, dash
+my wig.  But you'll have plenty of opportunities to make me welcome when
+you are better.  If you are not so brisk inwardly as you was, why not try
+change of air?  This is a dull, damp hole.'
+
+''Tis, Festus; and I am thinking of moving.'
+
+'Ah, where to?' said Festus, with surprise and interest.
+
+'Up into the garret in the north corner.  There is no fireplace in the
+room; but I shan't want that, poor soul o' me.'
+
+''Tis not moving far.'
+
+''Tis not.  But I have not a soul belonging to me within ten mile; and
+you know very well that I couldn't afford to go to lodgings that I had to
+pay for.'
+
+'I know it--I know it, Uncle Benjy!  Well, don't be disturbed.  I'll come
+and manage for you as soon as ever this Boney alarm is over; but when a
+man's country calls he must obey, if he is a man.'
+
+'A splendid spirit!' said Uncle Benjy, with much admiration on the
+surface of his countenance.  'I never had it.  How could it have got into
+the boy?'
+
+'From my mother's side, perhaps.'
+
+'Perhaps so.  Well, take care of yourself, nephy,' said the farmer,
+waving his hand impressively.  'Take care!  In these warlike times your
+spirit may carry ye into the arms of the enemy; and you are the last of
+the family.  You should think of this, and not let your bravery carry ye
+away.'
+
+'Don't be disturbed, uncle; I'll control myself,' said Festus, betrayed
+into self-complacency against his will.  'At least I'll do what I can,
+but nature will out sometimes.  Well, I'm off.'  He began humming
+'Brighton Camp,' and, promising to come again soon, retired with
+assurance, each yard of his retreat adding private joyousness to his
+uncle's form.
+
+When the bulky young man had disappeared through the porter's lodge,
+Uncle Benjy showed preternatural activity for one in his invalid state,
+jumping up quickly without his stick, at the same time opening and
+shutting his mouth quite silently like a thirsty frog, which was his way
+of expressing mirth.  He ran upstairs as quick as an old squirrel, and
+went to a dormer window which commanded a view of the grounds beyond the
+gate, and the footpath that stretched across them to the village.
+
+'Yes, yes!' he said in a suppressed scream, dancing up and down, 'he's
+after her: she've hit en!'  For there appeared upon the path the figure
+of Anne Garland, and, hastening on at some little distance behind her,
+the swaggering shape of Festus.  She became conscious of his approach,
+and moved more quickly.  He moved more quickly still, and overtook her.
+She turned as if in answer to a call from him, and he walked on beside
+her, till they were out of sight.  The old man then played upon an
+imaginary fiddle for about half a minute; and, suddenly discontinuing
+these signs of pleasure, went downstairs again.
+
+
+
+
+VII.  HOW THEY TALKED IN THE PASTURES
+
+
+'You often come this way?' said Festus to Anne rather before he had
+overtaken her.
+
+'I come for the newspaper and other things,' she said, perplexed by a
+doubt whether he were there by accident or design.
+
+They moved on in silence, Festus beating the grass with his switch in a
+masterful way.  'Did you speak, Mis'ess Anne?' he asked.
+
+'No,' said Anne.
+
+'Ten thousand pardons.  I thought you did.  Now don't let me drive you
+out of the path.  I can walk among the high grass and giltycups--they
+will not yellow my stockings as they will yours.  Well, what do you think
+of a lot of soldiers coming to the neighbourhood in this way?'
+
+'I think it is very lively, and a great change,' she said with demure
+seriousness.
+
+'Perhaps you don't like us warriors as a body?'
+
+Anne smiled without replying.
+
+'Why, you are laughing!' said the yeoman, looking searchingly at her and
+blushing like a little fire.  'What do you see to laugh at?'
+
+'Did I laugh?' said Anne, a little scared at his sudden mortification.
+
+'Why, yes; you know you did, you young sneerer,' he said like a cross
+baby.  'You are laughing at me--that's who you are laughing at!  I should
+like to know what you would do without such as me if the French were to
+drop in upon ye any night?'
+
+'Would you help to beat them off?' said she.
+
+'Can you ask such a question?  What are we for?  But you don't think
+anything of soldiers.'
+
+O yes, she liked soldiers, she said, especially when they came home from
+the wars, covered with glory; though when she thought what doings had won
+them that glory she did not like them quite so well.  The gallant and
+appeased yeoman said he supposed her to mean chopping off heads, blowing
+out brains, and that kind of business, and thought it quite right that a
+tender-hearted thing like her should feel a little horrified.  But as for
+him, he should not mind such another Blenheim this summer as the army had
+fought a hundred years ago, or whenever it was--dash his wig if he should
+mind it at all.  'Hullo! now you are laughing again; yes, I saw you!'  And
+the choleric Festus turned his blue eyes and flushed face upon her as
+though he would read her through.  Anne strove valiantly to look calmly
+back; but her eyes could not face his, and they fell.  'You did laugh!'
+he repeated.
+
+'It was only a tiny little one,' she murmured.
+
+'Ah--I knew you did!' thundered he.  'Now what was it you laughed at?'
+
+'I only--thought that you were--merely in the yeomanry,' she murmured
+slily.
+
+'And what of that?'
+
+'And the yeomanry only seem farmers that have lost their senses.'
+
+'Yes, yes!  I knew you meant some jeering o' that sort, Mistress Anne.
+But I suppose 'tis the way of women, and I take no notice.  I'll confess
+that some of us are no great things: but I know how to draw a sword,
+don't I?--say I don't just to provoke me.'
+
+'I am sure you do,' said Anne sweetly.  'If a Frenchman came up to you,
+Mr. Derriman, would you take him on the hip, or on the thigh?'
+
+'Now you are flattering!' he said, his white teeth uncovering themselves
+in a smile.  'Well, of course I should draw my sword--no, I mean my sword
+would be already drawn; and I should put spurs to my horse--charger, as
+we call it in the army; and I should ride up to him and say--no, I
+shouldn't say anything, of course--men never waste words in battle; I
+should take him with the third guard, low point, and then coming back to
+the second guard--'
+
+'But that would be taking care of yourself--not hitting at him.'
+
+'How can you say that!' he cried, the beams upon his face turning to a
+lurid cloud in a moment.  'How can you understand military terms who've
+never had a sword in your life?  I shouldn't take him with the sword at
+all.'  He went on with eager sulkiness, 'I should take him with my
+pistol.  I should pull off my right glove, and throw back my goat-skin;
+then I should open my priming-pan, prime, and cast about--no, I
+shouldn't, that's wrong; I should draw my right pistol, and as soon as
+loaded, seize the weapon by the butt; then at the word "Cock your pistol"
+I should--'
+
+'Then there is plenty of time to give such words of command in the heat
+of battle?' said Anne innocently.
+
+'No!' said the yeoman, his face again in flames.  'Why, of course I am
+only telling you what _would_ be the word of command _if_--there now! you
+la--'
+
+'I didn't; 'pon my word I didn't!'
+
+'No, I don't think you did; it was my mistake.  Well, then I come smartly
+to Present, looking well along the barrel--along the barrel--and fire.  Of
+course I know well enough how to engage the enemy!  But I expect my old
+uncle has been setting you against me.'
+
+'He has not said a word,' replied Anne; 'though I have heard of you, of
+course.'
+
+'What have you heard?  Nothing good, I dare say.  It makes my blood boil
+within me!'
+
+'O, nothing bad,' said she assuringly.  'Just a word now and then.'
+
+'Now, come, tell me, there's a dear.  I don't like to be crossed.  It
+shall be a sacred secret between us.  Come, now!'
+
+Anne was embarrassed, and her smile was uncomfortable.  'I shall not tell
+you,' she said at last.
+
+'There it is again!' said the yeoman, throwing himself into a despair.  'I
+shall soon begin to believe that my name is not worth sixpence about
+here!'
+
+'I tell you 'twas nothing against you,' repeated Anne.
+
+'That means it might have been for me,' said Festus, in a mollified tone.
+'Well, though, to speak the truth, I have a good many faults, some people
+will praise me, I suppose.  'Twas praise?'
+
+'It was.'
+
+'Well, I am not much at farming, and I am not much in company, and I am
+not much at figures, but perhaps I must own, since it is forced upon me,
+that I can show as fine a soldier's figure on the Esplanade as any man of
+the cavalry.'
+
+'You can,' said Anne; for though her flesh crept in mortal terror of his
+irascibility, she could not resist the fearful pleasure of leading him
+on.  'You look very well; and some say, you are--'
+
+'What?  Well, they say I am good-looking.  I don't make myself, so 'tis
+no praise.  Hullo! what are you looking across there for?'
+
+'Only at a bird that I saw fly out of that tree,' said Anne.
+
+'What?  Only at a bird, do you say?' he heaved out in a voice of thunder.
+'I see your shoulders a-shaking, young madam.  Now don't you provoke me
+with that laughing!  By God, it won't do!'
+
+'Then go away!' said Anne, changed from mirthfulness to irritation by his
+rough manner.  'I don't want your company, you great bragging thing!  You
+are so touchy there's no bearing with you.  Go away!'
+
+'No, no, Anne; I am wrong to speak to you so.  I give you free liberty to
+say what you will to me.  Say I am not a bit of a soldier, or anything!
+Abuse me--do now, there's a dear.  I'm scum, I'm froth, I'm dirt before
+the besom--yes!'
+
+'I have nothing to say, sir.  Stay where you are till I am out of this
+field.'
+
+'Well, there's such command in your looks that I ha'n't heart to go
+against you.  You will come this way to-morrow at the same time?  Now,
+don't be uncivil.'
+
+She was too generous not to forgive him, but the short little lip
+murmured that she did not think it at all likely she should come that way
+to-morrow.
+
+'Then Sunday?' he said.
+
+'Not Sunday,' said she.
+
+'Then Monday--Tuesday--Wednesday, surely?' he went on experimentally.
+
+She answered that she should probably not see him on either day, and,
+cutting short the argument, went through the wicket into the other field.
+Festus paused, looking after her; and when he could no longer see her
+slight figure he swept away his deliberations, began singing, and turned
+off in the other direction.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.  ANNE MAKES A CIRCUIT OF THE CAMP
+
+
+When Anne was crossing the last field, she saw approaching her an old
+woman with wrinkled cheeks, who surveyed the earth and its inhabitants
+through the medium of brass-rimmed spectacles.  Shaking her head at Anne
+till the glasses shone like two moons, she said, 'Ah, ah; I zeed ye!  If
+I had only kept on my short ones that I use for reading the Collect and
+Gospel I shouldn't have zeed ye; but thinks I, I be going out o' doors,
+and I'll put on my long ones, little thinking what they'd show me.  Ay, I
+can tell folk at any distance with these--'tis a beautiful pair for out
+o' doors; though my short ones be best for close work, such as darning,
+and catching fleas, that's true.'
+
+'What have you seen, Granny Seamore?' said Anne.
+
+'Fie, fie, Miss Nancy! you know,' said Granny Seamore, shaking her head
+still.  'But he's a fine young feller, and will have all his uncle's
+money when 'a's gone.'  Anne said nothing to this, and looking ahead with
+a smile passed Granny Seamore by.
+
+Festus, the subject of the remark, was at this time about
+three-and-twenty, a fine fellow as to feet and inches, and of a
+remarkably warm tone in skin and hair.  Symptoms of beard and whiskers
+had appeared upon him at a very early age, owing to his persistent use of
+the razor before there was any necessity for its operation.  The brave
+boy had scraped unseen in the out-house, in the cellar, in the wood-shed,
+in the stable, in the unused parlour, in the cow-stalls, in the barn, and
+wherever he could set up his triangular bit of looking-glass without
+observation, or extemporize a mirror by sticking up his hat on the
+outside of a window-pane.  The result now was that, did he neglect to use
+the instrument he once had trifled with, a fine rust broke out upon his
+countenance on the first day, a golden lichen on the second, and a fiery
+stubble on the third to a degree which admitted of no further
+postponement.
+
+His disposition divided naturally into two, the boastful and the
+cantankerous.  When Festus put on the big pot, as it is classically
+called, he was quite blinded ipso facto to the diverting effect of that
+mood and manner upon others; but when disposed to be envious or
+quarrelsome he was rather shrewd than otherwise, and could do some pretty
+strokes of satire.  He was both liked and abused by the girls who knew
+him, and though they were pleased by his attentions, they never failed to
+ridicule him behind his back.  In his cups (he knew those vessels, though
+only twenty-three) he first became noisy, then excessively friendly, and
+then invariably nagging.  During childhood he had made himself renowned
+for his pleasant habit of pouncing down upon boys smaller and poorer than
+himself, and knocking their birds' nests out of their hands, or
+overturning their little carts of apples, or pouring water down their
+backs; but his conduct became singularly the reverse of aggressive the
+moment the little boys' mothers ran out to him, brandishing brooms,
+frying-pans, skimmers, and whatever else they could lay hands on by way
+of weapons.  He then fled and hid behind bushes, under faggots, or in
+pits till they had gone away; and on one such occasion was known to creep
+into a badger's hole quite out of sight, maintaining that post with great
+firmness and resolution for two or three hours.  He had brought more
+vulgar exclamations upon the tongues of respectable parents in his native
+parish than any other boy of his time.  When other youngsters snowballed
+him he ran into a place of shelter, where he kneaded snowballs of his
+own, with a stone inside, and used these formidable missiles in returning
+their pleasantry.  Sometimes he got fearfully beaten by boys his own age,
+when he would roar most lustily, but fight on in the midst of his tears,
+blood, and cries.
+
+He was early in love, and had at the time of the story suffered from the
+ravages of that passion thirteen distinct times.  He could not love
+lightly and gaily; his love was earnest, cross-tempered, and even savage.
+It was a positive agony to him to be ridiculed by the object of his
+affections, and such conduct drove him into a frenzy if persisted in.  He
+was a torment to those who behaved humbly towards him, cynical with those
+who denied his superiority, and a very nice fellow towards those who had
+the courage to ill-use him.
+
+This stalwart gentleman and Anne Garland did not cross each other's paths
+again for a week.  Then her mother began as before about the newspaper,
+and, though Anne did not much like the errand, she agreed to go for it on
+Mrs. Garland pressing her with unusual anxiety.  Why her mother was so
+persistent on so small a matter quite puzzled the girl; but she put on
+her hat and started.
+
+As she had expected, Festus appeared at a stile over which she sometimes
+went for shortness' sake, and showed by his manner that he awaited her.
+When she saw this she kept straight on, as if she would not enter the
+park at all.
+
+'Surely this is your way?' said Festus.
+
+'I was thinking of going round by the road,' she said.
+
+'Why is that?'
+
+She paused, as if she were not inclined to say.  'I go that way when the
+grass is wet,' she returned at last.
+
+'It is not wet now,' he persisted; 'the sun has been shining on it these
+nine hours.'  The fact was that the way by the path was less open than by
+the road, and Festus wished to walk with her uninterrupted.  'But, of
+course, it is nothing to me what you do.'  He flung himself from the
+stile and walked away towards the house.
+
+Anne, supposing him really indifferent, took the same way, upon which he
+turned his head and waited for her with a proud smile.
+
+'I cannot go with you,' she said decisively.
+
+'Nonsense, you foolish girl!  I must walk along with you down to the
+corner.'
+
+'No, please, Mr. Derriman; we might be seen.'
+
+'Now, now--that's shyness!' he said jocosely.
+
+'No; you know I cannot let you.'
+
+'But I must.'
+
+'But I do not allow it.'
+
+'Allow it or not, I will.'
+
+'Then you are unkind, and I must submit,' she said, her eyes brimming
+with tears.
+
+'Ho, ho; what a shame of me!  My wig, I won't do any such thing for the
+world,' said the repentant yeoman.  'Haw, haw; why, I thought your "go
+away" meant "come on," as it does with so many of the women I meet,
+especially in these clothes.  Who was to know you were so confoundedly
+serious?'
+
+As he did not go Anne stood still and said nothing.
+
+'I see you have a deal more caution and a deal less good-nature than I
+ever thought you had,' he continued emphatically.
+
+'No, sir; it is not any planned manner of mine at all,' she said
+earnestly.  'But you will see, I am sure, that I could not go down to the
+hall with you without putting myself in a wrong light.'
+
+'Yes; that's it, that's it.  I am only a fellow in the yeomanry cavalry--a
+plain soldier, I may say; and we know what women think of such: that they
+are a bad lot--men you mustn't speak to for fear of losing your
+character--chaps you avoid in the roads--chaps that come into a house
+like oxen, daub the stairs wi' their boots, stain the furniture wi' their
+drink, talk rubbish to the servants, abuse all that's holy and righteous,
+and are only saved from being carried off by Old Nick because they are
+wanted for Boney.'
+
+'Indeed, I didn't know you were thought so bad of as that,' said she
+simply.
+
+'What! don't my uncle complain to you of me?  You are a favourite of that
+handsome, nice old gaffer's, I know.'
+
+'Never.'
+
+'Well, what do we think of our nice trumpet-major, hey?'
+
+Anne closed her mouth up tight, built it up, in fact, to show that no
+answer was coming to that question.
+
+'O now, come, seriously, Loveday is a good fellow, and so is his father.'
+
+'I don't know.'
+
+'What a close little rogue you are!  There is no getting anything out of
+you.  I believe you would say "I don't know," to every mortal question,
+so very discreet as you are.  Upon my heart, there are some women who
+would say "I don't know," to "Will ye marry me?"'
+
+The brightness upon Anne's cheek and in her eyes during this remark
+showed that there was a fair quantity of life and warmth beneath the
+discretion he complained of.  Having spoken thus, he drew aside that she
+might pass, and bowed very low.  Anne formally inclined herself and went
+on.
+
+She had been at vexation point all the time that he was present, from a
+haunting sense that he would not have spoken to her so freely had she
+been a young woman with thriving male relatives to keep forward admirers
+in check.  But she had been struck, now as at their previous meeting,
+with the power she possessed of working him up either to irritation or to
+complacency at will; and this consciousness of being able to play upon
+him as upon an instrument disposed her to a humorous considerateness, and
+made her tolerate even while she rebuffed him.
+
+When Anne got to the hall the farmer, as usual, insisted upon her reading
+what he had been unable to get through, and held the paper tightly in his
+skinny hand till she had agreed.  He sent her to a hard chair that she
+could not possibly injure to the extent of a pennyworth by sitting in it
+a twelvemonth, and watched her from the outer angle of his near eye while
+she bent over the paper.  His look might have been suggested by the sight
+that he had witnessed from his window on the last occasion of her visit,
+for it partook of the nature of concern.  The old man was afraid of his
+nephew, physically and morally, and he began to regard Anne as a fellow-
+sufferer under the same despot.  After this sly and curious gaze at her
+he withdrew his eye again, so that when she casually lifted her own there
+was nothing visible but his keen bluish profile as before.
+
+When the reading was about half-way through, the door behind them opened,
+and footsteps crossed the threshold.  The farmer diminished perceptibly
+in his chair, and looked fearful, but pretended to be absorbed in the
+reading, and quite unconscious of an intruder.  Anne felt the presence of
+the swashing Festus, and stopped her reading.
+
+'Please go on, Miss Anne,' he said, 'I am not going to speak a word.'  He
+withdrew to the mantelpiece and leaned against it at his ease.
+
+'Go on, do ye, maidy Anne,' said Uncle Benjy, keeping down his tremblings
+by a great effort to half their natural extent.
+
+Anne's voice became much lower now that there were two listeners, and her
+modesty shrank somewhat from exposing to Festus the appreciative
+modulations which an intelligent interest in the subject drew from her
+when unembarrassed.  But she still went on that he might not suppose her
+to be disconcerted, though the ensuing ten minutes was one of
+disquietude.  She knew that the bothering yeoman's eyes were travelling
+over her from his position behind, creeping over her shoulders, up to her
+head, and across her arms and hands.  Old Benjy on his part knew the same
+thing, and after sundry endeavours to peep at his nephew from the corner
+of his eye, he could bear the situation no longer.
+
+'Do ye want to say anything to me, nephew?' he quaked.
+
+'No, uncle, thank ye,' said Festus heartily.  'I like to stay here,
+thinking of you and looking at your back hair.'
+
+The nervous old man writhed under this vivisection, and Anne read on;
+till, to the relief of both, the gallant fellow grew tired of his
+amusement and went out of the room.  Anne soon finished her paragraph and
+rose to go, determined never to come again as long as Festus haunted the
+precincts.  Her face grew warmer as she thought that he would be sure to
+waylay her on her journey home to-day.
+
+On this account, when she left the house, instead of going in the
+customary direction, she bolted round to the further side, through the
+bushes, along under the kitchen-garden wall, and through a door leading
+into a rutted cart-track, which had been a pleasant gravelled drive when
+the fine old hall was in its prosperity.  Once out of sight of the
+windows she ran with all her might till she had quitted the park by a
+route directly opposite to that towards her home.  Why she was so
+seriously bent upon doing this she could hardly tell but the instinct to
+run was irresistible.
+
+It was necessary now to clamber over the down to the left of the camp,
+and make a complete circuit round the latter--infantry, cavalry, sutlers,
+and all--descending to her house on the other side.  This tremendous walk
+she performed at a rapid rate, never once turning her head, and avoiding
+every beaten track to keep clear of the knots of soldiers taking a walk.
+When she at last got down to the levels again she paused to fetch breath,
+and murmured, 'Why did I take so much trouble?  He would not, after all,
+have hurt me.'
+
+As she neared the mill an erect figure with a blue body and white thighs
+descended before her from the down towards the village, and went past the
+mill to a stile beyond, over which she usually returned to her house.
+Here he lingered.  On coming nearer Anne discovered this person to be
+Trumpet-major Loveday; and not wishing to meet anybody just now Anne
+passed quickly on, and entered the house by the garden door.
+
+'My dear Anne, what a time you have been gone!' said her mother.
+
+'Yes, I have been round by another road.'
+
+'Why did you do that?'
+
+Anne looked thoughtful and reticent, for her reason was almost too silly
+a one to confess.  'Well, I wanted to avoid a person who is very busy
+trying to meet me--that's all,' she said.
+
+Her mother glanced out of the window.  'And there he is, I suppose,' she
+said, as John Loveday, tired of looking for Anne at the stile, passed the
+house on his way to his father's door.  He could not help casting his
+eyes towards their window, and, seeing them, he smiled.
+
+Anne's reluctance to mention Festus was such that she did not correct her
+mother's error, and the dame went on: 'Well, you are quite right, my
+dear.  Be friendly with him, but no more at present.  I have heard of
+your other affair, and think it is a very wise choice.  I am sure you
+have my best wishes in it, and I only hope it will come to a point.'
+
+'What's that?' said the astonished Anne.
+
+'You and Mr. Festus Derriman, dear.  You need not mind me; I have known
+it for several days.  Old Granny Seamore called here Saturday, and told
+me she saw him coming home with you across Park Close last week, when you
+went for the newspaper; so I thought I'd send you again to-day, and give
+you another chance.'
+
+'Then you didn't want the paper--and it was only for that!'
+
+'He's a very fine young fellow; he looks a thorough woman's protector.'
+
+'He may look it,' said Anne.
+
+'He has given up the freehold farm his father held at Pitstock, and lives
+in independence on what the land brings him.  And when Farmer Derriman
+dies, he'll have all the old man's, for certain.  He'll be worth ten
+thousand pounds, if a penny, in money, besides sixteen horses, cart and
+hack, a fifty-cow dairy, and at least five hundred sheep.'
+
+Anne turned away, and instead of informing her mother that she had been
+running like a doe to escape the interesting heir-presumptive alluded to,
+merely said 'Mother, I don't like this at all.'
+
+
+
+
+IX.  ANNE IS KINDLY FETCHED BY THE TRUMPET-MAJOR
+
+
+After this, Anne would on no account walk in the direction of the hall
+for fear of another encounter with young Derriman.  In the course of a
+few days it was told in the village that the old farmer had actually gone
+for a week's holiday and change of air to the Royal watering-place near
+at hand, at the instance of his nephew Festus.  This was a wonderful
+thing to hear of Uncle Benjy, who had not slept outside the walls of
+Oxwell Hall for many a long year before; and Anne well imagined what
+extraordinary pressure must have been put upon him to induce him to take
+such a step.  She pictured his unhappiness at the bustling
+watering-place, and hoped no harm would come to him.
+
+She spent much of her time indoors or in the garden, hearing little of
+the camp movements beyond the periodical Ta-ta-ta-taa of the trumpeters
+sounding their various ingenious calls for watch-setting, stables, feed,
+boot-and-saddle, parade, and so on, which made her think how clever her
+friend the trumpet-major must be to teach his pupils to play those pretty
+little tunes so well.
+
+On the third morning after Uncle Benjy's departure, she was disturbed as
+usual while dressing by the tramp of the troops down the slope to the
+mill-pond, and during the now familiar stamping and splashing which
+followed there sounded upon the glass of the window a slight smack, which
+might have been caused by a whip or switch.  She listened more
+particularly, and it was repeated.
+
+As John Loveday was the only dragoon likely to be aware that she slept in
+that particular apartment, she imagined the signal to come from him,
+though wondering that he should venture upon such a freak of familiarity.
+
+Wrapping herself up in a red cloak, she went to the window, gently drew
+up a corner of the curtain, and peeped out, as she had done many times
+before.  Nobody who was not quite close beneath her window could see her
+face; but as it happened, somebody was close.  The soldiers whose
+floundering Anne had heard were not Loveday's dragoons, but a troop of
+the York Hussars, quite oblivious of her existence.  They had passed on
+out of the water, and instead of them there sat Festus Derriman alone on
+his horse, and in plain clothes, the water reaching up to the animal's
+belly, and Festus' heels elevated over the saddle to keep them out of the
+stream, which threatened to wash rider and horse into the deep mill-head
+just below.  It was plainly he who had struck her lattice, for in a
+moment he looked up, and their eyes met.  Festus laughed loudly, and
+slapped her window again; and just at that moment the dragoons began
+prancing down the slope in review order.  She could not but wait a minute
+or two to see them pass.  While doing so she was suddenly led to draw
+back, drop the corner of the curtain, and blush privately in her room.
+She had not only been seen by Festus Derriman, but by John Loveday, who,
+riding along with his trumpet slung up behind him, had looked over his
+shoulder at the phenomenon of Derriman beneath Anne's bedroom window and
+seemed quite astounded at the sight.
+
+She was quite vexed at the conjunction of incidents, and went no more to
+the window till the dragoons had ridden far away and she had heard
+Festus's horse laboriously wade on to dry land.  When she looked out
+there was nobody left but Miller Loveday, who usually stood in the garden
+at this time of the morning to say a word or two to the soldiers, of whom
+he already knew so many, and was in a fair way of knowing many more, from
+the liberality with which he handed round mugs of cheering liquor
+whenever parties of them walked that way.
+
+In the afternoon of this day Anne walked to a christening party at a
+neighbour's in the adjoining parish of Springham, intending to walk home
+again before it got dark; but there was a slight fall of rain towards
+evening, and she was pressed by the people of the house to stay over the
+night.  With some hesitation she accepted their hospitality; but at ten
+o'clock, when they were thinking of going to bed, they were startled by a
+smart rap at the door, and on it being unbolted a man's form was seen in
+the shadows outside.
+
+'Is Miss Garland here?' the visitor inquired, at which Anne suspended her
+breath.
+
+'Yes,' said Anne's entertainer, warily.
+
+'Her mother is very anxious to know what's become of her.  She promised
+to come home.'  To her great relief Anne recognized the voice as John
+Loveday's, and not Festus Derriman's.
+
+'Yes, I did, Mr. Loveday,' said she, coming forward; 'but it rained, and
+I thought my mother would guess where I was.'
+
+Loveday said with diffidence that it had not rained anything to speak of
+at the camp, or at the mill, so that her mother was rather alarmed.
+
+'And she asked you to come for me?' Anne inquired.
+
+This was a question which the trumpet-major had been dreading during the
+whole of his walk thither.  'Well, she didn't exactly ask me,' he said
+rather lamely, but still in a manner to show that Mrs. Garland had
+indirectly signified such to be her wish.  In reality Mrs. Garland had
+not addressed him at all on the subject.  She had merely spoken to his
+father on finding that her daughter did not return, and received an
+assurance from the miller that the precious girl was doubtless quite
+safe.  John heard of this inquiry, and, having a pass that evening,
+resolved to relieve Mrs. Garland's mind on his own responsibility.  Ever
+since his morning view of Festus under her window he had been on thorns
+of anxiety, and his thrilling hope now was that she would walk back with
+him.
+
+He shifted his foot nervously as he made the bold request.  Anne felt at
+once that she would go.  There was nobody in the world whose care she
+would more readily be under than the trumpet-major's in a case like the
+present.  He was their nearest neighbour's son, and she had liked his
+single-minded ingenuousness from the first moment of his return home.
+
+When they had started on their walk, Anne said in a practical way, to
+show that there was no sentiment whatever in her acceptance of his
+company, 'Mother was much alarmed about me, perhaps?'
+
+'Yes; she was uneasy,' he said; and then was compelled by conscience to
+make a clean breast of it.  'I know she was uneasy, because my father
+said so.  But I did not see her myself.  The truth is, she doesn't know I
+am come.'
+
+Anne now saw how the matter stood; but she was not offended with him.
+What woman could have been?  They walked on in silence, the respectful
+trumpet-major keeping a yard off on her right as precisely as if that
+measure had been fixed between them.  She had a great feeling of civility
+toward him this evening, and spoke again.  'I often hear your trumpeters
+blowing the calls.  They do it beautifully, I think.'
+
+'Pretty fair; they might do better,' said he, as one too well-mannered to
+make much of an accomplishment in which he had a hand.
+
+'And you taught them how to do it?'
+
+'Yes, I taught them.'
+
+'It must require wonderful practice to get them into the way of beginning
+and finishing so exactly at one time.  It is like one throat doing it
+all.  How came you to be a trumpeter, Mr. Loveday?'
+
+'Well, I took to it naturally when I was a little boy,' said he, betrayed
+into quite a gushing state by her delightful interest.  'I used to make
+trumpets of paper, eldersticks, eltrot stems, and even stinging-nettle
+stalks, you know.  Then father set me to keep the birds off that little
+barley-ground of his, and gave me an old horn to frighten 'em with.  I
+learnt to blow that horn so that you could hear me for miles and miles.
+Then he bought me a clarionet, and when I could play that I borrowed a
+serpent, and I learned to play a tolerable bass.  So when I 'listed I was
+picked out for training as trumpeter at once.'
+
+'Of course you were.'
+
+'Sometimes, however, I wish I had never joined the army.  My father gave
+me a very fair education, and your father showed me how to draw horses--on
+a slate, I mean.  Yes, I ought to have done more than I have.'
+
+'What, did you know my father?' she asked with new interest.
+
+'O yes, for years.  You were a little mite of a thing then; and you used
+to cry when we big boys looked at you, and made pig's eyes at you, which
+we did sometimes.  Many and many a time have I stood by your poor father
+while he worked.  Ah, you don't remember much about him; but I do!'
+
+Anne remained thoughtful; and the moon broke from behind the clouds,
+lighting up the wet foliage with a twinkling brightness, and lending to
+each of the trumpet-major's buttons and spurs a little ray of its own.
+They had come to Oxwell park gate, and he said, 'Do you like going
+across, or round by the lane?'
+
+'We may as well go by the nearest road,' said Anne.
+
+They entered the park, following the half-obliterated drive till they
+came almost opposite the hall, when they entered a footpath leading on to
+the village.  While hereabout they heard a shout, or chorus of
+exclamation, apparently from within the walls of the dark buildings near
+them.
+
+'What was that?' said Anne.
+
+'I don't know,' said her companion.  'I'll go and see.'
+
+He went round the intervening swamp of watercress and brooklime which had
+once been the fish-pond, crossed by a culvert the trickling brook that
+still flowed that way, and advanced to the wall of the house.  Boisterous
+noises were resounding from within, and he was tempted to go round the
+corner, where the low windows were, and look through a chink into the
+room whence the sounds proceeded.
+
+It was the room in which the owner dined--traditionally called the great
+parlour--and within it sat about a dozen young men of the yeomanry
+cavalry, one of them being Festus.  They were drinking, laughing,
+singing, thumping their fists on the tables, and enjoying themselves in
+the very perfection of confusion.  The candles, blown by the breeze from
+the partly opened window, had guttered into coffin handles and shrouds,
+and, choked by their long black wicks for want of snuffing, gave out a
+smoky yellow light.  One of the young men might possibly have been in a
+maudlin state, for he had his arm round the neck of his next neighbour.
+Another was making an incoherent speech to which nobody was listening.
+Some of their faces were red, some were sallow; some were sleepy, some
+wide awake.  The only one among them who appeared in his usual frame of
+mind was Festus, whose huge, burly form rose at the head of the table,
+enjoying with a serene and triumphant aspect the difference between his
+own condition and that of his neighbours.  While the trumpet-major
+looked, a young woman, niece of Anthony Cripplestraw, and one of Uncle
+Benjy's servants, was called in by one of the crew, and much against her
+will a fiddle was placed in her hands, from which they made her produce
+discordant screeches.
+
+The absence of Uncle Benjy had, in fact, been contrived by young Derriman
+that he might make use of the hall on his own account.  Cripplestraw had
+been left in charge, and Festus had found no difficulty in forcing from
+that dependent the keys of whatever he required.  John Loveday turned his
+eyes from the scene to the neighbouring moonlit path, where Anne still
+stood waiting.  Then he looked into the room, then at Anne again.  It was
+an opportunity of advancing his own cause with her by exposing Festus,
+for whom he began to entertain hostile feelings of no mean force.
+
+'No; I can't do it,' he said.  ''Tis underhand.  Let things take their
+chance.'
+
+He moved away, and then perceived that Anne, tired of waiting, had
+crossed the stream, and almost come up with him.
+
+'What is the noise about?' she said.
+
+'There's company in the house,' said Loveday.
+
+'Company?  Farmer Derriman is not at home,' said Anne, and went on to the
+window whence the rays of light leaked out, the trumpet-major standing
+where he was.  He saw her face enter the beam of candlelight, stay there
+for a moment, and quickly withdraw.  She came back to him at once.  'Let
+us go on,' she said.
+
+Loveday imagined from her tone that she must have an interest in
+Derriman, and said sadly, 'You blame me for going across to the window,
+and leading you to follow me.'
+
+'Not a bit,' said Anne, seeing his mistake as to the state of her heart,
+and being rather angry with him for it.  'I think it was most natural,
+considering the noise.'
+
+Silence again.  'Derriman is sober as a judge,' said Loveday, as they
+turned to go.  'It was only the others who were noisy.'
+
+'Whether he is sober or not is nothing whatever to me,' said Anne.
+
+'Of course not.  I know it,' said the trumpet-major, in accents
+expressing unhappiness at her somewhat curt tone, and some doubt of her
+assurance.
+
+Before they had emerged from the shadow of the hall some persons were
+seen moving along the road.  Loveday was for going on just the same; but
+Anne, from a shy feeling that it was as well not to be seen walking alone
+with a man who was not her lover, said--
+
+'Mr. Loveday, let us wait here a minute till they have passed.'
+
+On nearer view the group was seen to comprise a man on a piebald horse,
+and another man walking beside him.  When they were opposite the house
+they halted, and the rider dismounted, whereupon a dispute between him
+and the other man ensued, apparently on a question of money.
+
+''Tis old Mr. Derriman come home!' said Anne.  'He has hired that horse
+from the bathing-machine to bring him.  Only fancy!'
+
+Before they had gone many steps further the farmer and his companion had
+ended their dispute, and the latter mounted the horse and cantered away,
+Uncle Benjy coming on to the house at a nimble pace.  As soon as he
+observed Loveday and Anne, he fell into a feebler gait; when they came up
+he recognized Anne.
+
+'And you have torn yourself away from King George's Esplanade so soon,
+Farmer Derriman?' said she.
+
+'Yes, faith!  I couldn't bide at such a ruination place,' said the
+farmer.  'Your hand in your pocket every minute of the day.  'Tis a
+shilling for this, half-a-crown for that; if you only eat one egg, or
+even a poor windfall of an apple, you've got to pay; and a bunch o'
+radishes is a halfpenny, and a quart o' cider a good tuppence
+three-farthings at lowest reckoning.  Nothing without paying!  I couldn't
+even get a ride homeward upon that screw without the man wanting a
+shilling for it, when my weight didn't take a penny out of the beast.
+I've saved a penn'orth or so of shoeleather to be sure; but the saddle
+was so rough wi' patches that 'a took twopence out of the seat of my best
+breeches.  King George hev' ruined the town for other folks.  More than
+that, my nephew promised to come there to-morrow to see me, and if I had
+stayed I must have treated en.  Hey--what's that?'
+
+It was a shout from within the walls of the building, and Loveday said--
+
+'Your nephew is here, and has company.'
+
+'My nephew _here_?' gasped the old man.  'Good folks, will you come up to
+the door with me?  I mean--hee--hee--just for company!  Dear me, I
+thought my house was as quiet as a church?'
+
+They went back to the window, and the farmer looked in, his mouth falling
+apart to a greater width at the corners than in the middle, and his
+fingers assuming a state of radiation.
+
+''Tis my best silver tankards they've got, that I've never used!  O! 'tis
+my strong beer!  'Tis eight candles guttering away, when I've used
+nothing but twenties myself for the last half-year!'
+
+'You didn't know he was here, then?' said Loveday.
+
+'O no!' said the farmer, shaking his head half-way.  'Nothing's known to
+poor I!  There's my best rummers jingling as careless as if 'twas tin
+cups; and my table scratched, and my chairs wrenched out of joint.  See
+how they tilt 'em on the two back legs--and that's ruin to a chair!  Ah!
+when I be gone he won't find another old man to make such work with, and
+provide goods for his breaking, and house-room and drink for his tear-
+brass set!'
+
+'Comrades and fellow-soldiers,' said Festus to the hot farmers and yeomen
+he entertained within, 'as we have vowed to brave danger and death
+together, so we'll share the couch of peace.  You shall sleep here to-
+night, for it is getting late.  My scram blue-vinnied gallicrow of an
+uncle takes care that there shan't be much comfort in the house, but you
+can curl up on the furniture if beds run short.  As for my sleep, it
+won't be much.  I'm melancholy!  A woman has, I may say, got my heart in
+her pocket, and I have hers in mine.  She's not much--to other folk, I
+mean--but she is to me.  The little thing came in my way, and conquered
+me.  I fancy that simple girl!  I ought to have looked higher--I know it;
+what of that?  'Tis a fate that may happen to the greatest men.'
+
+'Whash her name?' said one of the warriors, whose head occasionally
+drooped upon his epaulettes, and whose eyes fell together in the casual
+manner characteristic of the tired soldier.  (It was really Farmer Stubb,
+of Duddle Hole.)
+
+'Her name?  Well, 'tis spelt, A, N--but, by gad, I won't give ye her name
+here in company.  She don't live a hundred miles off, however, and she
+wears the prettiest cap-ribbons you ever saw.  Well, well, 'tis weakness!
+She has little, and I have much; but I do adore that girl, in spite of
+myself!'
+
+'Let's go on,' said Anne.
+
+'Prithee stand by an old man till he's got into his house!' implored
+Uncle Benjy.  'I only ask ye to bide within call.  Stand back under the
+trees, and I'll do my poor best to give no trouble.'
+
+'I'll stand by you for half-an-hour, sir,' said Loveday.  'After that I
+must bolt to camp.'
+
+'Very well; bide back there under the trees,' said Uncle Benjy.  'I don't
+want to spite 'em?'
+
+'You'll wait a few minutes, just to see if he gets in?' said the trumpet-
+major to Anne as they retired from the old man.
+
+'I want to get home,' said Anne anxiously.
+
+When they had quite receded behind the tree-trunks and he stood alone,
+Uncle Benjy, to their surprise, set up a loud shout, altogether beyond
+the imagined power of his lungs.
+
+'Man a-lost! man a-lost!' he cried, repeating the exclamation several
+times; and then ran and hid himself behind a corner of the building.  Soon
+the door opened, and Festus and his guests came tumbling out upon the
+green.
+
+''Tis our duty to help folks in distress,' said Festus.  'Man a-lost,
+where are you?'
+
+''Twas across there,' said one of his friends.
+
+'No! 'twas here,' said another.
+
+Meanwhile Uncle Benjy, coming from his hiding-place, had scampered with
+the quickness of a boy up to the door they had quitted, and slipped in.
+In a moment the door flew together, and Anne heard him bolting and
+barring it inside.  The revellers, however, did not notice this, and came
+on towards the spot where the trumpet-major and Anne were standing.
+
+'Here's succour at hand, friends,' said Festus.  'We are all king's men;
+do not fear us.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Loveday; 'so are we.'  He explained in two words that
+they were not the distressed traveller who had cried out, and turned to
+go on.
+
+''Tis she! my life, 'tis she said Festus, now first recognizing Anne.
+'Fair Anne, I will not part from you till I see you safe at your own dear
+door.'
+
+'She's in my hands,' said Loveday civilly, though not without firmness,
+'so it is not required, thank you.'
+
+'Man, had I but my sword--'
+
+'Come,' said Loveday, 'I don't want to quarrel.  Let's put it to her.
+Whichever of us she likes best, he shall take her home.  Miss Anne,
+which?'
+
+Anne would much rather have gone home alone, but seeing the remainder of
+the yeomanry party staggering up she thought it best to secure a
+protector of some kind.  How to choose one without offending the other
+and provoking a quarrel was the difficulty.
+
+'You must both walk home with me,' she adroitly said, 'one on one side,
+and one on the other.  And if you are not quite civil to one another all
+the time, I'll never speak to either of you again.'
+
+They agreed to the terms, and the other yeomen arriving at this time said
+they would go also as rearguard.
+
+'Very well,' said Anne.  'Now go and get your hats, and don't be long.'
+
+'Ah, yes; our hats,' said the yeomanry, whose heads were so hot that they
+had forgotten their nakedness till then.
+
+'You'll wait till we've got 'em--we won't be a moment,' said Festus
+eagerly.
+
+Anne and Loveday said yes, and Festus ran back to the house, followed by
+all his band.
+
+'Now let's run and leave 'em,' said Anne, when they were out of hearing.
+
+'But we've promised to wait!' said the trumpet-major in surprise.
+
+'Promised to wait!' said Anne indignantly.  'As if one ought to keep such
+a promise to drunken men as that.  You can do as you like, I shall go.'
+
+'It is hardly fair to leave the chaps,' said Loveday reluctantly, and
+looking back at them.  But she heard no more, and flitting off under the
+trees, was soon lost to his sight.
+
+Festus and the rest had by this time reached Uncle Benjy's door, which
+they were discomfited and astonished to find closed.  They began to
+knock, and then to kick at the venerable timber, till the old man's head,
+crowned with a tasselled nightcap, appeared at an upper window, followed
+by his shoulders, with apparently nothing on but his shirt, though it was
+in truth a sheet thrown over his coat.
+
+'Fie, fie upon ye all for making such a hullaballoo at a weak old man's
+door,' he said, yawning.  'What's in ye to rouse honest folks at this
+time o' night?'
+
+'Hang me--why--it's Uncle Benjy!  Haw--haw--haw?' said Festus.  'Nunc,
+why how the devil's this?  'Tis I--Festus--wanting to come in.'
+
+'O no, no, my clever man, whoever you be!' said Uncle Benjy in a tone of
+incredulous integrity.  'My nephew, dear boy, is miles away at quarters,
+and sound asleep by this time, as becomes a good soldier.  That story
+won't do to-night, my man, not at all.'
+
+'Upon my soul 'tis I,' said Festus.
+
+'Not to-night, my man; not to-night!  Anthony, bring my blunderbuss,'
+said the farmer, turning and addressing nobody inside the room.
+
+'Let's break in the window-shutters,' said one of the others.
+
+'My wig, and we will!' said Festus.  'What a trick of the old man!'
+
+'Get some big stones,' said the yeomen, searching under the wall.
+
+'No; forbear, forbear,' said Festus, beginning to be frightened at the
+spirit he had raised.  'I forget; we should drive him into fits, for he's
+subject to 'em, and then perhaps 'twould be manslaughter.  Comrades, we
+must march!  No, we'll lie in the barn.  I'll see into this, take my word
+for 't.  Our honour is at stake.  Now let's back to see my beauty home.'
+
+'We can't, as we hav'n't got our hats,' said one of his
+fellow-troopers--in domestic life Jacob Noakes, of Muckleford Farm.
+
+'No more we can,' said Festus, in a melancholy tone.  'But I must go to
+her and tell her the reason.  She pulls me in spite of all.'
+
+'She's gone.  I saw her flee across park while we were knocking at the
+door,' said another of the yeomanry.
+
+'Gone!' said Festus, grinding his teeth and putting himself into a rigid
+shape.  'Then 'tis my enemy--he has tempted her away with him!  But I am
+a rich man, and he's poor, and rides the King's horse while I ride my
+own.  Could I but find that fellow, that regular, that common man, I
+would--'
+
+'Yes?' said the trumpet-major, coming up behind him.
+
+'I,'--said Festus, starting round,--'I would seize him by the hand and
+say, "Guard her; if you are my friend, guard her from all harm!"'
+
+'A good speech.  And I will, too,' said Loveday heartily.
+
+'And now for shelter,' said Festus to his companions.
+
+They then unceremoniously left Loveday, without wishing him good-night,
+and proceeded towards the barn.  He crossed the park and ascended the
+down to the camp, grieved that he had given Anne cause of complaint, and
+fancying that she held him of slight account beside his wealthier rival.
+
+
+
+
+X. THE MATCH-MAKING VIRTUES OF A DOUBLE GARDEN
+
+
+Anne was so flurried by the military incidents attending her return home
+that she was almost afraid to venture alone outside her mother's
+premises.  Moreover, the numerous soldiers, regular and otherwise, that
+haunted Overcombe and its neighbourhood, were getting better acquainted
+with the villagers, and the result was that they were always standing at
+garden gates, walking in the orchards, or sitting gossiping just within
+cottage doors, with the bowls of their tobacco-pipes thrust outside for
+politeness' sake, that they might not defile the air of the household.
+Being gentlemen of a gallant and most affectionate nature, they naturally
+turned their heads and smiled if a pretty girl passed by, which was
+rather disconcerting to the latter if she were unused to society.  Every
+belle in the village soon had a lover, and when the belles were all
+allotted those who scarcely deserved that title had their turn, many of
+the soldiers being not at all particular about half-an-inch of nose more
+or less, a trifling deficiency of teeth, or a larger crop of freckles
+than is customary in the Saxon race.  Thus, with one and another,
+courtship began to be practised in Overcombe on rather a large scale, and
+the dispossessed young men who had been born in the place were left to
+take their walks alone, where, instead of studying the works of nature,
+they meditated gross outrages on the brave men who had been so good as to
+visit their village.
+
+Anne watched these romantic proceedings from her window with much
+interest, and when she saw how triumphantly other handsome girls of the
+neighbourhood walked by on the gorgeous arms of Lieutenant Knockheelmann,
+Cornet Flitzenhart, and Captain Klaspenkissen, of the thrilling York
+Hussars, who swore the most picturesque foreign oaths, and had a
+wonderful sort of estate or property called the Vaterland in their
+country across the sea, she was filled with a sense of her own
+loneliness.  It made her think of things which she tried to forget, and
+to look into a little drawer at something soft and brown that lay in a
+curl there, wrapped in paper.  At last she could bear it no longer, and
+went downstairs.
+
+'Where are you going?' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+'To see the folks, because I am so gloomy!'
+
+'Certainly not at present, Anne.'
+
+'Why not, mother?' said Anne, blushing with an indefinite sense of being
+very wicked.
+
+'Because you must not.  I have been going to tell you several times not
+to go into the street at this time of day.  Why not walk in the morning?
+There's young Mr. Derriman would be glad to--'
+
+'Don't mention him, mother, don't!'
+
+'Well then, dear, walk in the garden.'
+
+So poor Anne, who really had not the slightest wish to throw her heart
+away upon a soldier, but merely wanted to displace old thoughts by new,
+turned into the inner garden from day to day, and passed a good many
+hours there, the pleasant birds singing to her, and the delightful
+butterflies alighting on her hat, and the horrid ants running up her
+stockings.
+
+This garden was undivided from Loveday's, the two having originally been
+the single garden of the whole house.  It was a quaint old place,
+enclosed by a thorn hedge so shapely and dense from incessant clipping
+that the mill-boy could walk along the top without sinking in--a feat
+which he often performed as a means of filling out his day's work.  The
+soil within was of that intense fat blackness which is only seen after a
+century of constant cultivation.  The paths were grassed over, so that
+people came and went upon them without being heard.  The grass harboured
+slugs, and on this account the miller was going to replace it by gravel
+as soon as he had time; but as he had said this for thirty years without
+doing it, the grass and the slugs seemed likely to remain.
+
+The miller's man attended to Mrs. Garland's piece of the garden as well
+as to the larger portion, digging, planting, and weeding indifferently in
+both, the miller observing with reason that it was not worth while for a
+helpless widow lady to hire a man for her little plot when his man,
+working alongside, could tend it without much addition to his labour.  The
+two households were on this account even more closely united in the
+garden than within the mill.  Out there they were almost one family, and
+they talked from plot to plot with a zest and animation which Mrs.
+Garland could never have anticipated when she first removed thither after
+her husband's death.
+
+The lower half of the garden, farthest from the road, was the most snug
+and sheltered part of this snug and sheltered enclosure, and it was well
+watered as the land of Lot.  Three small brooks, about a yard wide, ran
+with a tinkling sound from side to side between the plots, crossing the
+path under wood slabs laid as bridges, and passing out of the garden
+through little tunnels in the hedge.  The brooks were so far overhung at
+their brinks by grass and garden produce that, had it not been for their
+perpetual babbling, few would have noticed that they were there.  This
+was where Anne liked best to linger when her excursions became restricted
+to her own premises; and in a spot of the garden not far removed the
+trumpet-major loved to linger also.
+
+Having by virtue of his office no stable duty to perform, he came down
+from the camp to the mill almost every day; and Anne, finding that he
+adroitly walked and sat in his father's portion of the garden whenever
+she did so in the other half, could not help smiling and speaking to him.
+So his epaulettes and blue jacket, and Anne's yellow gipsy hat, were
+often seen in different parts of the garden at the same time; but he
+never intruded into her part of the enclosure, nor did she into
+Loveday's.  She always spoke to him when she saw him there, and he
+replied in deep, firm accents across the gooseberry bushes, or through
+the tall rows of flowering peas, as the case might be.  He thus gave her
+accounts at fifteen paces of his experiences in camp, in quarters, in
+Flanders, and elsewhere; of the difference between line and column, of
+forced marches, billeting, and such-like, together with his hopes of
+promotion.  Anne listened at first indifferently; but knowing no one else
+so good-natured and experienced, she grew interested in him as in a
+brother.  By degrees his gold lace, buckles, and spurs lost all their
+strangeness and were as familiar to her as her own clothes.
+
+At last Mrs. Garland noticed this growing friendship, and began to
+despair of her motherly scheme of uniting Anne to the moneyed Festus.  Why
+she could not take prompt steps to check interference with her plans
+arose partly from her nature, which was the reverse of managing, and
+partly from a new emotional circumstance with which she found it
+difficult to reckon.  The near neighbourhood that had produced the
+friendship of Anne for John Loveday was slowly effecting a warmer liking
+between her mother and his father.
+
+Thus the month of July passed.  The troop horses came with the regularity
+of clockwork twice a day down to drink under her window, and, as the
+weather grew hotter, kicked up their heels and shook their heads
+furiously under the maddening sting of the dun-fly.  The green leaves in
+the garden became of a darker dye, the gooseberries ripened, and the
+three brooks were reduced to half their winter volume.
+
+At length the earnest trumpet-major obtained Mrs. Garland's consent to
+take her and her daughter to the camp, which they had not yet viewed from
+any closer point than their own windows.  So one afternoon they went, the
+miller being one of the party.  The villagers were by this time driving a
+roaring trade with the soldiers, who purchased of them every description
+of garden produce, milk, butter, and eggs at liberal prices.  The figures
+of these rural sutlers could be seen creeping up the slopes, laden like
+bees, to a spot in the rear of the camp, where there was a kind of market-
+place on the greensward.
+
+Mrs. Garland, Anne, and the miller were conducted from one place to
+another, and on to the quarter where the soldiers' wives lived who had
+not been able to get lodgings in the cottages near.  The most sheltered
+place had been chosen for them, and snug huts had been built for their
+use by their husbands, of clods, hurdles, a little thatch, or whatever
+they could lay hands on.  The trumpet-major conducted his friends thence
+to the large barn which had been appropriated as a hospital, and to the
+cottage with its windows bricked up, that was used as the magazine; then
+they inspected the lines of shining dark horses (each representing the
+then high figure of two-and-twenty guineas purchase money), standing
+patiently at the ropes which stretched from one picket-post to another, a
+bank being thrown up in front of them as a protection at night.
+
+They passed on to the tents of the German Legion, a well-grown and rather
+dandy set of men, with a poetical look about their faces which rendered
+them interesting to feminine eyes.  Hanoverians, Saxons, Prussians,
+Swedes, Hungarians, and other foreigners were numbered in their ranks.
+They were cleaning arms, which they leant carefully against a rail when
+the work was complete.
+
+On their return they passed the mess-house, a temporary wooden building
+with a brick chimney.  As Anne and her companions went by, a group of
+three or four of the hussars were standing at the door talking to a
+dashing young man, who was expatiating on the qualities of a horse that
+one was inclined to buy.  Anne recognized Festus Derriman in the seller,
+and Cripplestraw was trotting the animal up and down.  As soon as she
+caught the yeoman's eye he came forward, making some friendly remark to
+the miller, and then turning to Miss Garland, who kept her eyes steadily
+fixed on the distant landscape till he got so near that it was impossible
+to do so longer.  Festus looked from Anne to the trumpet-major, and from
+the trumpet-major back to Anne, with a dark expression of face, as if he
+suspected that there might be a tender understanding between them.
+
+'Are you offended with me?' he said to her in a low voice of repressed
+resentment.
+
+'No,' said Anne.
+
+'When are you coming to the hall again?'
+
+'Never, perhaps.'
+
+'Nonsense, Anne,' said Mrs. Garland, who had come near, and smiled
+pleasantly on Festus.  'You can go at any time, as usual.'
+
+'Let her come with me now, Mrs. Garland; I should be pleased to walk
+along with her.  My man can lead home the horse.'
+
+'Thank you, but I shall not come,' said Miss Anne coldly.
+
+The widow looked unhappily in her daughter's face, distressed between her
+desire that Anne should encourage Festus, and her wish to consult Anne's
+own feelings.
+
+'Leave her alone, leave her alone,' said Festus, his gaze blackening.
+'Now I think of it I am glad she can't come with me, for I am engaged;'
+and he stalked away.
+
+Anne moved on with her mother, young Loveday silently following, and they
+began to descend the hill.
+
+'Well, where's Mr. Loveday?' asked Mrs. Garland.
+
+'Father's behind,' said John.
+
+Mrs. Garland looked behind her solicitously; and the miller, who had been
+waiting for the event, beckoned to her.
+
+'I'll overtake you in a minute,' she said to the younger pair, and went
+back, her colour, for some unaccountable reason, rising as she did so.
+The miller and she then came on slowly together, conversing in very low
+tones, and when they got to the bottom they stood still.  Loveday and
+Anne waited for them, saying but little to each other, for the rencounter
+with Festus had damped the spirits of both.  At last the widow's private
+talk with Miller Loveday came to an end, and she hastened onward, the
+miller going in another direction to meet a man on business.  When she
+reached the trumpet-major and Anne she was looking very bright and rather
+flurried, and seemed sorry when Loveday said that he must leave them and
+return to the camp.  They parted in their usual friendly manner, and Anne
+and her mother were left to walk the few remaining yards alone.
+
+'There, I've settled it,' said Mrs. Garland.  'Anne, what are you
+thinking about?  I have settled in my mind that it is all right.'
+
+'What's all right?' said Anne.
+
+'That you do not care for Derriman, and mean to encourage John Loveday.
+What's all the world so long as folks are happy!  Child, don't take any
+notice of what I have said about Festus, and don't meet him any more.'
+
+'What a weathercock you are, mother!  Why should you say that just now?'
+
+'It is easy to call me a weathercock,' said the matron, putting on the
+look of a good woman; 'but I have reasoned it out, and at last, thank
+God, I have got over my ambition.  The Lovedays are our true and only
+friends, and Mr. Festus Derriman, with all his money, is nothing to us at
+all.'
+
+'But,' said Anne, 'what has made you change all of a sudden from what you
+have said before?'
+
+'My feelings and my reason, which I am thankful for!'
+
+Anne knew that her mother's sentiments were naturally so versatile that
+they could not be depended on for two days together; but it did not occur
+to her for the moment that a change had been helped on in the present
+case by a romantic talk between Mrs. Garland and the miller.  But Mrs.
+Garland could not keep the secret long.  She chatted gaily as she walked,
+and before they had entered the house she said, 'What do you think Mr
+Loveday has been saying to me, dear Anne?'
+
+Anne did not know at all.
+
+'Why, he has asked me to marry him.'
+
+
+
+
+XI.  OUR PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED BY THE PRESENCE OF ROYALTY
+
+
+To explain the miller's sudden proposal it is only necessary to go back
+to that moment when Anne, Festus, and Mrs. Garland were talking together
+on the down.  John Loveday had fallen behind so as not to interfere with
+a meeting in which he was decidedly superfluous; and his father, who
+guessed the trumpet-major's secret, watched his face as he stood.  John's
+face was sad, and his eyes followed Mrs. Garland's encouraging manner to
+Festus in a way which plainly said that every parting of her lips was
+tribulation to him.  The miller loved his son as much as any miller or
+private gentleman could do, and he was pained to see John's gloom at such
+a trivial circumstance.  So what did he resolve but to help John there
+and then by precipitating a matter which, had he himself been the only
+person concerned, he would have delayed for another six months.
+
+He had long liked the society of his impulsive, tractable neighbour, Mrs.
+Garland; had mentally taken her up and pondered her in connexion with the
+question whether it would not be for the happiness of both if she were to
+share his home, even though she was a little his superior in antecedents
+and knowledge.  In fact he loved her; not tragically, but to a very
+creditable extent for his years; that is, next to his sons, Bob and John,
+though he knew very well of that ploughed-ground appearance near the
+corners of her once handsome eyes, and that the little depression in her
+right cheek was not the lingering dimple it was poetically assumed to be,
+but a result of the abstraction of some worn-out nether millstones within
+the cheek by Rootle, the Budmouth man, who lived by such practices on the
+heads of the elderly.  But what of that, when he had lost two to each one
+of hers, and exceeded her in age by some eight years!  To do John a
+service, then, he quickened his designs, and put the question to her
+while they were standing under the eyes of the younger pair.
+
+Mrs. Garland, though she had been interested in the miller for a long
+time, and had for a moment now and then thought on this question as far
+as, 'Suppose he should, 'If he were to,' and so on, had never thought
+much further; and she was really taken by surprise when the question
+came.  She answered without affectation that she would think over the
+proposal; and thus they parted.
+
+Her mother's infirmity of purpose set Anne thinking, and she was suddenly
+filled with a conviction that in such a case she ought to have some
+purpose herself.  Mrs. Garland's complacency at the miller's offer had,
+in truth, amazed her.  While her mother had held up her head, and
+recommended Festus, it had seemed a very pretty thing to rebel; but the
+pressure being removed an awful sense of her own responsibility took
+possession of her mind.  As there was no longer anybody to be wise or
+ambitious for her, surely she should be wise and ambitious for herself,
+discountenance her mother's attachment, and encourage Festus in his
+addresses, for her own and her mother's good.  There had been a time when
+a Loveday thrilled her own heart; but that was long ago, before she had
+thought of position or differences.  To wake into cold daylight like
+this, when and because her mother had gone into the land of romance, was
+dreadful and new to her, and like an increase of years without living
+them.
+
+But it was easier to think that she ought to marry the yeoman than to
+take steps for doing it; and she went on living just as before, only with
+a little more thoughtfulness in her eyes.
+
+Two days after the visit to the camp, when she was again in the garden,
+Soldier Loveday said to her, at a distance of five rows of beans and a
+parsley-bed--
+
+'You have heard the news, Miss Garland?'
+
+'No,' said Anne, without looking up from a book she was reading.
+
+'The King is coming to-morrow.'
+
+'The King?' She looked up then.
+
+'Yes; to Gloucester Lodge; and he will pass this way.  He can't arrive
+till long past the middle of the night, if what they say is true, that he
+is timed to change horses at Woodyates Inn--between Mid and South
+Wessex--at twelve o'clock,' continued Loveday, encouraged by her interest
+to cut off the parsley-bed from the distance between them.
+
+Miller Loveday came round the corner of the house.
+
+'Have ye heard about the King coming, Miss Maidy Anne?' he said.
+
+Anne said that she had just heard of it; and the trumpet-major, who
+hardly welcomed his father at such a moment, explained what he knew of
+the matter.
+
+'And you will go with your regiment to meet 'en, I suppose?' said old
+Loveday.
+
+Young Loveday said that the men of the German Legion were to perform that
+duty.  And turning half from his father, and half towards Anne, he added,
+in a tentative tone, that he thought he might get leave for the night, if
+anybody would like to be taken to the top of the Ridgeway over which the
+royal party must pass.
+
+Anne, knowing by this time of the budding hope in the gallant dragoon's
+mind, and not wishing to encourage it, said, 'I don't want to go.'
+
+The miller looked disappointed as well as John.
+
+'Your mother might like to?'
+
+'Yes, I am going indoors, and I'll ask her if you wish me to,' said she.
+
+She went indoors and rather coldly told her mother of the proposal.  Mrs.
+Garland, though she had determined not to answer the miller's question on
+matrimony just yet, was quite ready for this jaunt, and in spite of Anne
+she sailed off at once to the garden to hear more about it.  When she re-
+entered, she said--
+
+'Anne, I have not seen the King or the King's horses for these many
+years; and I am going.'
+
+'Ah, it is well to be you, mother,' said Anne, in an elderly tone.
+
+'Then you won't come with us?' said Mrs. Garland, rather rebuffed.
+
+'I have very different things to think of,' said her daughter with
+virtuous emphasis, 'than going to see sights at that time of night.'
+
+Mrs. Garland was sorry, but resolved to adhere to the arrangement.  The
+night came on; and it having gone abroad that the King would pass by the
+road, many of the villagers went out to see the procession.  When the two
+Lovedays and Mrs. Garland were gone, Anne bolted the door for security,
+and sat down to think again on her grave responsibilities in the choice
+of a husband, now that her natural guardian could no longer be trusted.
+
+A knock came to the door.
+
+Anne's instinct was at once to be silent, that the comer might think the
+family had retired.
+
+The knocking person, however, was not to be easily persuaded.  He had in
+fact seen rays of light over the top of the shutter, and, unable to get
+an answer, went on to the door of the mill, which was still going, the
+miller sometimes grinding all night when busy.  The grinder accompanied
+the stranger to Mrs. Garland's door.
+
+'The daughter is certainly at home, sir,' said the grinder.  'I'll go
+round to t'other side, and see if she's there, Master Derriman.'
+
+'I want to take her out to see the King,' said Festus.
+
+Anne had started at the sound of the voice.  No opportunity could have
+been better for carrying out her new convictions on the disposal of her
+hand.  But in her mortal dislike of Festus, Anne forgot her principles,
+and her idea of keeping herself above the Lovedays.  Tossing on her hat
+and blowing out the candle, she slipped out at the back door, and hastily
+followed in the direction that her mother and the rest had taken.  She
+overtook them as they were beginning to climb the hill.
+
+'What! you have altered your mind after all?' said the widow.  'How came
+you to do that, my dear?'
+
+'I thought I might as well come,' said Anne.
+
+'To be sure you did,' said the miller heartily.  'A good deal better than
+biding at home there.'
+
+John said nothing, though she could almost see through the gloom how glad
+he was that she had altered her mind.  When they reached the ridge over
+which the highway stretched they found many of their neighbours who had
+got there before them idling on the grass border between the roadway and
+the hedge, enjoying a sort of midnight picnic, which it was easy to do,
+the air being still and dry.  Some carriages were also standing near,
+though most people of the district who possessed four wheels, or even
+two, had driven into the town to await the King there.  From this height
+could be seen in the distance the position of the watering-place, an
+additional number of lanterns, lamps, and candles having been lighted to-
+night by the loyal burghers to grace the royal entry, if it should occur
+before dawn.
+
+Mrs. Garland touched Anne's elbow several times as they walked, and the
+young woman at last understood that this was meant as a hint to her to
+take the trumpet-major's arm, which its owner was rather suggesting than
+offering to her.  Anne wondered what infatuation was possessing her
+mother, declined to take the arm, and contrived to get in front with the
+miller, who mostly kept in the van to guide the others' footsteps.  The
+trumpet-major was left with Mrs. Garland, and Anne's encouraging pursuit
+of them induced him to say a few words to the former.
+
+'By your leave, ma'am, I'll speak to you on something that concerns my
+mind very much indeed?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'It is my wish to be allowed to pay my addresses to your daughter.'
+
+'I thought you meant that,' said Mrs. Garland simply.
+
+'And you'll not object?'
+
+'I shall leave it to her.  I don't think she will agree, even if I do.'
+
+The soldier sighed, and seemed helpless.  'Well, I can but ask her,' he
+said.
+
+The spot on which they had finally chosen to wait for the King was by a
+field gate, whence the white road could be seen for a long distance
+northwards by day, and some little distance now.  They lingered and
+lingered, but no King came to break the silence of that beautiful summer
+night.  As half-hour after half-hour glided by, and nobody came, Anne
+began to get weary; she knew why her mother did not propose to go back,
+and regretted the reason.  She would have proposed it herself, but that
+Mrs. Garland seemed so cheerful, and as wide awake as at noonday, so that
+it was almost a cruelty to disturb her.
+
+The trumpet-major at last made up his mind, and tried to draw Anne into a
+private conversation.  The feeling which a week ago had been a vague and
+piquant aspiration, was to-day altogether too lively for the reasoning of
+this warm-hearted soldier to regulate.  So he persevered in his intention
+to catch her alone, and at last, in spite of her manoeuvres to the
+contrary, he succeeded.  The miller and Mrs. Garland had walked about
+fifty yards further on, and Anne and himself were left standing by the
+gate.
+
+But the gallant musician's soul was so much disturbed by tender
+vibrations and by the sense of his presumption that he could not begin;
+and it may be questioned if he would ever have broached the subject at
+all, had not a distant church clock opportunely assisted him by striking
+the hour of three.  The trumpet-major heaved a breath of relief.
+
+'That clock strikes in G sharp,' he said.
+
+'Indeed--G sharp?' said Anne civilly.
+
+'Yes.  'Tis a fine-toned bell.  I used to notice that note when I was a
+boy.'
+
+'Did you--the very same?'
+
+'Yes; and since then I had a wager about that bell with the bandmaster of
+the North Wessex Militia.  He said the note was G; I said it wasn't.  When
+we found it G sharp we didn't know how to settle it.'
+
+'It is not a deep note for a clock.'
+
+'O no!  The finest tenor bell about here is the bell of Peter's,
+Casterbridge--in E flat.  Tum-m-m-m--that's the note--tum-m-m-m.'  The
+trumpet-major sounded from far down his throat what he considered to be E
+flat, with a parenthetic sense of luxury unquenchable even by his present
+distraction.
+
+'Shall we go on to where my mother is?' said Anne, less impressed by the
+beauty of the note than the trumpet-major himself was.
+
+'In one minute,' he said tremulously.  'Talking of music--I fear you
+don't think the rank of a trumpet-major much to compare with your own?'
+
+'I do.  I think a trumpet-major a very respectable man.'
+
+'I am glad to hear you say that.  It is given out by the King's command
+that trumpet-majors are to be considered respectable.'
+
+'Indeed!  Then I am, by chance, more loyal than I thought for.'
+
+'I get a good deal a year extra to the trumpeters, because of my
+position.'
+
+'That's very nice.'
+
+'And I am not supposed ever to drink with the trumpeters who serve
+beneath me.'
+
+'Naturally.'
+
+'And, by the orders of the War Office, I am to exert over them (that's
+the government word) exert over them full authority; and if any one
+behaves towards me with the least impropriety, or neglects my orders, he
+is to be confined and reported.'
+
+'It is really a dignified post,' she said, with, however, a reserve of
+enthusiasm which was not altogether encouraging.
+
+'And of course some day I shall,' stammered the dragoon--'shall be in
+rather a better position than I am at present.'
+
+'I am glad to hear it, Mr. Loveday.'
+
+'And in short, Mistress Anne,' continued John Loveday bravely and
+desperately, 'may I pay court to you in the hope that--no, no, don't go
+away!--you haven't heard yet--that you may make me the happiest of men;
+not yet, but when peace is proclaimed and all is smooth and easy again?  I
+can't put it any better, though there's more to be explained.'
+
+'This is most awkward,' said Anne, evidently with pain.  'I cannot
+possibly agree; believe me, Mr. Loveday, I cannot.'
+
+'But there's more than this.  You would be surprised to see what snug
+rooms the married trumpet- and sergeant-majors have in quarters.'
+
+'Barracks are not all; consider camp and war.'
+
+'That brings me to my strong point!' exclaimed the soldier hopefully.  'My
+father is better off than most non-commissioned officers' fathers; and
+there's always a home for you at his house in any emergency.  I can tell
+you privately that he has enough to keep us both, and if you wouldn't
+hear of barracks, well, peace once established, I'd live at home as a
+miller and farmer--next door to your own mother.'
+
+'My mother would be sure to object,' expostulated Anne.
+
+'No; she leaves it all to you.'
+
+'What! you have asked her?' said Anne, with surprise.
+
+'Yes.  I thought it would not be honourable to act otherwise.'
+
+'That's very good of you,' said Anne, her face warming with a generous
+sense of his straightforwardness.  'But my mother is so entirely ignorant
+of a soldier's life, and the life of a soldier's wife--she is so simple
+in all such matters, that I cannot listen to you any more readily for
+what she may say.'
+
+'Then it is all over for me,' said the poor trumpet-major, wiping his
+face and putting away his handkerchief with an air of finality.
+
+Anne was silent.  Any woman who has ever tried will know without
+explanation what an unpalatable task it is to dismiss, even when she does
+not love him, a man who has all the natural and moral qualities she would
+desire, and only fails in the social.  Would-be lovers are not so
+numerous, even with the best women, that the sacrifice of one can be felt
+as other than a good thing wasted, in a world where there are few good
+things.
+
+'You are not angry, Miss Garland?' said he, finding that she did not
+speak.
+
+'O no.  Don't let us say anything more about this now.'  And she moved
+on.
+
+When she drew near to the miller and her mother she perceived that they
+were engaged in a conversation of that peculiar kind which is all the
+more full and communicative from the fact of definitive words being few.
+In short, here the game was succeeding which with herself had failed.  It
+was pretty clear from the symptoms, marks, tokens, telegraphs, and
+general byplay between widower and widow, that Miller Loveday must have
+again said to Mrs. Garland some such thing as he had said before, with
+what result this time she did not know.
+
+As the situation was delicate, Anne halted awhile apart from them.  The
+trumpet-major, quite ignorant of how his cause was entered into by the
+white-coated man in the distance (for his father had not yet told him of
+his designs upon Mrs. Garland), did not advance, but stood still by the
+gate, as though he were attending a princess, waiting till he should be
+called up.  Thus they lingered, and the day began to break.  Mrs. Garland
+and the miller took no heed of the time, and what it was bringing to
+earth and sky, so occupied were they with themselves; but Anne in her
+place and the trumpet-major in his, each in private thought of no bright
+kind, watched the gradual glory of the east through all its tones and
+changes.  The world of birds and insects got lively, the blue and the
+yellow and the gold of Loveday's uniform again became distinct; the sun
+bored its way upward, the fields, the trees, and the distant landscape
+kindled to flame, and the trumpet-major, backed by a lilac shadow as tall
+as a steeple, blazed in the rays like a very god of war.
+
+It was half-past three o'clock.  A short time after, a rattle of horses
+and wheels reached their ears from the quarter in which they gazed, and
+there appeared upon the white line of road a moving mass, which presently
+ascended the hill and drew near.
+
+Then there arose a huzza from the few knots of watchers gathered there,
+and they cried, 'Long live King Jarge!'  The cortege passed abreast.  It
+consisted of three travelling-carriages, escorted by a detachment of the
+German Legion.  Anne was told to look in the first carriage--a
+post-chariot drawn by four horses--for the King and Queen, and was
+rewarded by seeing a profile reminding her of the current coin of the
+realm; but as the party had been travelling all night, and the spectators
+here gathered were few, none of the royal family looked out of the
+carriage windows.  It was said that the two elder princesses were in the
+same carriage, but they remained invisible.  The next vehicle, a coach
+and four, contained more princesses, and the third some of their
+attendants.
+
+'Thank God, I have seen my King!' said Mrs. Garland, when they had all
+gone by.
+
+Nobody else expressed any thankfulness, for most of them had expected a
+more pompous procession than the bucolic tastes of the King cared to
+indulge in; and one old man said grimly that that sight of dusty old
+leather coaches was not worth waiting for.  Anne looked hither and
+thither in the bright rays of the day, each of her eyes having a little
+sun in it, which gave her glance a peculiar golden fire, and kindled the
+brown curls grouped over her forehead to a yellow brilliancy, and made
+single hairs, blown astray by the night, look like lacquered wires.  She
+was wondering if Festus were anywhere near, but she could not see him.
+
+Before they left the ridge they turned their attention towards the Royal
+watering-place, which was visible at this place only as a portion of the
+sea-shore, from which the night-mist was rolling slowly back.  The sea
+beyond was still wrapped in summer fog, the ships in the roads showing
+through it as black spiders suspended in the air.  While they looked and
+walked a white jet of smoke burst from a spot which the miller knew to be
+the battery in front of the King's residence, and then the report of guns
+reached their ears.  This announcement was answered by a salute from the
+Castle of the adjoining Isle, and the ships in the neighbouring
+anchorage.  All the bells in the town began ringing.  The King and his
+family had arrived.
+
+
+
+
+XII.  HOW EVERYBODY GREAT AND SMALL CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE DOWNS
+
+
+As the days went on, echoes of the life and bustle of the town reached
+the ears of the quiet people in Overcombe hollow--exciting and moving
+those unimportant natives as a ground-swell moves the weeds in a cave.
+Travelling-carriages of all kinds and colours climbed and descended the
+road that led towards the seaside borough.  Some contained those
+personages of the King's suite who had not kept pace with him in his
+journey from Windsor; others were the coaches of aristocracy, big and
+little, whom news of the King's arrival drew thither for their own
+pleasure: so that the highway, as seen from the hills about Overcombe,
+appeared like an ant-walk--a constant succession of dark spots creeping
+along its surface at nearly uniform rates of progress, and all in one
+direction.
+
+The traffic and intelligence between camp and town passed in a measure
+over the villagers' heads.  It being summer time the miller was much
+occupied with business, and the trumpet-major was too constantly engaged
+in marching between the camp and Gloucester Lodge with the rest of the
+dragoons to bring his friends any news for some days.
+
+At last he sent a message that there was to be a review on the downs by
+the King, and that it was fixed for the day following.  This information
+soon spread through the village and country round, and next morning the
+whole population of Overcombe--except two or three very old men and
+women, a few babies and their nurses, a cripple, and Corporal
+Tullidge--ascended the slope with the crowds from afar, and awaited the
+events of the day.
+
+The miller wore his best coat on this occasion, which meant a good deal.
+An Overcombe man in those days would have a best coat, and keep it as a
+best coat half his life.  The miller's had seen five and twenty summers
+chiefly through the chinks of a clothes-box, and was not at all shabby as
+yet, though getting singular.  But that could not be helped; common coats
+and best coats were distinct species, and never interchangeable.  Living
+so near the scene of the review he walked up the hill, accompanied by
+Mrs. Garland and Anne as usual.
+
+It was a clear day, with little wind stirring, and the view from the
+downs, one of the most extensive in the county, was unclouded.  The eye
+of any observer who cared for such things swept over the wave-washed
+town, and the bay beyond, and the Isle, with its pebble bank, lying on
+the sea to the left of these, like a great crouching animal tethered to
+the mainland.  On the extreme east of the marine horizon, St. Aldhelm's
+Head closed the scene, the sea to the southward of that point glaring
+like a mirror under the sun.  Inland could be seen Badbury Rings, where a
+beacon had been recently erected; and nearer, Rainbarrow, on Egdon Heath,
+where another stood: farther to the left Bulbarrow, where there was yet
+another.  Not far from this came Nettlecombe Tout; to the west, Dogberry
+Hill, and Black'on near to the foreground, the beacon thereon being built
+of furze faggots thatched with straw, and standing on the spot where the
+monument now raises its head.
+
+At nine o'clock the troops marched upon the ground--some from the camps
+in the vicinity, and some from quarters in the different towns round
+about.  The approaches to the down were blocked with carriages of all
+descriptions, ages, and colours, and with pedestrians of every class.  At
+ten the royal personages were said to be drawing near, and soon after the
+King, accompanied by the Dukes of Cambridge and Cumberland, and a couple
+of generals, appeared on horseback, wearing a round hat turned up at the
+side, with a cockade and military feather.  (Sensation among the crowd.)
+Then the Queen and three of the princesses entered the field in a great
+coach drawn by six beautiful cream-coloured horses.  Another coach, with
+four horses of the same sort, brought the two remaining princesses.
+(Confused acclamations, 'There's King Jarge!' 'That's Queen Sharlett!'
+'Princess 'Lizabeth!' 'Princesses Sophiar and Meelyer!' etc., from the
+surrounding spectators.)
+
+Anne and her party were fortunate enough to secure a position on the top
+of one of the barrows which rose here and there on the down; and the
+miller having gallantly constructed a little cairn of flints, he placed
+the two women thereon, by which means they were enabled to see over the
+heads, horses, and coaches of the multitudes below and around.  At the
+march-past the miller's eye, which had been wandering about for the
+purpose, discovered his son in his place by the trumpeters, who had moved
+forwards in two ranks, and were sounding the march.
+
+'That's John!' he cried to the widow.  'His trumpet-sling is of two
+colours, d'ye see; and the others be plain.'
+
+Mrs. Garland too saw him now, and enthusiastically admired him from her
+hands upwards, and Anne silently did the same.  But before the young
+woman's eyes had quite left the trumpet-major they fell upon the figure
+of Yeoman Festus riding with his troop, and keeping his face at a medium
+between haughtiness and mere bravery.  He certainly looked as soldierly
+as any of his own corps, and felt more soldierly than half-a-dozen, as
+anybody could see by observing him.  Anne got behind the miller, in case
+Festus should discover her, and, regardless of his monarch, rush upon her
+in a rage with, 'Why the devil did you run away from me that night--hey,
+madam?'  But she resolved to think no more of him just now, and to stick
+to Loveday, who was her mother's friend.  In this she was helped by the
+stirring tones which burst from the latter gentleman and his subordinates
+from time to time.
+
+'Well,' said the miller complacently, 'there's few of more consequence in
+a regiment than a trumpeter.  He's the chap that tells 'em what to do,
+after all.  Hey, Mrs. Garland?'
+
+'So he is, miller,' said she.
+
+'They could no more do without Jack and his men than they could without
+generals.'
+
+'Indeed they could not,' said Mrs. Garland again, in a tone of pleasant
+agreement with any one in Great Britain or Ireland.
+
+It was said that the line that day was three miles long, reaching from
+the high ground on the right of where the people stood to the turnpike
+road on the left.  After the review came a sham fight, during which
+action the crowd dispersed more widely over the downs, enabling Widow
+Garland to get still clearer glimpses of the King, and his handsome
+charger, and the head of the Queen, and the elbows and shoulders of the
+princesses in the carriages, and fractional parts of General Garth and
+the Duke of Cumberland; which sights gave her great gratification.  She
+tugged at her daughter at every opportunity, exclaiming, 'Now you can see
+his feather!' 'There's her hat!' 'There's her Majesty's India muslin
+shawl!' in a minor form of ecstasy, that made the miller think her more
+girlish and animated than her daughter Anne.
+
+In those military manoeuvres the miller followed the fortunes of one man;
+Anne Garland of two.  The spectators, who, unlike our party, had no
+personal interest in the soldiery, saw only troops and battalions in the
+concrete, straight lines of red, straight lines of blue, white lines
+formed of innumerable knee-breeches, black lines formed of many gaiters,
+coming and going in kaleidoscopic change.  Who thought of every point in
+the line as an isolated man, each dwelling all to himself in the
+hermitage of his own mind?  One person did, a young man far removed from
+the barrow where the Garlands and Miller Loveday stood.  The natural
+expression of his face was somewhat obscured by the bronzing effects of
+rough weather, but the lines of his mouth showed that affectionate
+impulses were strong within him--perhaps stronger than judgment well
+could regulate.  He wore a blue jacket with little brass buttons, and was
+plainly a seafaring man.
+
+Meanwhile, in the part of the plain where rose the tumulus on which the
+miller had established himself, a broad-brimmed tradesman was elbowing
+his way along.  He saw Mr. Loveday from the base of the barrow, and
+beckoned to attract his attention.  Loveday went halfway down, and the
+other came up as near as he could.
+
+'Miller,' said the man, 'a letter has been lying at the post-office for
+you for the last three days.  If I had known that I should see ye here
+I'd have brought it along with me.'
+
+The miller thanked him for the news, and they parted, Loveday returning
+to the summit.  'What a very strange thing!' he said to Mrs. Garland, who
+had looked inquiringly at his face, now very grave.  'That was Budmouth
+postmaster, and he says there's a letter for me.  Ah, I now call to mind
+that there _was_ a letter in the candle three days ago this very night--a
+large red one; but foolish-like I thought nothing o't.  Who _can_ that
+letter be from?'
+
+A letter at this time was such an event for hamleteers, even of the
+miller's respectable standing, that Loveday thenceforward was thrown into
+a fit of abstraction which prevented his seeing any more of the sham
+fight, or the people, or the King.  Mrs. Garland imbibed some of his
+concern, and suggested that the letter might come from his son Robert.
+
+'I should naturally have thought that,' said Miller Loveday; 'but he
+wrote to me only two months ago, and his brother John heard from him
+within the last four weeks, when he was just about starting on another
+voyage.  If you'll pardon me, Mrs. Garland, ma'am, I'll see if there's
+any Overcombe man here who is going to Budmouth to-day, so that I may get
+the letter by night-time.  I cannot possibly go myself.'
+
+So Mr. Loveday left them for awhile; and as they were so near home Mrs.
+Garland did not wait on the barrow for him to come back, but walked about
+with Anne a little time, until they should be disposed to trot down the
+slope to their own door.  They listened to a man who was offering one
+guinea to receive ten in case Buonaparte should be killed in three
+months, and to other entertainments of that nature, which at this time
+were not rare.  Once during their peregrination the eyes of the sailor
+before-mentioned fell upon Anne; but he glanced over her and passed her
+unheedingly by.  Loveday the elder was at this time on the other side of
+the line, looking for a messenger to the town.  At twelve o'clock the
+review was over, and the King and his family left the hill.  The troops
+then cleared off the field, the spectators followed, and by one o'clock
+the downs were again bare.
+
+They still spread their grassy surface to the sun as on that beautiful
+morning not, historically speaking, so very long ago; but the King and
+his fifteen thousand armed men, the horses, the bands of music, the
+princesses, the cream-coloured teams--the gorgeous centre-piece, in
+short, to which the downs were but the mere mount or margin--how entirely
+have they all passed and gone!--lying scattered about the world as
+military and other dust, some at Talavera, Albuera, Salamanca, Vittoria,
+Toulouse, and Waterloo; some in home churchyards; and a few small
+handfuls in royal vaults.
+
+In the afternoon John Loveday, lightened of his trumpet and trappings,
+appeared at the old mill-house door, and beheld Anne standing at hers.
+
+'I saw you, Miss Garland,' said the soldier gaily.
+
+'Where was I?' said she, smiling.
+
+'On the top of the big mound--to the right of the King.'
+
+'And I saw you; lots of times,' she rejoined.
+
+Loveday seemed pleased.  'Did you really take the trouble to find me?
+That was very good of you.'
+
+'Her eyes followed you everywhere,' said Mrs. Garland from an upper
+window.
+
+'Of course I looked at the dragoons most,' said Anne, disconcerted.  'And
+when I looked at them my eyes naturally fell upon the trumpets.  I looked
+at the dragoons generally, no more.'
+
+She did not mean to show any vexation to the trumpet-major, but he
+fancied otherwise, and stood repressed.  The situation was relieved by
+the arrival of the miller, still looking serious.
+
+'I am very much concerned, John; I did not go to the review for nothing.
+There's a letter a-waiting for me at Budmouth, and I must get it before
+bedtime, or I shan't sleep a wink.'
+
+'I'll go, of course,' said John; 'and perhaps Miss Garland would like to
+see what's doing there to-day?  Everybody is gone or going; the road is
+like a fair.'
+
+He spoke pleadingly, but Anne was not won to assent.
+
+'You can drive in the gig; 'twill do Blossom good,' said the miller.
+
+'Let David drive Miss Garland,' said the trumpet-major, not wishing to
+coerce her; 'I would just as soon walk.'
+
+Anne joyfully welcomed this arrangement, and a time was fixed for the
+start.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.  THE CONVERSATION IN THE CROWD
+
+
+In the afternoon they drove off, John Loveday being nowhere visible.  All
+along the road they passed and were overtaken by vehicles of all
+descriptions going in the same direction; among them the extraordinary
+machines which had been invented for the conveyance of troops to any
+point of the coast on which the enemy should land; they consisted of four
+boards placed across a sort of trolly, thirty men of the volunteer
+companies riding on each.
+
+The popular Georgian watering-place was in a paroxysm of gaiety.  The
+town was quite overpowered by the country round, much to the town's
+delight and profit.  The fear of invasion was such that six frigates lay
+in the roads to ensure the safety of the royal family, and from the
+regiments of horse and foot quartered at the barracks, or encamped on the
+hills round about, a picket of a thousand men mounted guard every day in
+front of Gloucester Lodge, where the King resided.  When Anne and her
+attendant reached this point, which they did on foot, stabling the horse
+on the outskirts of the town, it was about six o'clock.  The King was on
+the Esplanade, and the soldiers were just marching past to mount guard.
+The band formed in front of the King, and all the officers saluted as
+they went by.
+
+Anne now felt herself close to and looking into the stream of recorded
+history, within whose banks the littlest things are great, and outside
+which she and the general bulk of the human race were content to live on
+as an unreckoned, unheeded superfluity.
+
+When she turned from her interested gaze at this scene, there stood John
+Loveday.  She had had a presentiment that he would turn up in this
+mysterious way.  It was marvellous that he could have got there so
+quickly; but there he was--not looking at the King, or at the crowd, but
+waiting for the turn of her head.
+
+'Trumpet-major, I didn't see you,' said Anne demurely.  'How is it that
+your regiment is not marching past?'
+
+'We take it by turns, and it is not our turn,' said Loveday.
+
+She wanted to know then if they were afraid that the King would be
+carried off by the First Consul.  Yes, Loveday told her; and his Majesty
+was rather venturesome.  A day or two before he had gone so far to sea
+that he was nearly caught by some of the enemy's cruisers.  'He is
+anxious to fight Boney single-handed,' he said.
+
+'What a good, brave King!' said Anne.
+
+Loveday seemed anxious to come to more personal matters.  'Will you let
+me take you round to the other side, where you can see better?' he asked.
+'The Queen and the princesses are at the window.'
+
+Anne passively assented.  'David, wait here for me,' she said; 'I shall
+be back again in a few minutes.'
+
+The trumpet-major then led her off triumphantly, and they skirted the
+crowd and came round on the side towards the sands.  He told her
+everything he could think of, military and civil, to which Anne returned
+pretty syllables and parenthetic words about the colour of the sea and
+the curl of the foam--a way of speaking that moved the soldier's heart
+even more than long and direct speeches would have done.
+
+'And that other thing I asked you?' he ventured to say at last.
+
+'We won't speak of it.'
+
+'You don't dislike me?'
+
+'O no!' she said, gazing at the bathing-machines, digging children, and
+other common objects of the seashore, as if her interest lay there rather
+than with him.
+
+'But I am not worthy of the daughter of a genteel professional man--that's
+what you mean?'
+
+'There's something more than worthiness required in such cases, you
+know,' she said, still without calling her mind away from surrounding
+scenes.  'Ah, there are the Queen and princesses at the window!'
+
+'Something more?'
+
+'Well, since you will make me speak, I mean the woman ought to love the
+man.'
+
+The trumpet-major seemed to be less concerned about this than about her
+supposed superiority.  'If it were all right on that point, would you
+mind the other?' he asked, like a man who knows he is too persistent, yet
+who cannot be still.
+
+'How can I say, when I don't know?  What a pretty chip hat the elder
+princess wears?'
+
+Her companion's general disappointment extended over him almost to his
+lace and his plume.  'Your mother said, you know, Miss Anne--'
+
+'Yes, that's the worst of it,' she said.  'Let us go back to David; I
+have seen all I want to see, Mr. Loveday.'
+
+The mass of the people had by this time noticed the Queen and princesses
+at the window, and raised a cheer, to which the ladies waved their
+embroidered handkerchiefs.  Anne went back towards the pavement with her
+trumpet-major, whom all the girls envied her, so fine-looking a soldier
+was he; and not only for that, but because it was well known that he was
+not a soldier from necessity, but from patriotism, his father having
+repeatedly offered to set him up in business: his artistic taste in
+preferring a horse and uniform to a dirty, rumbling flour-mill was
+admired by all.  She, too, had a very nice appearance in her best clothes
+as she walked along--the sarcenet hat, muslin shawl, and tight-sleeved
+gown being of the newest Overcombe fashion, that was only about a year
+old in the adjoining town, and in London three or four.  She could not be
+harsh to Loveday and dismiss him curtly, for his musical pursuits had
+refined him, educated him, and made him quite poetical.  To-day he had
+been particularly well-mannered and tender; so, instead of answering,
+'Never speak to me like this again,' she merely put him off with a 'Let
+us go back to David.'
+
+When they reached the place where they had left him David was gone.
+
+Anne was now positively vexed.  'What _shall_ I do?' she said.
+
+'He's only gone to drink the King's health,' said Loveday, who had
+privately given David the money for performing that operation.  'Depend
+upon it, he'll be back soon.'
+
+'Will you go and find him?' said she, with intense propriety in her looks
+and tone.
+
+'I will,' said Loveday reluctantly; and he went.
+
+Anne stood still.  She could now escape her gallant friend, for, although
+the distance was long, it was not impossible to walk home.  On the other
+hand, Loveday was a good and sincere fellow, for whom she had almost a
+brotherly feeling, and she shrank from such a trick.  While she stood and
+mused, scarcely heeding the music, the marching of the soldiers, the
+King, the dukes, the brilliant staff, the attendants, and the happy
+groups of people, her eyes fell upon the ground.
+
+Before her she saw a flower lying--a crimson sweet-william--fresh and
+uninjured.  An instinctive wish to save it from destruction by the
+passengers' feet led her to pick it up; and then, moved by a sudden self-
+consciousness, she looked around.  She was standing before an inn, and
+from an upper window Festus Derriman was leaning with two or three
+kindred spirits of his cut and kind.  He nodded eagerly, and signified to
+her that he had thrown the flower.
+
+What should she do?  To throw it away would seem stupid, and to keep it
+was awkward.  She held it between her finger and thumb, twirled it round
+on its axis and twirled it back again, regarding and yet not examining
+it.  Just then she saw the trumpet-major coming back.
+
+'I can't find David anywhere,' he said; and his heart was not sorry as he
+said it.
+
+Anne was still holding out the sweet-william as if about to drop it, and,
+scarcely knowing what she did under the distressing sense that she was
+watched, she offered the flower to Loveday.
+
+His face brightened with pleasure as he took it.  'Thank you, indeed,' he
+said.
+
+Then Anne saw what a misleading blunder she had committed towards Loveday
+in playing to the yeoman.  Perhaps she had sown the seeds of a quarrel.
+
+'It was not my sweet-william,' she said hastily; 'it was lying on the
+ground.  I don't mean anything by giving it to you.'
+
+'But I'll keep it all the same,' said the innocent soldier, as if he knew
+a good deal about womankind; and he put the flower carefully inside his
+jacket, between his white waistcoat and his heart.
+
+Festus, seeing this, enlarged himself wrathfully, got hot in the face,
+rose to his feet, and glared down upon them like a turnip-lantern.
+
+'Let us go away,' said Anne timorously.
+
+'I'll see you safe to your own door, depend upon me,' said Loveday.
+'But--I had near forgot--there's father's letter, that he's so anxiously
+waiting for!  Will you come with me to the post-office?  Then I'll take
+you straight home.'
+
+Anne, expecting Festus to pounce down every minute, was glad to be off
+anywhere; so she accepted the suggestion, and they went along the parade
+together.
+
+Loveday set this down as a proof of Anne's relenting.  Thus in joyful
+spirits he entered the office, paid the postage, and received the letter.
+
+'It is from Bob, after all!' he said.  'Father told me to read it at
+once, in case of bad news.  Ask your pardon for keeping you a moment.'  He
+broke the seal and read, Anne standing silently by.
+
+'He is coming home _to be married_,' said the trumpet-major, without
+looking up.
+
+Anne did not answer.  The blood swept impetuously up her face at his
+words, and as suddenly went away again, leaving her rather paler than
+before.  She disguised her agitation and then overcame it, Loveday
+observing nothing of this emotional performance.
+
+'As far as I can understand he will be here Saturday,' he said.
+
+'Indeed!' said Anne quite calmly.  'And who is he going to marry?'
+
+'That I don't know,' said John, turning the letter about.  'The woman is
+a stranger.'
+
+At this moment the miller entered the office hastily.
+
+'Come, John,' he cried, 'I have been waiting and waiting for that there
+letter till I was nigh crazy!'
+
+John briefly explained the news, and when his father had recovered from
+his astonishment, taken off his hat, and wiped the exact line where his
+forehead joined his hair, he walked with Anne up the street, leaving John
+to return alone.  The miller was so absorbed in his mental perspective of
+Bob's marriage, that he saw nothing of the gaieties they passed through;
+and Anne seemed also so much impressed by the same intelligence, that she
+crossed before the inn occupied by Festus without showing a recollection
+of his presence there.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.  LATER IN THE EVENING OF THE SAME DAY
+
+
+When they reached home the sun was going down.  It had already been
+noised abroad that miller Loveday had received a letter, and, his cart
+having been heard coming up the lane, the population of Overcombe drew
+down towards the mill as soon as he had gone indoors--a sudden flash of
+brightness from the window showing that he had struck such an early light
+as nothing but the immediate deciphering of literature could require.
+Letters were matters of public moment, and everybody in the parish had an
+interest in the reading of those rare documents; so that when the miller
+had placed the candle, slanted himself, and called in Mrs. Garland to
+have her opinion on the meaning of any hieroglyphics that he might
+encounter in his course, he found that he was to be additionally assisted
+by the opinions of the other neighbours, whose persons appeared in the
+doorway, partly covering each other like a hand of cards, yet each
+showing a large enough piece of himself for identification.  To pass the
+time while they were arranging themselves, the miller adopted his usual
+way of filling up casual intervals, that of snuffing the candle.
+
+'We heard you had got a letter, Maister Loveday,' they said.
+
+'Yes; "Southampton, the twelfth of August, dear father,"' said Loveday;
+and they were as silent as relations at the reading of a will.  Anne, for
+whom the letter had a singular fascination, came in with her mother and
+sat down.
+
+Bob stated in his own way that having, since landing, taken into
+consideration his father's wish that he should renounce a seafaring life
+and become a partner in the mill, he had decided to agree to the
+proposal; and with that object in view he would return to Overcombe in
+three days from the time of writing.
+
+He then said incidentally that since his voyage he had been in lodgings
+at Southampton, and during that time had become acquainted with a lovely
+and virtuous young maiden, in whom he found the exact qualities necessary
+to his happiness.  Having known this lady for the full space of a
+fortnight he had had ample opportunities of studying her character, and,
+being struck with the recollection that, if there was one thing more than
+another necessary in a mill which had no mistress, it was somebody who
+could play that part with grace and dignity, he had asked Miss Matilda
+Johnson to be his wife.  In her kindness she, though sacrificing far
+better prospects, had agreed; and he could not but regard it as a happy
+chance that he should have found at the nick of time such a woman to
+adorn his home, whose innocence was as stunning as her beauty.  Without
+much ado, therefore, he and she had arranged to be married at once, and
+at Overcombe, that his father might not be deprived of the pleasures of
+the wedding feast.  She had kindly consented to follow him by land in the
+course of a few days, and to live in the house as their guest for the
+week or so previous to the ceremony.
+
+''Tis a proper good letter,' said Mrs. Comfort from the background.  'I
+never heerd true love better put out of hand in my life; and they seem
+'nation fond of one another.'
+
+'He haven't knowed her such a very long time,' said Job Mitchell
+dubiously.
+
+'That's nothing,' said Esther Beach.  'Nater will find her way, very
+rapid when the time's come for't.  Well, 'tis good news for ye, miller.'
+
+'Yes, sure, I hope 'tis,' said Loveday, without, however, showing any
+great hurry to burst into the frantic form of fatherly joy which the
+event should naturally have produced, seeming more disposed to let off
+his feelings by examining thoroughly into the fibres of the letter-paper.
+
+'I was five years a-courting my wife,' he presently remarked.  'But folks
+were slower about everything in them days.  Well, since she's coming we
+must make her welcome.  Did any of ye catch by my reading which day it is
+he means?  What with making out the penmanship, my mind was drawn off
+from the sense here and there.'
+
+'He says in three days,' said Mrs. Garland.  'The date of the letter will
+fix it.'
+
+On examination it was found that the day appointed was the one nearly
+expired; at which the miller jumped up and said, 'Then he'll be here
+before bedtime.  I didn't gather till now that he was coming afore
+Saturday.  Why, he may drop in this very minute!'
+
+He had scarcely spoken when footsteps were heard coming along the front,
+and they presently halted at the door.  Loveday pushed through the
+neighbours and rushed out; and, seeing in the passage a form which
+obscured the declining light, the miller seized hold of him, saying, 'O
+my dear Bob; then you are come!'
+
+'Scrounch it all, miller, don't quite pull my poor shoulder out of joint!
+Whatever is the matter?' said the new-comer, trying to release himself
+from Loveday's grasp of affection.  It was Uncle Benjy.
+
+'Thought 'twas my son!' faltered the miller, sinking back upon the toes
+of the neighbours who had closely followed him into the entry.  'Well,
+come in, Mr. Derriman, and make yerself at home.  Why, you haven't been
+here for years!  Whatever has made you come now, sir, of all times in the
+world?'
+
+'Is he in there with ye?' whispered the farmer with misgiving.
+
+'Who?'
+
+'My nephew, after that maid that he's so mighty smit with?'
+
+'O no; he never calls here.'
+
+Farmer Derriman breathed a breath of relief.  'Well, I've called to tell
+ye,' he said, 'that there's more news of the French.  We shall have 'em
+here this month as sure as a gun.  The gunboats be all ready--near two
+thousand of 'em--and the whole army is at Boulogne.  And, miller, I know
+ye to be an honest man.'
+
+Loveday did not say nay.
+
+'Neighbour Loveday, I know ye to be an honest man,' repeated the old
+squireen.  'Can I speak to ye alone?'
+
+As the house was full, Loveday took him into the garden, all the while
+upon tenter-hooks, not lest Buonaparte should appear in their midst, but
+lest Bob should come whilst he was not there to receive him.  When they
+had got into a corner Uncle Benjy said, 'Miller, what with the French,
+and what with my nephew Festus, I assure ye my life is nothing but
+wherrit from morning to night.  Miller Loveday, you are an honest man.'
+
+Loveday nodded.
+
+'Well, I've come to ask a favour--to ask if you will take charge of my
+few poor title-deeds and documents and suchlike, while I am away from
+home next week, lest anything should befall me, and they should be stole
+away by Boney or Festus, and I should have nothing left in the wide
+world?  I can trust neither banks nor lawyers in these terrible times;
+and I am come to you.'
+
+Loveday after some hesitation agreed to take care of anything that
+Derriman should bring, whereupon the farmer said he would call with the
+parchments and papers alluded to in the course of a week.  Derriman then
+went away by the garden gate, mounted his pony, which had been tethered
+outside, and rode on till his form was lost in the shades.
+
+The miller rejoined his friends, and found that in the meantime John had
+arrived.  John informed the company that after parting from his father
+and Anne he had rambled to the harbour, and discovered the Pewit by the
+quay.  On inquiry he had learnt that she came in at eleven o'clock, and
+that Bob had gone ashore.
+
+'We'll go and meet him,' said the miller.  ''Tis still light out of
+doors.'
+
+So, as the dew rose from the meads and formed fleeces in the hollows,
+Loveday and his friends and neighbours strolled out, and loitered by the
+stiles which hampered the footpath from Overcombe to the high road at
+intervals of a hundred yards.  John Loveday, being obliged to return to
+camp, was unable to accompany them, but Widow Garland thought proper to
+fall in with the procession.  When she had put on her bonnet she called
+to her daughter.  Anne said from upstairs that she was coming in a
+minute; and her mother walked on without her.
+
+What was Anne doing?  Having hastily unlocked a receptacle for emotional
+objects of small size, she took thence the little folded paper with which
+we have already become acquainted, and, striking a light from her private
+tinder-box, she held the paper, and curl of hair it contained, in the
+candle till they were burnt.  Then she put on her hat and followed her
+mother and the rest of them across the moist grey fields, cheerfully
+singing in an undertone as she went, to assure herself of her
+indifference to circumstances.
+
+
+
+
+XV.  'CAPTAIN' BOB LOVEDAY OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE
+
+
+While Loveday and his neighbours were thus rambling forth, full of
+expectancy, some of them, including Anne in the rear, heard the crackling
+of light wheels along the curved lane to which the path was the chord.  At
+once Anne thought, 'Perhaps that's he, and we are missing him.'  But
+recent events were not of a kind to induce her to say anything; and the
+others of the company did not reflect on the sound.
+
+Had they gone across to the hedge which hid the lane, and looked through
+it, they would have seen a light cart driven by a boy, beside whom was
+seated a seafaring man, apparently of good standing in the merchant
+service, with his feet outside on the shaft.  The vehicle went over the
+main bridge, turned in upon the other bridge at the tail of the mill, and
+halted by the door.  The sailor alighted, showing himself to be a well-
+shaped, active, and fine young man, with a bright eye, an anonymous nose,
+and of such a rich complexion by exposure to ripening suns that he might
+have been some connexion of the foreigner who calls his likeness the
+Portrait of a Gentleman in galleries of the Old Masters.  Yet in spite of
+this, and though Bob Loveday had been all over the world from Cape Horn
+to Pekin, and from India's coral strand to the White Sea, the most
+conspicuous of all the marks that he had brought back with him was an
+increased resemblance to his mother, who had lain all the time beneath
+Overcombe church wall.
+
+Captain Loveday tried the house door; finding this locked he went to the
+mill door: this was locked also, the mill being stopped for the night.
+
+'They are not at home,' he said to the boy.  'But never mind that.  Just
+help to unload the things and then I'll pay you, and you can drive off
+home.'
+
+The cart was unloaded, and the boy was dismissed, thanking the sailor
+profusely for the payment rendered.  Then Bob Loveday, finding that he
+had still some leisure on his hands, looked musingly east, west, north,
+south, and nadir; after which he bestirred himself by carrying his goods,
+article by article, round to the back door, out of the way of casual
+passers.  This done, he walked round the mill in a more regardful
+attitude, and surveyed its familiar features one by one--the panes of the
+grinding-room, now as heretofore clouded with flour as with stale hoar-
+frost; the meal lodged in the corners of the window-sills, forming a soil
+in which lichens grew without ever getting any bigger, as they had done
+since his smallest infancy; the mosses on the plinth towards the river,
+reaching as high as the capillary power of the walls would fetch up
+moisture for their nourishment, and the penned mill-pond, now as ever on
+the point of overflowing into the garden.  Everything was the same.
+
+When he had had enough of this it occurred to Loveday that he might get
+into the house in spite of the locked doors; and by entering the garden,
+placing a pole from the fork of an apple-tree to the window-sill of a
+bedroom on that side, and climbing across like a Barbary ape, he entered
+the window and stepped down inside.  There was something anomalous in
+being close to the familiar furniture without having first seen his
+father, and its silent, impassive shine was not cheering; it was as if
+his relations were all dead, and only their tables and chests of drawers
+left to greet him.  He went downstairs and seated himself in the dark
+parlour.  Finding this place, too, rather solitary, and the tick of the
+invisible clock preternaturally loud, he unearthed the tinder-box,
+obtained a light, and set about making the house comfortable for his
+father's return, divining that the miller had gone out to meet him by the
+wrong road.
+
+Robert's interest in this work increased as he proceeded, and he bustled
+round and round the kitchen as lightly as a girl.  David, the indoor
+factotum, having lost himself among the quart pots of Budmouth, there had
+been nobody left here to prepare supper, and Bob had it all to himself.
+In a short time a fire blazed up the chimney, a tablecloth was found, the
+plates were clapped down, and a search made for what provisions the house
+afforded, which, in addition to various meats, included some fresh eggs
+of the elongated shape that produces cockerels when hatched, and had been
+set aside on that account for putting under the next broody hen.
+
+A more reckless cracking of eggs than that which now went on had never
+been known in Overcombe since the last large christening; and as Loveday
+gashed one on the side, another at the end, another longways, and another
+diagonally, he acquired adroitness by practice, and at last made every
+son of a hen of them fall into two hemispheres as neatly as if it opened
+by a hinge.  From eggs he proceeded to ham, and from ham to kidneys, the
+result being a brilliant fry.
+
+Not to be tempted to fall to before his father came back, the returned
+navigator emptied the whole into a dish, laid a plate over the top, his
+coat over the plate, and his hat over his coat.  Thus completely stopping
+in the appetizing smell, he sat down to await events.  He was relieved
+from the tediousness of doing this by hearing voices outside; and in a
+minute his father entered.
+
+'Glad to welcome ye home, father,' said Bob.  'And supper is just ready.'
+
+'Lard, lard--why, Captain Bob's here!' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+'And we've been out waiting to meet thee!' said the miller, as he entered
+the room, followed by representatives of the houses of Cripplestraw,
+Comfort, Mitchell, Beach, and Snooks, together with some small beginnings
+of Fencible Tremlett's posterity.  In the rear came David, and quite in
+the vanishing-point of the composition, Anne the fair.
+
+'I drove over; and so was forced to come by the road,' said Bob.
+
+'And we went across the fields, thinking you'd walk,' said his father.
+
+'I should have been here this morning; but not so much as a wheelbarrow
+could I get for my traps; everything was gone to the review.  So I went
+too, thinking I might meet you there.  I was then obliged to return to
+the harbour for the luggage.'
+
+Then there was a welcoming of Captain Bob by pulling out his arms like
+drawers and shutting them again, smacking him on the back as if he were
+choking, holding him at arm's length as if he were of too large type to
+read close.  All which persecution Bob bore with a wide, genial smile
+that was shaken into fragments and scattered promiscuously among the
+spectators.
+
+'Get a chair for 'n!' said the miller to David, whom they had met in the
+fields and found to have got nothing worse by his absence than a slight
+slant in his walk.
+
+'Never mind--I am not tired--I have been here ever so long,' said Bob.
+'And I--'  But the chair having been placed behind him, and a smart touch
+in the hollow of a person's knee by the edge of that piece of furniture
+having a tendency to make the person sit without further argument, Bob
+sank down dumb, and the others drew up other chairs at a convenient
+nearness for easy analytic vision and the subtler forms of good
+fellowship.  The miller went about saying, 'David, the nine best glasses
+from the corner cupboard!'--'David, the corkscrew!'--'David, whisk the
+tail of thy smock-frock round the inside of these quart pots afore you
+draw drink in 'em--they be an inch thick in dust!'--'David, lower that
+chimney-crook a couple of notches that the flame may touch the bottom of
+the kettle, and light three more of the largest candles!'--'If you can't
+get the cork out of the jar, David, bore a hole in the tub of Hollands
+that's buried under the scroff in the fuel-house; d'ye hear?--Dan Brown
+left en there yesterday as a return for the little porker I gied en.'
+
+When they had all had a thimbleful round, and the superfluous neighbours
+had reluctantly departed, one by one, the inmates gave their minds to the
+supper, which David had begun to serve up.
+
+'What be you rolling back the tablecloth for, David?' said the miller.
+
+'Maister Bob have put down one of the under sheets by mistake, and I
+thought you might not like it, sir, as there's ladies present!'
+
+'Faith, 'twas the first thing that came to hand,' said Robert.  'It
+seemed a tablecloth to me.'
+
+'Never mind--don't pull off the things now he's laid 'em down--let it
+bide,' said the miller.  'But where's Widow Garland and Maidy Anne?'
+
+'They were here but a minute ago,' said David.  'Depend upon it they have
+slinked off 'cause they be shy.'
+
+The miller at once went round to ask them to come back and sup with him;
+and while he was gone David told Bob in confidence what an excellent
+place he had for an old man.
+
+'Yes, Cap'n Bob, as I suppose I must call ye; I've worked for yer father
+these eight-and-thirty years, and we have always got on very well
+together.  Trusts me with all the keys, lends me his sleeve-waistcoat,
+and leaves the house entirely to me.  Widow Garland next door, too, is
+just the same with me, and treats me as if I was her own child.'
+
+'She must have married young to make you that, David.'
+
+'Yes, yes--I'm years older than she.  'Tis only my common way of
+speaking.'
+
+Mrs. Garland would not come in to supper, and the meal proceeded without
+her, Bob recommending to his father the dish he had cooked, in the manner
+of a householder to a stranger just come.  The miller was anxious to know
+more about his son's plans for the future, but would not for the present
+interrupt his eating, looking up from his own plate to appreciate Bob's
+travelled way of putting English victuals out of sight, as he would have
+looked at a mill on improved principles.
+
+David had only just got the table clear, and set the plates in a row
+under the bakehouse table for the cats to lick, when the door was hastily
+opened, and Mrs. Garland came in, looking concerned.
+
+'I have been waiting to hear the plates removed to tell you how
+frightened we are at something we hear at the back-door.  It seems like
+robbers muttering; but when I look out there's nobody there!'
+
+'This must be seen to,' said the miller, rising promptly.  'David, light
+the middle-sized lantern.  I'll go and search the garden.'
+
+'And I'll go too,' said his son, taking up a cudgel.  'Lucky I've come
+home just in time!'
+
+They went out stealthily, followed by the widow and Anne, who had been
+afraid to stay alone in the house under the circumstances.  No sooner
+were they beyond the door when, sure enough, there was the muttering
+almost close at hand, and low upon the ground, as from persons lying down
+in hiding.
+
+'Bless my heart!' said Bob, striking his head as though it were some
+enemy's: 'why, 'tis my luggage.  I'd quite forgot it!'
+
+'What!' asked his father.
+
+'My luggage.  Really, if it hadn't been for Mrs. Garland it would have
+stayed there all night, and they, poor things! would have been starved.
+I've got all sorts of articles for ye.  You go inside, and I'll bring 'em
+in.  'Tis parrots that you hear a muttering, Mrs. Garland.  You needn't
+be afraid any more.'
+
+'Parrots?' said the miller.  'Well, I'm glad 'tis no worse.  But how
+couldst forget so, Bob?'
+
+The packages were taken in by David and Bob, and the first unfastened
+were three, wrapped in cloths, which being stripped off revealed three
+cages, with a gorgeous parrot in each.
+
+'This one is for you, father, to hang up outside the door, and amuse us,'
+said Bob.  'He'll talk very well, but he's sleepy to-night.  This other
+one I brought along for any neighbour that would like to have him.  His
+colours are not so bright; but 'tis a good bird.  If you would like to
+have him you are welcome to him,' he said, turning to Anne, who had been
+tempted forward by the birds.  'You have hardly spoken yet, Miss Anne,
+but I recollect you very well.  How much taller you have got, to be
+sure!'
+
+Anne said she was much obliged, but did not know what she could do with
+such a present.  Mrs. Garland accepted it for her, and the sailor went
+on--'Now this other bird I hardly know what to do with; but I dare say
+he'll come in for something or other.'
+
+'He is by far the prettiest,' said the widow.  'I would rather have it
+than the other, if you don't mind.'
+
+'Yes,' said Bob, with embarrassment.  'But the fact is, that bird will
+hardly do for ye, ma'am.  He's a hard swearer, to tell the truth; and I
+am afraid he's too old to be broken of it.'
+
+'How dreadful!' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+'We could keep him in the mill,' suggested the miller.  'It won't matter
+about the grinder hearing him, for he can't learn to cuss worse than he
+do already!'
+
+'The grinder shall have him, then,' said Bob.  'The one I have given you,
+ma'am, has no harm in him at all.  You might take him to church o'
+Sundays as far as that goes.'
+
+The sailor now untied a small wooden box about a foot square, perforated
+with holes.  'Here are two marmosets,' he continued.  'You can't see them
+to-night; but they are beauties--the tufted sort.'
+
+'What's a marmoset?' said the miller.
+
+'O, a little kind of monkey.  They bite strangers rather hard, but you'll
+soon get used to 'em.'
+
+'They are wrapped up in something, I declare,' said Mrs. Garland, peeping
+in through a chink.
+
+'Yes, that's my flannel shirt,' said Bob apologetically.  'They suffer
+terribly from cold in this climate, poor things! and I had nothing better
+to give them.  Well, now, in this next box I've got things of different
+sorts.'
+
+The latter was a regular seaman's chest, and out of it he produced shells
+of many sizes and colours, carved ivories, queer little caskets, gorgeous
+feathers, and several silk handkerchiefs, which articles were spread out
+upon all the available tables and chairs till the house began to look
+like a bazaar.
+
+'What a lovely shawl!' exclaimed Widow Garland, in her interest
+forestalling the regular exhibition by looking into the box at what was
+coming.
+
+'O yes,' said the mate, pulling out a couple of the most bewitching
+shawls that eyes ever saw.  'One of these I am going to give to that
+young lady I am shortly to be married to, you know, Mrs. Garland.  Has
+father told you about it?  Matilda Johnson, of Southampton, that's her
+name.'
+
+'Yes, we know all about it,' said the widow.
+
+'Well, I shall give one of these shawls to her--because, of course, I
+ought to.'
+
+'Of course,' said she.
+
+'But the other one I've got no use for at all; and,' he continued,
+looking round, 'will you have it, Miss Anne?  You refused the parrot, and
+you ought not to refuse this.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Anne calmly, but much distressed; 'but really I don't
+want it, and couldn't take it.'
+
+'But do have it!' said Bob in hurt tones, Mrs. Garland being all the
+while on tenter-hooks lest Anne should persist in her absurd refusal.
+
+'Why, there's another reason why you ought to!' said he, his face
+lighting up with recollections.  'It never came into my head till this
+moment that I used to be your beau in a humble sort of way.  Faith, so I
+did, and we used to meet at places sometimes, didn't we--that is, when
+you were not too proud; and once I gave you, or somebody else, a bit of
+my hair in fun.'
+
+'It was somebody else,' said Anne quickly.
+
+'Ah, perhaps it was,' said Bob innocently.  'But it was you I used to
+meet, or try to, I am sure.  Well, I've never thought of that boyish time
+for years till this minute!  I am sure you ought to accept some one gift,
+dear, out of compliment to those old times!'
+
+Anne drew back and shook her head, for she would not trust her voice.
+
+'Well, Mrs. Garland, then you shall have it,' said Bob, tossing the shawl
+to that ready receiver.  'If you don't, upon my life I will throw it out
+to the first beggar I see.  Now, here's a parcel of cap ribbons of the
+splendidest sort I could get.  Have these--do, Anne!'
+
+'Yes, do,' said Mrs. Garland.
+
+'I promised them to Matilda,' continued Bob; 'but I am sure she won't
+want 'em, as she has got some of her own: and I would as soon see them
+upon your head, my dear, as upon hers.'
+
+'I think you had better keep them for your bride if you have promised
+them to her,' said Mrs. Garland mildly.
+
+'It wasn't exactly a promise.  I just said, "Til, there's some cap
+ribbons in my box, if you would like to have them."  But she's got enough
+things already for any bride in creation.  Anne, now you shall have
+'em--upon my soul you shall--or I'll fling them down the mill-tail!'
+
+Anne had meant to be perfectly firm in refusing everything, for reasons
+obvious even to that poor waif, the meanest capacity; but when it came to
+this point she was absolutely compelled to give in, and reluctantly
+received the cap ribbons in her arms, blushing fitfully, and with her lip
+trembling in a motion which she tried to exhibit as a smile.
+
+'What would Tilly say if she knew!' said the miller slily.
+
+'Yes, indeed--and it is wrong of him!' Anne instantly cried, tears
+running down her face as she threw the parcel of ribbons on the floor.
+'You'd better bestow your gifts where you bestow your l--l--love, Mr.
+Loveday--that's what I say!'  And Anne turned her back and went away.
+
+'I'll take them for her,' said Mrs. Garland, quickly picking up the
+parcel.
+
+'Now that's a pity,' said Bob, looking regretfully after Anne.  'I didn't
+remember that she was a quick-tempered sort of girl at all.  Tell her,
+Mrs. Garland, that I ask her pardon.  But of course I didn't know she was
+too proud to accept a little present--how should I?  Upon my life if it
+wasn't for Matilda I'd--Well, that can't be, of course.'
+
+'What's this?' said Mrs. Garland, touching with her foot a large package
+that had been laid down by Bob unseen.
+
+'That's a bit of baccy for myself,' said Robert meekly.
+
+The examination of presents at last ended, and the two families parted
+for the night.  When they were alone, Mrs. Garland said to Anne, 'What a
+close girl you are!  I am sure I never knew that Bob Loveday and you had
+walked together: you must have been mere children.'
+
+'O yes--so we were,' said Anne, now quite recovered.  'It was when we
+first came here, about a year after father died.  We did not walk
+together in any regular way.  You know I have never thought the Lovedays
+high enough for me.  It was only just--nothing at all, and I had almost
+forgotten it.'
+
+It is to be hoped that somebody's sins were forgiven her that night
+before she went to bed.
+
+When Bob and his father were left alone, the miller said, 'Well, Robert,
+about this young woman of thine--Matilda what's her name?'
+
+'Yes, father--Matilda Johnson.  I was just going to tell ye about her.'
+
+The miller nodded, and sipped his mug.
+
+'Well, she is an excellent body,' continued Bob; 'that can truly be
+said--a real charmer, you know--a nice good comely young woman, a miracle
+of genteel breeding, you know, and all that.  She can throw her hair into
+the nicest curls, and she's got splendid gowns and headclothes.  In
+short, you might call her a land mermaid.  She'll make such a first-rate
+wife as there never was.'
+
+'No doubt she will,' said the miller; 'for I have never known thee
+wanting in sense in a jineral way.'  He turned his cup round on its axis
+till the handle had travelled a complete circle.  'How long did you say
+in your letter that you had known her?'
+
+'A fortnight.'
+
+'Not _very_ long.'
+
+'It don't sound long, 'tis true; and 'twas really longer--'twas fifteen
+days and a quarter.  But hang it, father, I could see in the twinkling of
+an eye that the girl would do.  I know a woman well enough when I see
+her--I ought to, indeed, having been so much about the world.  Now, for
+instance, there's Widow Garland and her daughter.  The girl is a nice
+little thing; but the old woman--O no!'  Bob shook his head.
+
+'What of her?' said his father, slightly shifting in his chair.
+
+'Well, she's, she's--I mean, I should never have chose her, you know.
+She's of a nice disposition, and young for a widow with a grown-up
+daughter; but if all the men had been like me she would never have had a
+husband.  I like her in some respects; but she's a style of beauty I
+don't care for.'
+
+'O, if 'tis only looks you are thinking of,' said the miller, much
+relieved, 'there's nothing to be said, of course.  Though there's many a
+duchess worse-looking, if it comes to argument, as you would find, my
+son,' he added, with a sense of having been mollified too soon.
+
+The mate's thoughts were elsewhere by this time.
+
+'As to my marrying Matilda, thinks I, here's one of the very genteelest
+sort, and I may as well do the job at once.  So I chose her.  She's a
+dear girl; there's nobody like her, search where you will.'
+
+'How many did you choose her out from?' inquired his father.
+
+'Well, she was the only young woman I happened to know in Southampton,
+that's true.  But what of that?  It would have been all the same if I had
+known a hundred.'
+
+'Her father is in business near the docks, I suppose?'
+
+'Well, no.  In short, I didn't see her father.'
+
+'Her mother?'
+
+'Her mother?  No, I didn't.  I think her mother is dead; but she has got
+a very rich aunt living at Melchester.  I didn't see her aunt, because
+there wasn't time to go; but of course we shall know her when we are
+married.'
+
+'Yes, yes, of course,' said the miller, trying to feel quite satisfied.
+'And she will soon be here?'
+
+'Ay, she's coming soon,' said Bob.  'She has gone to this aunt's at
+Melchester to get her things packed, and suchlike, or she would have come
+with me.  I am going to meet the coach at the King's Arms, Casterbridge,
+on Sunday, at one o'clock.  To show what a capital sort of wife she'll
+be, I may tell you that she wanted to come by the Mercury, because 'tis a
+little cheaper than the other.  But I said, "For once in your life do it
+well, and come by the Royal Mail, and I'll pay."  I can have the pony and
+trap to fetch her, I suppose, as 'tis too far for her to walk?'
+
+'Of course you can, Bob, or anything else.  And I'll do all I can to give
+you a good wedding feast.'
+
+
+
+
+XVI.  THEY MAKE READY FOR THE ILLUSTRIOUS STRANGER
+
+
+Preparations for Matilda's welcome, and for the event which was to
+follow, at once occupied the attention of the mill.  The miller and his
+man had but dim notions of housewifery on any large scale; so the great
+wedding cleaning was kindly supervised by Mrs. Garland, Bob being mostly
+away during the day with his brother, the trumpet-major, on various
+errands, one of which was to buy paint and varnish for the gig that
+Matilda was to be fetched in, which he had determined to decorate with
+his own hands.
+
+By the widow's direction the old familiar incrustation of shining dirt,
+imprinted along the back of the settle by the heads of countless jolly
+sitters, was scrubbed and scraped away; the brown circle round the nail
+whereon the miller hung his hat, stained by the brim in wet weather, was
+whitened over; the tawny smudges of bygone shoulders in the passage were
+removed without regard to a certain genial and historical value which
+they had acquired.  The face of the clock, coated with verdigris as thick
+as a diachylon plaister, was rubbed till the figures emerged into day;
+while, inside the case of the same chronometer, the cobwebs that formed
+triangular hammocks, which the pendulum could hardly wade through, were
+cleared away at one swoop.
+
+Mrs. Garland also assisted at the invasion of worm-eaten cupboards, where
+layers of ancient smells lingered on in the stagnant air, and recalled to
+the reflective nose the many good things that had been kept there.  The
+upper floors were scrubbed with such abundance of water that the
+old-established death-watches, wood-lice, and flour-worms were all
+drowned, the suds trickling down into the room below in so lively and
+novel a manner as to convey the romantic notion that the miller lived in
+a cave with dripping stalactites.
+
+They moved what had never been moved before--the oak coffer, containing
+the miller's wardrobe--a tremendous weight, what with its locks, hinges,
+nails, dirt, framework, and the hard stratification of old jackets,
+waistcoats, and knee-breeches at the bottom, never disturbed since the
+miller's wife died, and half pulverized by the moths, whose flattened
+skeletons lay amid the mass in thousands.
+
+'It fairly makes my back open and shut!' said Loveday, as, in obedience
+to Mrs. Garland's direction, he lifted one corner, the grinder and David
+assisting at the others.  'All together: speak when ye be going to heave.
+Now!'
+
+The pot covers and skimmers were brought to such a state that, on
+examining them, the beholder was not conscious of utensils, but of his
+own face in a condition of hideous elasticity.  The broken clock-line was
+mended, the kettles rocked, the creeper nailed up, and a new handle put
+to the warming-pan.  The large household lantern was cleaned out, after
+three years of uninterrupted accumulation, the operation yielding a
+conglomerate of candle-snuffs, candle-ends, remains of matches,
+lamp-black, and eleven ounces and a half of good grease--invaluable as
+dubbing for skitty boots and ointment for cart-wheels.
+
+Everybody said that the mill residence had not been so thoroughly scoured
+for twenty years.  The miller and David looked on with a sort of awe
+tempered by gratitude, tacitly admitting by their gaze that this was
+beyond what they had ever thought of.  Mrs. Garland supervised all with
+disinterested benevolence.  It would never have done, she said, for his
+future daughter-in-law to see the house in its original state.  She would
+have taken a dislike to him, and perhaps to Bob likewise.
+
+'Why don't ye come and live here with me, and then you would be able to
+see to it at all times?' said the miller as she bustled about again.  To
+which she answered that she was considering the matter, and might in good
+time.  He had previously informed her that his plan was to put Bob and
+his wife in the part of the house that she, Mrs. Garland, occupied, as
+soon as she chose to enter his, which relieved her of any fear of being
+incommoded by Matilda.
+
+The cooking for the wedding festivities was on a proportionate scale of
+thoroughness.  They killed the four supernumerary chickens that had just
+begun to crow, and the little curly-tailed barrow pig, in preference to
+the sow; not having been put up fattening for more than five weeks it was
+excellent small meat, and therefore more delicate and likely to suit a
+town-bred lady's taste than the large one, which, having reached the
+weight of fourteen score, might have been a little gross to a cultured
+palate.  There were also provided a cold chine, stuffed veal, and two
+pigeon pies.  Also thirty rings of black-pot, a dozen of white-pot, and
+ten knots of tender and well-washed chitterlings, cooked plain in case
+she should like a change.
+
+As additional reserves there were sweetbreads, and five milts, sewed up
+at one side in the form of a chrysalis, and stuffed with thyme, sage,
+parsley, mint, groats, rice, milk, chopped egg, and other ingredients.
+They were afterwards roasted before a slow fire, and eaten hot.
+
+The business of chopping so many herbs for the various stuffings was
+found to be aching work for women; and David, the miller, the grinder,
+and the grinder's boy being fully occupied in their proper branches, and
+Bob being very busy painting the gig and touching up the harness, Loveday
+called in a friendly dragoon of John's regiment who was passing by, and
+he, being a muscular man, willingly chopped all the afternoon for a quart
+of strong, judiciously administered, and all other victuals found, taking
+off his jacket and gloves, rolling up his shirt-sleeves and unfastening
+his collar in an honourable and energetic way.
+
+All windfalls and maggot-cored codlins were excluded from the apple pies;
+and as there was no known dish large enough for the purpose, the puddings
+were stirred up in the milking-pail, and boiled in the three-legged bell-
+metal crock, of great weight and antiquity, which every travelling tinker
+for the previous thirty years had tapped with his stick, coveted, made a
+bid for, and often attempted to steal.
+
+In the liquor line Loveday laid in an ample barrel of Casterbridge
+'strong beer.'  This renowned drink--now almost as much a thing of the
+past as Falstaff's favourite beverage--was not only well calculated to
+win the hearts of soldiers blown dry and dusty by residence in tents on a
+hill-top, but of any wayfarer whatever in that land.  It was of the most
+beautiful colour that the eye of an artist in beer could desire; full in
+body, yet brisk as a volcano; piquant, yet without a twang; luminous as
+an autumn sunset; free from streakiness of taste; but, finally, rather
+heady.  The masses worshipped it, the minor gentry loved it more than
+wine, and by the most illustrious county families it was not despised.
+Anybody brought up for being drunk and disorderly in the streets of its
+natal borough, had only to prove that he was a stranger to the place and
+its liquor to be honourably dismissed by the magistrates, as one
+overtaken in a fault that no man could guard against who entered the town
+unawares.
+
+In addition, Mr. Loveday also tapped a hogshead of fine cider that he had
+had mellowing in the house for several months, having bought it of an
+honest down-country man, who did not colour, for any special occasion
+like the present.  It had been pressed from fruit judiciously chosen by
+an old hand--Horner and Cleeves apple for the body, a few Tom-Putts for
+colour, and just a dash of Old Five-corners for sparkle--a selection
+originally made to please the palate of a well-known temperate earl who
+was a regular cider-drinker, and lived to be eighty-eight.
+
+On the morning of the Sunday appointed for her coming Captain Bob Loveday
+set out to meet his bride.  He had been all the week engaged in painting
+the gig, assisted by his brother at odd times, and it now appeared of a
+gorgeous yellow, with blue streaks, and tassels at the corners, and red
+wheels outlined with a darker shade.  He put in the pony at half-past
+eleven, Anne looking at him from the door as he packed himself into the
+vehicle and drove off.  There may be young women who look out at young
+men driving to meet their brides as Anne looked at Captain Bob, and yet
+are quite indifferent to the circumstances; but they are not often met
+with.
+
+So much dust had been raised on the highway by traffic resulting from the
+presence of the Court at the town further on, that brambles hanging from
+the fence, and giving a friendly scratch to the wanderer's face, were
+dingy as church cobwebs; and the grass on the margin had assumed a paper-
+shaving hue.  Bob's father had wished him to take David, lest, from want
+of recent experience at the whip, he should meet with any mishap; but,
+picturing to himself the awkwardness of three in such circumstances, Bob
+would not hear of this; and nothing more serious happened to his driving
+than that the wheel-marks formed two serpentine lines along the road
+during the first mile or two, before he had got his hand in, and that the
+horse shied at a milestone, a piece of paper, a sleeping tramp, and a
+wheelbarrow, just to make use of the opportunity of being in bad hands.
+
+He entered Casterbridge between twelve and one, and, putting up at the
+Old Greyhound, walked on to the Bow.  Here, rather dusty on the ledges of
+his clothes, he stood and waited while the people in their best summer
+dresses poured out of the three churches round him.  When they had all
+gone, and a smell of cinders and gravy had spread down the ancient high-
+street, and the pie-dishes from adjacent bakehouses had all travelled
+past, he saw the mail coach rise above the arch of Grey's Bridge, a
+quarter of a mile distant, surmounted by swaying knobs, which proved to
+be the heads of the outside travellers.
+
+'That's the way for a man's bride to come to him,' said Robert to himself
+with a feeling of poetry; and as the horn sounded and the horses
+clattered up the street he walked down to the inn.  The knot of hostlers
+and inn-servants had gathered, the horses were dragged from the vehicle,
+and the passengers for Casterbridge began to descend.  Captain Bob eyed
+them over, looked inside, looked outside again; to his disappointment
+Matilda was not there, nor her boxes, nor anything that was hers.  Neither
+coachman nor guard had seen or heard of such a person at Melchester; and
+Bob walked slowly away.
+
+Depressed by forebodings to an extent which took away nearly a third of
+his appetite, he sat down in the parlour of the Old Greyhound to a slice
+from the family joint of the landlord.  This gentleman, who dined in his
+shirt-sleeves, partly because it was August, and partly from a sense that
+they would not be so fit for public view further on in the week,
+suggested that Bob should wait till three or four that afternoon, when
+the road-waggon would arrive, as the lost lady might have preferred that
+mode of conveyance; and when Bob appeared rather hurt at the suggestion,
+the landlord's wife assured him, as a woman who knew good life, that many
+genteel persons travelled in that way during the present high price of
+provisions.  Loveday, who knew little of travelling by land, readily
+accepted her assurance and resolved to wait.
+
+Wandering up and down the pavement, or leaning against some hot wall
+between the waggon-office and the corner of the street above, he passed
+the time away.  It was a still, sunny, drowsy afternoon, and scarcely a
+soul was visible in the length and breadth of the street.  The office was
+not far from All Saints' Church, and the church-windows being open, he
+could hear the afternoon service from where he lingered as distinctly as
+if he had been one of the congregation.  Thus he was mentally conducted
+through the Psalms, through the first and second lessons, through the
+burst of fiddles and clarionets which announced the evening-hymn, and
+well into the sermon, before any signs of the waggon could be seen upon
+the London road.
+
+The afternoon sermons at this church being of a dry and metaphysical
+nature at that date, it was by a special providence that the
+waggon-office was placed near the ancient fabric, so that whenever the
+Sunday waggon was late, which it always was in hot weather, in cold
+weather, in wet weather, and in weather of almost every other sort, the
+rattle, dismounting, and swearing outside completely drowned the parson's
+voice within, and sustained the flagging interest of the congregation at
+precisely the right moment.  No sooner did the charity children begin to
+writhe on their benches, and adult snores grow audible, than the waggon
+arrived.
+
+Captain Loveday felt a kind of sinking in his poetry at the possibility
+of her for whom they had made such preparations being in the slow,
+unwieldy vehicle which crunched its way towards him; but he would not
+give in to the weakness.  Neither would he walk down the street to meet
+the waggon, lest she should not be there.  At last the broad wheels drew
+up against the kerb, the waggoner with his white smock-frock, and whip as
+long as a fishing-line, descended from the pony on which he rode
+alongside, and the six broad-chested horses backed from their collars and
+shook themselves.  In another moment something showed forth, and he knew
+that Matilda was there.
+
+Bob felt three cheers rise within him as she stepped down; but it being
+Sunday he did not utter them.  In dress, Miss Johnson passed his
+expectations--a green and white gown, with long, tight sleeves, a green
+silk handkerchief round her neck and crossed in front, a green parasol,
+and green gloves.  It was strange enough to see this verdant caterpillar
+turn out of a road-waggon, and gracefully shake herself free from the
+bits of straw and fluff which would usually gather on the raiment of the
+grandest travellers by that vehicle.
+
+'But, my dear Matilda,' said Bob, when he had kissed her three times with
+much publicity--the practical step he had determined on seeming to demand
+that these things should no longer be done in a corner--'my dear Matilda,
+why didn't you come by the coach, having the money for't and all?'
+
+'That's my scrimping!' said Matilda in a delightful gush.  'I know you
+won't be offended when you know I did it to save against a rainy day!'
+
+Bob, of course, was not offended, though the glory of meeting her had
+been less; and even if vexation were possible, it would have been out of
+place to say so.  Still, he would have experienced no little surprise had
+he learnt the real reason of his Matilda's change of plan.  That angel
+had, in short, so wildly spent Bob's and her own money in the adornment
+of her person before setting out, that she found herself without a
+sufficient margin for her fare by coach, and had scrimped from sheer
+necessity.
+
+'Well, I have got the trap out at the Greyhound,' said Bob.  'I don't
+know whether it will hold your luggage and us too; but it looked more
+respectable than the waggon on a Sunday, and if there's not room for the
+boxes I can walk alongside.'
+
+'I think there will be room,' said Miss Johnson mildly.  And it was soon
+very evident that she spoke the truth; for when her property was
+deposited on the pavement, it consisted of a trunk about eighteen inches
+long, and nothing more.
+
+'O--that's all!' said Captain Loveday, surprised.
+
+'That's all,' said the young woman assuringly.  'I didn't want to give
+trouble, you know, and what I have besides I have left at my aunt's.'
+
+'Yes, of course,' he answered readily.  'And as it's no bigger, I can
+carry it in my hand to the inn, and so it will be no trouble at all.'
+
+He caught up the little box, and they went side by side to the Greyhound;
+and in ten minutes they were trotting up the Southern Road.
+
+Bob did not hurry the horse, there being many things to say and hear, for
+which the present situation was admirably suited.  The sun shone
+occasionally into Matilda's face as they drove on, its rays picking out
+all her features to a great nicety.  Her eyes would have been called
+brown, but they were really eel-colour, like many other nice brown eyes;
+they were well-shaped and rather bright, though they had more of a broad
+shine than a sparkle.  She had a firm, sufficient nose, which seemed to
+say of itself that it was good as noses go.  She had rather a picturesque
+way of wrapping her upper in her lower lip, so that the red of the latter
+showed strongly.  Whenever she gazed against the sun towards the distant
+hills, she brought into her forehead, without knowing it, three short
+vertical lines--not there at other times--giving her for the moment
+rather a hard look.  And in turning her head round to a far angle, to
+stare at something or other that he pointed out, the drawn flesh of her
+neck became a mass of lines.  But Bob did not look at these things,
+which, of course, were of no significance; for had she not told him, when
+they compared ages, that she was a little over two-and-twenty?
+
+As Nature was hardly invented at this early point of the century, Bob's
+Matilda could not say much about the glamour of the hills, or the
+shimmering of the foliage, or the wealth of glory in the distant sea, as
+she would doubtless have done had she lived later on; but she did her
+best to be interesting, asking Bob about matters of social interest in
+the neighbourhood, to which she seemed quite a stranger.
+
+'Is your watering-place a large city?' she inquired when they mounted the
+hill where the Overcombe folk had waited for the King.
+
+'Bless you, my dear--no!  'Twould be nothing if it wasn't for the Royal
+Family, and the lords and ladies, and the regiments of soldiers, and the
+frigates, and the King's messengers, and the actors and actresses, and
+the games that go on.'
+
+At the words 'actors and actresses,' the innocent young thing pricked up
+her ears.
+
+'Does Elliston pay as good salaries this summer as in--?'
+
+'O, you know about it then?  I thought--'
+
+'O no, no!  I have heard of Budmouth--read in the papers, you know, dear
+Robert, about the doings there, and the actors and actresses, you know.'
+
+'Yes, yes, I see.  Well, I have been away from England a long time, and
+don't know much about the theatre in the town; but I'll take you there
+some day.  Would it be a treat to you?'
+
+'O, an amazing treat!' said Miss Johnson, with an ecstasy in which a
+close observer might have discovered a tinge of ghastliness.
+
+'You've never been into one perhaps, dear?'
+
+'N--never,' said Matilda flatly.  'Whatever do I see yonder--a row of
+white things on the down?'
+
+'Yes, that's a part of the encampment above Overcombe.  Lots of soldiers
+are encamped about here; those are the white tops of their tents.'
+
+He pointed to a wing of the camp that had become visible.  Matilda was
+much interested.
+
+'It will make it very lively for us,' he added, 'especially as John is
+there.'
+
+She thought so too, and thus they chatted on.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.  TWO FAINTING FITS AND A BEWILDERMENT
+
+
+Meanwhile Miller Loveday was expecting the pair with interest; and about
+five o'clock, after repeated outlooks, he saw two specks the size of
+caraway seeds on the far line of ridge where the sunlit white of the road
+met the blue of the sky.  Then the remainder parts of Bob and his lady
+became visible, and then the whole vehicle, end on, and he heard the dry
+rattle of the wheels on the dusty road.  Miller Loveday's plan, as far as
+he had formed any, was that Robert and his wife should live with him in
+the millhouse until Mrs. Garland made up her mind to join him there; in
+which event her present house would be made over to the young couple.
+Upon all grounds, he wished to welcome becomingly the woman of his son's
+choice, and came forward promptly as they drew up at the door.
+
+'What a lovely place you've got here!' said Miss Johnson, when the miller
+had received her from the captain.  'A real stream of water, a real mill-
+wheel, and real fowls, and everything!'
+
+'Yes, 'tis real enough,' said Loveday, looking at the river with balanced
+sentiments; 'and so you will say when you've lived here a bit as mis'ess,
+and had the trouble of claning the furniture.'
+
+At this Miss Johnson looked modest, and continued to do so till Anne, not
+knowing they were there, came round the corner of the house, with her
+prayer-book in her hand, having just arrived from church.  Bob turned and
+smiled to her, at which Miss Johnson looked glum.  How long she would
+have remained in that phase is unknown, for just then her ears were
+assailed by a loud bass note from the other side, causing her to jump
+round.
+
+'O la! what dreadful thing is it?' she exclaimed, and beheld a cow of
+Loveday's, of the name of Crumpler, standing close to her shoulder.  It
+being about milking-time, she had come to look up David and hasten on the
+operation.
+
+'O, what a horrid bull!--it did frighten me so.  I hope I shan't faint,'
+said Matilda.
+
+The miller immediately used the formula which has been uttered by the
+proprietors of live stock ever since Noah's time.  'She won't hurt ye.
+Hoosh, Crumpler!  She's as timid as a mouse, ma'am.'
+
+But as Crumpler persisted in making another terrific inquiry for David,
+Matilda could not help closing her eyes and saying, 'O, I shall be gored
+to death!' her head falling back upon Bob's shoulder, which--seeing the
+urgent circumstances, and knowing her delicate nature--he had
+providentially placed in a position to catch her.  Anne Garland, who had
+been standing at the corner of the house, not knowing whether to go back
+or come on, at this felt her womanly sympathies aroused.  She ran and
+dipped her handkerchief into the splashing mill-tail, and with it damped
+Matilda's face.  But as her eyes still remained closed, Bob, to increase
+the effect, took the handkerchief from Anne and wrung it out on the
+bridge of Matilda's nose, whence it ran over the rest of her face in a
+stream.
+
+'O, Captain Loveday!' said Anne, 'the water is running over her green
+silk handkerchief, and into her pretty reticule!'
+
+'There--if I didn't think so!' exclaimed Matilda, opening her eyes,
+starting up, and promptly pulling out her own handkerchief, with which
+she wiped away the drops, and an unimportant trifle of her complexion,
+assisted by Anne, who, in spite of her background of antagonistic
+emotions, could not help being interested.
+
+'That's right!' said the miller, his spirits reviving with the revival of
+Matilda.  'The lady is not used to country life; are you, ma'am?'
+
+'I am not,' replied the sufferer.  'All is so strange about here!'
+
+Suddenly there spread into the firmament, from the direction of the
+down:--
+
+   'Ra, ta, ta!  Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!  Ra, ta, ta!'
+
+'O dear, dear! more hideous country sounds, I suppose?' she inquired,
+with another start.
+
+'O no,' said the miller cheerfully.  ''Tis only my son John's trumpeter
+chaps at the camp of dragoons just above us, a-blowing Mess, or Feed, or
+Picket, or some other of their vagaries.  John will be much pleased to
+tell you the meaning on't when he comes down.  He's trumpet-major, as you
+may know, ma'am.'
+
+'O yes; you mean Captain Loveday's brother.  Dear Bob has mentioned him.'
+
+'If you come round to Widow Garland's side of the house, you can see the
+camp,' said the miller.
+
+'Don't force her; she's tired with her long journey,' said Mrs. Garland
+humanely, the widow having come out in the general wish to see Captain
+Bob's choice.  Indeed, they all behaved towards her as if she were a
+tender exotic, which their crude country manners might seriously injure.
+
+She went into the house, accompanied by Mrs. Garland and her daughter;
+though before leaving Bob she managed to whisper in his ear, 'Don't tell
+them I came by waggon, will you, dear?'--a request which was quite
+needless, for Bob had long ago determined to keep that a dead secret; not
+because it was an uncommon mode of travel, but simply that it was hardly
+the usual conveyance for a gorgeous lady to her bridal.
+
+As the men had a feeling that they would be superfluous indoors just at
+present, the miller assisted David in taking the horse round to the
+stables, Bob following, and leaving Matilda to the women.  Indoors, Miss
+Johnson admired everything: the new parrots and marmosets, the black
+beams of the ceiling, the double-corner cupboard with the glass doors,
+through which gleamed the remainders of sundry china sets acquired by
+Bob's mother in her housekeeping--two-handled sugar-basins, no-handled
+tea-cups, a tea-pot like a pagoda, and a cream-jug in the form of a
+spotted cow.  This sociability in their visitor was returned by Mrs.
+Garland and Anne; and Miss Johnson's pleasing habit of partly dying
+whenever she heard any unusual bark or bellow added to her piquancy in
+their eyes.  But conversation, as such, was naturally at first of a
+nervous, tentative kind, in which, as in the works of some minor poets,
+the sense was considerably led by the sound.
+
+'You get the sea-breezes here, no doubt?'
+
+'O yes, dear; when the wind is that way.'
+
+'Do you like windy weather?'
+
+'Yes; though not now, for it blows down the young apples.'
+
+'Apples are plentiful, it seems.  You country-folk call St. Swithin's
+their christening day, if it rains?'
+
+'Yes, dear.  Ah me! I have not been to a christening for these many
+years; the baby's name was George, I remember--after the King.'
+
+'I hear that King George is still staying at the town here.  I _hope_
+he'll stay till I have seen him!'
+
+'He'll wait till the corn turns yellow; he always does.'
+
+'How _very_ fashionable yellow is getting for gloves just now!'
+
+'Yes.  Some persons wear them to the elbow, I hear.'
+
+'Do they?  I was not aware of that.  I struck my elbow last week so hard
+against the door of my aunt's mansion that I feel the ache now.'
+
+Before they were quite overwhelmed by the interest of this discourse, the
+miller and Bob came in.  In truth, Mrs. Garland found the office in which
+he had placed her--that of introducing a strange woman to a house which
+was not the widow's own--a rather awkward one, and yet almost a
+necessity.  There was no woman belonging to the house except that
+wondrous compendium of usefulness, the intermittent maid-servant, whom
+Loveday had, for appearances, borrowed from Mrs. Garland, and Mrs.
+Garland was in the habit of borrowing from the girl's mother.  And as for
+the demi-woman David, he had been informed as peremptorily as Pharaoh's
+baker that the office of housemaid and bedmaker was taken from him, and
+would be given to this girl till the wedding was over, and Bob's wife
+took the management into her own hands.
+
+They all sat down to high tea, Anne and her mother included, and the
+captain sitting next to Miss Johnson.  Anne had put a brave face upon the
+matter--outwardly, at least--and seemed in a fair way of subduing any
+lingering sentiment which Bob's return had revived.  During the evening,
+and while they still sat over the meal, John came down on a hurried
+visit, as he had promised, ostensibly on purpose to be introduced to his
+intended sister-in-law, but much more to get a word and a smile from his
+beloved Anne.  Before they saw him, they heard the trumpet-major's smart
+step coming round the corner of the house, and in a moment his form
+darkened the door.  As it was Sunday, he appeared in his full-dress laced
+coat, white waistcoat and breeches, and towering plume, the latter of
+which he instantly lowered, as much from necessity as good manners, the
+beam in the mill-house ceiling having a tendency to smash and ruin all
+such head-gear without warning.
+
+'John, we've been hoping you would come down,' said the miller, 'and so
+we have kept the tay about on purpose.  Draw up, and speak to Mrs.
+Matilda Johnson. . . . Ma'am, this is Robert's brother.'
+
+'Your humble servant, ma'am,' said the trumpet-major gallantly.
+
+As it was getting dusk in the low, small-paned room, he instinctively
+moved towards Miss Johnson as he spoke, who sat with her back to the
+window.  He had no sooner noticed her features than his helmet nearly
+fell from his hand; his face became suddenly fixed, and his natural
+complexion took itself off, leaving a greenish yellow in its stead.  The
+young person, on her part, had no sooner looked closely at him than she
+said weakly, 'Robert's brother!' and changed colour yet more rapidly than
+the soldier had done.  The faintness, previously half counterfeit, seized
+on her now in real earnest.
+
+'I don't feel well,' she said, suddenly rising by an effort.  'This warm
+day has quite upset me!'
+
+There was a regular collapse of the tea-party, like that of the Hamlet
+play scene.  Bob seized his sweetheart and carried her upstairs, the
+miller exclaiming, 'Ah, she's terribly worn by the journey!  I thought
+she was when I saw her nearly go off at the blare of the cow.  No woman
+would have been frightened at that if she'd been up to her natural
+strength.'
+
+'That, and being so very shy of men, too, must have made John's handsome
+regimentals quite overpowering to her, poor thing,' added Mrs. Garland,
+following the catastrophic young lady upstairs, whose indisposition was
+this time beyond question.  And yet, by some perversity of the heart, she
+was as eager now to make light of her faintness as she had been to make
+much of it two or three hours ago.
+
+The miller and John stood like straight sticks in the room the others had
+quitted, John's face being hastily turned towards a caricature of
+Buonaparte on the wall that he had not seen more than a hundred and fifty
+times before.
+
+'Come, sit down and have a dish of tea, anyhow,' said his father at last.
+'She'll soon be right again, no doubt.'
+
+'Thanks; I don't want any tea,' said John quickly.  And, indeed, he did
+not, for he was in one gigantic ache from head to foot.
+
+The light had been too dim for anybody to notice his amazement; and not
+knowing where to vent it, the trumpet-major said he was going out for a
+minute.  He hastened to the bakehouse; but David being there, he went to
+the pantry; but the maid being there, he went to the cart-shed; but a
+couple of tramps being there, he went behind a row of French beans in the
+garden, where he let off an ejaculation the most pious that he had
+uttered that Sabbath day: 'Heaven! what's to be done!'
+
+And then he walked wildly about the paths of the dusky garden, where the
+trickling of the brooks seemed loud by comparison with the stillness
+around; treading recklessly on the cracking snails that had come forth to
+feed, and entangling his spurs in the long grass till the rowels were
+choked with its blades.  Presently he heard another person approaching,
+and his brother's shape appeared between the stubbard tree and the hedge.
+
+'O, is it you?' said the mate.
+
+'Yes.  I am--taking a little air.'
+
+'She is getting round nicely again; and as I am not wanted indoors just
+now, I am going into the village to call upon a friend or two I have not
+been able to speak to as yet.'
+
+John took his brother Bob's hand.  Bob rather wondered why.
+
+'All right, old boy,' he said.  'Going into the village?  You'll be back
+again, I suppose, before it gets very late?'
+
+'O yes,' said Captain Bob cheerfully, and passed out of the garden.
+
+John allowed his eyes to follow his brother till his shape could not be
+seen, and then he turned and again walked up and down.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.  THE NIGHT AFTER THE ARRIVAL
+
+
+John continued his sad and heavy pace till walking seemed too old and
+worn-out a way of showing sorrow so new, and he leant himself against the
+fork of an apple-tree like a log.  There the trumpet-major remained for a
+considerable time, his face turned towards the house, whose ancient, many-
+chimneyed outline rose against the darkened sky, and just shut out from
+his view the camp above.  But faint noises coming thence from horses
+restless at the pickets, and from visitors taking their leave, recalled
+its existence, and reminded him that, in consequence of Matilda's
+arrival, he had obtained leave for the night--a fact which, owing to the
+startling emotions that followed his entry, he had not yet mentioned to
+his friends.
+
+While abstractedly considering how he could best use that privilege under
+the new circumstances which had arisen, he heard Farmer Derriman drive up
+to the front door and hold a conversation with his father.  The old man
+had at last apparently brought the tin box of private papers that he
+wished the miller to take charge of during Derriman's absence; and it
+being a calm night, John could hear, though he little heeded, Uncle
+Benjy's reiterated supplications to Loveday to keep it safe from fire and
+thieves.  Then Uncle Benjy left, and John's father went upstairs to
+deposit the box in a place of security, the whole proceeding reaching
+John's preoccupied comprehension merely as voices during sleep.
+
+The next thing was the appearance of a light in the bedroom which had
+been assigned to Matilda Johnson.  This effectually aroused the trumpet-
+major, and with a stealthiness unusual in him he went indoors.  No light
+was in the lower rooms, his father, Mrs. Garland, and Anne having gone
+out on the bridge to look at the new moon.  John went upstairs on tip-
+toe, and along the uneven passage till he came to her door.  It was
+standing ajar, a band of candlelight shining across the passage and up
+the opposite wall.  As soon as he entered the radiance he saw her.  She
+was standing before the looking-glass, apparently lost in thought, her
+fingers being clasped behind her head in abstraction, and the light
+falling full upon her face.
+
+'I must speak to you,' said the trumpet-major.
+
+She started, turned and grew paler than before; and then, as if moved by
+a sudden impulse, she swung the door wide open, and, coming out, said
+quite collectedly and with apparent pleasantness, 'O yes; you are my
+Bob's brother!  I didn't, for a moment, recognize you.'
+
+'But you do now?'
+
+'As Bob's brother.'
+
+'You have not seen me before?'
+
+'I have not,' she answered, with a face as impassible as Talleyrand's.
+
+'Good God!'
+
+'I have not!' she repeated.
+
+'Nor any of the --th Dragoons?  Captain Jolly, for instance?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'You mistake.  I'll remind you of particulars,' he said drily.  And he
+did remind her at some length.
+
+'Never!' she said desperately.
+
+But she had miscalculated her staying powers, and her adversary's
+character.  Five minutes after that she was in tears, and the
+conversation had resolved itself into words, which, on the soldier's
+part, were of the nature of commands, tempered by pity, and were a mere
+series of entreaties on hers.
+
+The whole scene did not last ten minutes.  When it was over, the trumpet-
+major walked from the doorway where they had been standing, and brushed
+moisture from his eyes.  Reaching a dark lumber-room, he stood still
+there to calm himself, and then descended by a Flemish-ladder to the
+bakehouse, instead of by the front stairs.  He found that the others,
+including Bob, had gathered in the parlour during his absence and lighted
+the candles.
+
+Miss Johnson, having sent down some time before John re-entered the house
+to say that she would prefer to keep her room that evening, was not
+expected to join them, and on this account Bob showed less than his
+customary liveliness.  The miller wishing to keep up his son's spirits,
+expressed his regret that, it being Sunday night, they could have no
+songs to make the evening cheerful; when Mrs. Garland proposed that they
+should sing psalms which, by choosing lively tunes and not thinking of
+the words, would be almost as good as ballads.
+
+This they did, the trumpet-major appearing to join in with the rest; but
+as a matter of fact no sound came from his moving lips.  His mind was in
+such a state that he derived no pleasure even from Anne Garland's
+presence, though he held a corner of the same book with her, and was
+treated in a winsome way which it was not her usual practice to indulge
+in.  She saw that his mind was clouded, and, far from guessing the reason
+why, was doing her best to clear it.
+
+At length the Garlands found that it was the hour for them to leave, and
+John Loveday at the same time wished his father and Bob good-night, and
+went as far as Mrs. Garland's door with her.
+
+He had said not a word to show that he was free to remain out of camp,
+for the reason that there was painful work to be done, which it would be
+best to do in secret and alone.  He lingered near the house till its
+reflected window-lights ceased to glimmer upon the mill-pond, and all
+within the dwelling was dark and still.  Then he entered the garden and
+waited there till the back door opened, and a woman's figure timorously
+came forward.  John Loveday at once went up to her, and they began to
+talk in low yet dissentient tones.
+
+They had conversed about ten minutes, and were parting as if they had
+come to some painful arrangement, Miss Johnson sobbing bitterly, when a
+head stealthily arose above the dense hedgerow, and in a moment a shout
+burst from its owner.
+
+'Thieves! thieves!--my tin box!--thieves! thieves!'
+
+Matilda vanished into the house, and John Loveday hastened to the hedge.
+'For heaven's sake, hold your tongue, Mr. Derriman!' he exclaimed.
+
+'My tin box!' said Uncle Benjy.  'O, only the trumpet-major!'
+
+'Your box is safe enough, I assure you.  It was only'--here the trumpet-
+major gave vent to an artificial laugh--'only a sly bit of courting, you
+know.'
+
+'Ha, ha, I see!' said the relieved old squireen.  'Courting Miss Anne!
+Then you've ousted my nephew, trumpet-major!  Well, so much the better.
+As for myself, the truth on't is that I haven't been able to go to bed
+easy, for thinking that possibly your father might not take care of what
+I put under his charge; and at last I thought I would just step over and
+see if all was safe here before I turned in.  And when I saw your two
+shapes my poor nerves magnified ye to housebreakers, and Boneys, and I
+don't know what all.'
+
+'You have alarmed the house,' said the trumpet-major, hearing the
+clicking of flint and steel in his father's bedroom, followed in a moment
+by the rise of a light in the window of the same apartment.  'You have
+got me into difficulty,' he added gloomily, as his father opened the
+casement.
+
+'I am sorry for that,' said Uncle Benjy.  'But step back; I'll put it all
+right again.'
+
+'What, for heaven's sake, is the matter?' said the miller, his tasselled
+nightcap appearing in the opening.
+
+'Nothing, nothing!' said the farmer.  'I was uneasy about my few bonds
+and documents, and I walked this way, miller, before going to bed, as I
+start from home to-morrow morning.  When I came down by your
+garden-hedge, I thought I saw thieves, but it turned out to be--to be--'
+
+Here a lump of earth from the trumpet-major's hand struck Uncle Benjy in
+the back as a reminder.
+
+'To be--the bough of a cherry-tree a-waving in the wind.  Good-night.'
+
+'No thieves are like to try my house,' said Miller Loveday.  'Now don't
+you come alarming us like this again, farmer, or you shall keep your box
+yourself, begging your pardon for saying so.  Good-night t' ye!'
+
+'Miller, will ye just look, since I am here--just look and see if the box
+is all right? there's a good man!  I am old, you know, and my poor
+remains are not what my original self was.  Look and see if it is where
+you put it, there's a good, kind man.'
+
+'Very well,' said the miller good-humouredly.
+
+'Neighbour Loveday! on second thoughts I will take my box home again,
+after all, if you don't mind.  You won't deem it ill of me?  I have no
+suspicion, of course; but now I think on't there's rivalry between my
+nephew and your son; and if Festus should take it into his head to set
+your house on fire in his enmity, 'twould be bad for my deeds and
+documents.  No offence, miller, but I'll take the box, if you don't
+mind.'
+
+'Faith! I don't mind,' said Loveday.  'But your nephew had better think
+twice before he lets his enmity take that colour.'  Receding from the
+window, he took the candle to a back part of the room and soon reappeared
+with the tin box.
+
+'I won't trouble ye to dress,' said Derriman considerately; 'let en down
+by anything you have at hand.'
+
+The box was lowered by a cord, and the old man clasped it in his arms.
+'Thank ye!' he said with heartfelt gratitude.  'Good-night!'
+
+The miller replied and closed the window, and the light went out.
+
+'There, now I hope you are satisfied, sir?' said the trumpet-major.
+
+'Quite, quite!' said Derriman; and, leaning on his walking-stick, he
+pursued his lonely way.
+
+That night Anne lay awake in her bed, musing on the traits of the new
+friend who had come to her neighbour's house.  She would not be critical,
+it was ungenerous and wrong; but she could not help thinking of what
+interested her.  And were there, she silently asked, in Miss Johnson's
+mind and person such rare qualities as placed that lady altogether beyond
+comparison with herself?  O yes, there must be; for had not Captain Bob
+singled out Matilda from among all other women, herself included?  Of
+course, with his world-wide experience, he knew best.
+
+When the moon had set, and only the summer stars threw their light into
+the great damp garden, she fancied that she heard voices in that
+direction.  Perhaps they were the voices of Bob and Matilda taking a
+lover's walk before retiring.  If so, how sleepy they would be next day,
+and how absurd it was of Matilda to pretend she was tired!  Ruminating in
+this way, and saying to herself that she hoped they would be happy, Anne
+fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.  MISS JOHNSON'S BEHAVIOUR CAUSES NO LITTLE SURPRISE
+
+
+Partly from the excitement of having his Matilda under the paternal roof,
+Bob rose next morning as early as his father and the grinder, and, when
+the big wheel began to patter and the little ones to mumble in response,
+went to sun himself outside the mill-front, among the fowls of brown and
+speckled kinds which haunted that spot, and the ducks that came up from
+the mill-tail.
+
+Standing on the worn-out mill-stone inlaid in the gravel, he talked with
+his father on various improvements of the premises, and on the proposed
+arrangements for his permanent residence there, with an enjoyment that
+was half based upon this prospect of the future, and half on the
+penetrating warmth of the sun to his back and shoulders.  Then the
+different troops of horses began their morning scramble down to the mill-
+pond, and, after making it very muddy round the edge, ascended the slope
+again.  The bustle of the camp grew more and more audible, and presently
+David came to say that breakfast was ready.
+
+'Is Miss Johnson downstairs?' said the miller; and Bob listened for the
+answer, looking at a blue sentinel aloft on the down.
+
+'Not yet, maister,' said the excellent David.
+
+'We'll wait till she's down,' said Loveday.  'When she is, let us know.'
+
+David went indoors again, and Loveday and Bob continued their morning
+survey by ascending into the mysterious quivering recesses of the mill,
+and holding a discussion over a second pair of burr-stones, which had to
+be re-dressed before they could be used again.  This and similar things
+occupied nearly twenty minutes, and, looking from the window, the elder
+of the two was reminded of the time of day by seeing Mrs. Garland's table-
+cloth fluttering from her back door over the heads of a flock of pigeons
+that had alighted for the crumbs.
+
+'I suppose David can't find us,' he said, with a sense of hunger that was
+not altogether strange to Bob.  He put out his head and shouted.
+
+'The lady is not down yet,' said his man in reply.
+
+'No hurry, no hurry,' said the miller, with cheerful emptiness.  'Bob, to
+pass the time we'll look into the garden.'
+
+'She'll get up sooner than this, you know, when she's signed articles and
+got a berth here,' Bob observed apologetically.
+
+'Yes, yes,' said Loveday; and they descended into the garden.
+
+Here they turned over sundry flat stones and killed the slugs sheltered
+beneath them from the coming heat of the day, talking of slugs in all
+their branches--of the brown and the black, of the tough and the tender,
+of the reason why there were so many in the garden that year, of the
+coming time when the grass-walks harbouring them were to be taken up and
+gravel laid, and of the relatively exterminatory merits of a pair of
+scissors and the heel of the shoe.  At last the miller said, 'Well,
+really, Bob, I'm hungry; we must begin without her.'
+
+They were about to go in, when David appeared with haste in his motions,
+his eyes wider vertically than crosswise, and his cheeks nearly all gone.
+
+'Maister, I've been to call her; and as 'a didn't speak I rapped, and as
+'a didn't answer I kicked, and not being latched the door opened,
+and--she's gone!'
+
+Bob went off like a swallow towards the house, and the miller followed
+like the rather heavy man that he was.  That Miss Matilda was not in her
+room, or a scrap of anything belonging to her, was soon apparent.  They
+searched every place in which she could possibly hide or squeeze herself,
+every place in which she could not, but found nothing at all.
+
+Captain Bob was quite wild with astonishment and grief.  When he was
+quite sure that she was nowhere in his father's house, he ran into Mrs.
+Garland's, and telling them the story so hastily that they hardly
+understood the particulars, he went on towards Comfort's house, intending
+to raise the alarm there, and also at Mitchell's, Beach's,
+Cripplestraw's, the parson's, the clerk's, the camp of dragoons, of
+hussars, and so on through the whole county.  But he paused, and thought
+it would be hardly expedient to publish his discomfiture in such a way.
+If Matilda had left the house for any freakish reason he would not care
+to look for her, and if her deed had a tragic intent she would keep aloof
+from camp and village.
+
+In his trouble he thought of Anne.  She was a nice girl and could be
+trusted.  To her he went, and found her in a state of excitement and
+anxiety which equalled his own.
+
+''Tis so lonely to cruise for her all by myself!' said Bob
+disconsolately, his forehead all in wrinkles, 'and I've thought you would
+come with me and cheer the way?'
+
+'Where shall we search?' said Anne.
+
+'O, in the holes of rivers, you know, and down wells, and in quarries,
+and over cliffs, and like that.  Your eyes might catch the loom of any
+bit of a shawl or bonnet that I should overlook, and it would do me a
+real service.  Please do come!'
+
+So Anne took pity upon him, and put on her hat and went, the miller and
+David having gone off in another direction.  They examined the ditches of
+fields, Bob going round by one fence and Anne by the other, till they met
+at the opposite side.  Then they peeped under culverts, into outhouses,
+and down old wells and quarries, till the theory of a tragical end had
+nearly spent its force in Bob's mind, and he began to think that Matilda
+had simply run away.  However, they still walked on, though by this time
+the sun was hot and Anne would gladly have sat down.
+
+'Now, didn't you think highly of her, Miss Garland?' he inquired, as the
+search began to languish.
+
+'O yes,' said Anne, 'very highly.'
+
+'She was really beautiful; no nonsense about her looks, was there?'
+
+'None.  Her beauty was thoroughly ripe--not too young.  We should all
+have got to love her.  What can have possessed her to go away?'
+
+'I don't know, and, upon my life, I shall soon be drove to say I don't
+care!' replied the mate despairingly.  'Let me pilot ye down over those
+stones,' he added, as Anne began to descend a rugged quarry.  He stepped
+forward, leapt down, and turned to her.
+
+She gave him her hand and sprang down.  Before he relinquished his hold,
+Captain Bob raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them.
+
+'O, Captain Loveday!' cried Anne, snatching away her hand in genuine
+dismay, while a tear rose unexpectedly to each eye.  'I never heard of
+such a thing!  I won't go an inch further with you, sir; it is too
+barefaced!'  And she turned and ran off.
+
+'Upon my life I didn't mean it!' said the repentant captain, hastening
+after.  'I do love her best--indeed I do--and I don't love you at all!  I
+am not so fickle as that!  I merely just for the moment admired you as a
+sweet little craft, and that's how I came to do it.  You know, Miss
+Garland,' he continued earnestly, and still running after, ''tis like
+this: when you come ashore after having been shut up in a ship for
+eighteen months, women-folks seem so new and nice that you can't help
+liking them, one and all in a body; and so your heart is apt to get
+scattered and to yaw a bit; but of course I think of poor Matilda most,
+and shall always stick to her.'  He heaved a sigh of tremendous
+magnitude, to show beyond the possibility of doubt that his heart was
+still in the place that honour required.
+
+'I am glad to hear that--of course I am very glad!' said she, with quick
+petulance, keeping her face turned from him.  'And I hope we shall find
+her, and that the wedding will not be put off, and that you'll both be
+happy.  But I won't look for her any more!  No; I don't care to look for
+her--and my head aches.  I am going home!'
+
+'And so am I,' said Robert promptly.
+
+'No, no; go on looking for her, of course--all the afternoon, and all
+night.  I am sure you will, if you love her.'
+
+'O yes; I mean to.  Still, I ought to convoy you home first?'
+
+'No, you ought not; and I shall not accept your company.  Good-morning,
+sir!'  And she went off over one of the stone stiles with which the spot
+abounded, leaving the friendly sailor standing in the field.
+
+He sighed again, and, observing the camp not far off, thought he would go
+to his brother John and ask him his opinion on the sorrowful case.  On
+reaching the tents he found that John was not at liberty just at that
+time, being engaged in practising the trumpeters; and leaving word that
+he wished the trumpet-major to come down to the mill as soon as possible,
+Bob went back again.
+
+''Tis no good looking for her,' he said gloomily.  'She liked me well
+enough, but when she came here and saw the house, and the place, and the
+old horse, and the plain furniture, she was disappointed to find us all
+so homely, and felt she didn't care to marry into such a family!'
+
+His father and David had returned with no news.
+
+'Yes, 'tis as I've been thinking, father,' Bob said.  'We weren't good
+enough for her, and she went away in scorn!'
+
+'Well, that can't be helped,' said the miller.  'What we be, we be, and
+have been for generations.  To my mind she seemed glad enough to get hold
+of us!'
+
+'Yes, yes--for the moment--because of the flowers, and birds, and what's
+pretty in the place,' said Bob tragically.  'But you don't know,
+father--how should you know, who have hardly been out of Overcombe in
+your life?--you don't know what delicate feelings are in a real refined
+woman's mind.  Any little vulgar action unreaves their nerves like a
+marline-spike.  Now I wonder if you did anything to disgust her?'
+
+'Faith! not that I know of,' said Loveday, reflecting.  'I didn't say a
+single thing that I should naturally have said, on purpose to give no
+offence.'
+
+'You was always very homely, you know, father.'
+
+'Yes; so I was,' said the miller meekly.
+
+'I wonder what it could have been,' Bob continued, wandering about
+restlessly.  'You didn't go drinking out of the big mug with your mouth
+full, or wipe your lips with your sleeve?'
+
+'That I'll swear I didn't!' said the miller firmly.  'Thinks I, there's
+no knowing what I may do to shock her, so I'll take my solid victuals in
+the bakehouse, and only a crumb and a drop in her company for manners.'
+
+'You could do no more than that, certainly,' said Bob gently.
+
+'If my manners be good enough for well-brought-up people like the
+Garlands, they be good enough for her,' continued the miller, with a
+sense of injustice.
+
+'That's true.  Then it must have been David.  David, come here!  How did
+you behave before that lady?  Now, mind you speak the truth!'
+
+'Yes, Mr. Captain Robert,' said David earnestly.  'I assure ye she was
+served like a royal queen.  The best silver spoons wez put down, and yer
+poor grandfer's silver tanket, as you seed, and the feather cushion for
+her to sit on--'
+
+'Now I've got it!' said Bob decisively, bringing down his hand upon the
+window-sill.  'Her bed was hard!--and there's nothing shocks a true lady
+like that.  The bed in that room always was as hard as the Rock of
+Gibraltar!'
+
+'No, Captain Bob!  The beds were changed--wasn't they maister?  We put
+the goose bed in her room, and the flock one, that used to be there, in
+yours.'
+
+'Yes, we did,' corroborated the miller.  'David and I changed 'em with
+our own hands, because they were too heavy for the women to move.'
+
+'Sure I didn't know I had the flock bed,' murmured Bob.  'I slept on,
+little thinking what I was going to wake to.  Well, well, she's gone; and
+search as I will I shall never find another like her!  She was too good
+for me.  She must have carried her box with her own hands, poor girl.  As
+far as that goes, I could overtake her even now, I dare say; but I won't
+entreat her against her will--not I.'
+
+Miller Loveday and David, feeling themselves to be rather a desecration
+in the presence of Bob's sacred emotions, managed to edge off by degrees,
+the former burying himself in the most floury recesses of the mill, his
+invariable resource when perturbed, the rumbling having a soothing effect
+upon the nerves of those properly trained to its music.
+
+Bob was so impatient that, after going up to her room to assure himself
+once more that she had not undressed, but had only lain down on the
+outside of the bed, he went out of the house to meet John, and waited on
+the sunny slope of the down till his brother appeared.  John looked so
+brave and shapely and warlike that, even in Bob's present distress, he
+could not but feel an honest and affectionate pride at owning such a
+relative.  Yet he fancied that John did not come along with the same
+swinging step he had shown yesterday; and when the trumpet-major got
+nearer he looked anxiously at the mate and waited for him to speak first.
+
+'You know our great trouble, John?' said Robert, gazing stoically into
+his brother's eyes.
+
+'Come and sit down, and tell me all about it,' answered the
+trumpet-major, showing no surprise.
+
+They went towards a slight ravine, where it was easier to sit down than
+on the flat ground, and here John reclined among the grasshoppers,
+pointing to his brother to do the same.
+
+'But do you know what it is?' said Robert.  'Has anybody told ye?'
+
+'I do know,' said John.  'She's gone; and I am thankful!'
+
+'What!' said Bob, rising to his knees in amazement.
+
+'I'm at the bottom of it,' said the trumpet-major slowly.
+
+'You, John?'
+
+'Yes; and if you will listen I'll tell you all.  Do you remember what
+happened when I came into the room last night?  Why, she turned colour
+and nearly fainted away.  That was because she knew me.'
+
+Bob stared at his brother with a face of pain and distrust.
+
+'For once, Bob, I must say something that will hurt thee a good deal,'
+continued John.  'She was not a woman who could possibly be your wife--and
+so she's gone.'
+
+'You sent her off?'
+
+'Well, I did.'
+
+'John!--Tell me right through--tell me!'
+
+'Perhaps I had better,' said the trumpet-major, his blue eyes resting on
+the far distant sea, that seemed to rise like a wall as high as the hill
+they sat upon.
+
+And then he told a tale of Miss Johnson and the --th Dragoons which wrung
+his heart as much in the telling as it did Bob's to hear, and which
+showed that John had been temporarily cruel to be ultimately kind.  Even
+Bob, excited as he was, could discern from John's manner of speaking what
+a terrible undertaking that night's business had been for him.  To
+justify the course he had adopted the dictates of duty must have been
+imperative; but the trumpet-major, with a becoming reticence which his
+brother at the time was naturally unable to appreciate, scarcely dwelt
+distinctly enough upon the compelling cause of his conduct.  It would,
+indeed, have been hard for any man, much less so modest a one as John, to
+do himself justice in that remarkable relation, when the listener was the
+lady's lover; and it is no wonder that Robert rose to his feet and put a
+greater distance between himself and John.
+
+'And what time was it?' he asked in a hard, suppressed voice.
+
+'It was just before one o'clock.'
+
+'How could you help her to go away?'
+
+'I had a pass.  I carried her box to the coach-office.  She was to follow
+at dawn.'
+
+'But she had no money.'
+
+'Yes, she had; I took particular care of that.'  John did not add, as he
+might have done, that he had given her, in his pity, all the money he
+possessed, and at present had only eighteen-pence in the world.  'Well,
+it is over, Bob; so sit ye down, and talk with me of old times,' he
+added.
+
+'Ah, Jack, it is well enough for you to speak like that,' said the
+disquieted sailor; 'but I can't help feeling that it is a cruel thing you
+have done.  After all, she would have been snug enough for me.  Would I
+had never found out this about her!  John, why did you interfere?  You
+had no right to overhaul my affairs like this.  Why didn't you tell me
+fairly all you knew, and let me do as I chose?  You have turned her out
+of the house, and it's a shame!  If she had only come to me!  Why didn't
+she?'
+
+'Because she knew it was best to do otherwise.'
+
+'Well, I shall go after her,' said Bob firmly.
+
+'You can do as you like,' said John; 'but I would advise you strongly to
+leave matters where they are.'
+
+'I won't leave matters where they are,' said Bob impetuously.  'You have
+made me miserable, and all for nothing.  I tell you she was good enough
+for me; and as long as I knew nothing about what you say of her history,
+what difference would it have made to me?  Never was there a young woman
+who was better company; and she loved a merry song as I do myself.  Yes,
+I'll follow her.'
+
+'O, Bob,' said John; 'I hardly expected this!'
+
+'That's because you didn't know your man.  Can I ask you to do me one
+kindness?  I don't suppose I can.  Can I ask you not to say a word
+against her to any of them at home?'
+
+'Certainly.  The very reason why I got her to go off silently, as she has
+done, was because nothing should be said against her here, and no scandal
+should be heard of.'
+
+'That may be; but I'm off after her.  Marry that girl I will.'
+
+'You'll be sorry.'
+
+'That we shall see,' replied Robert with determination; and he went away
+rapidly towards the mill.  The trumpet-major had no heart to follow--no
+good could possibly come of further opposition; and there on the down he
+remained like a graven image till Bob had vanished from his sight into
+the mill.
+
+Bob entered his father's only to leave word that he was going on a
+renewed search for Matilda, and to pack up a few necessaries for his
+journey.  Ten minutes later he came out again with a bundle in his hand,
+and John saw him go diagonally across the lower fields towards the high-
+road.
+
+'And this is all the good I have done!' said John, musingly readjusting
+his stock where it cut his neck, and descending towards the mill.
+
+
+
+
+XX.  HOW THEY LESSENED THE EFFECT OF THE CALAMITY
+
+
+Meanwhile Anne Garland had gone home, and, being weary with her ramble in
+search of Matilda, sat silent in a corner of the room.  Her mother was
+passing the time in giving utterance to every conceivable surmise on the
+cause of Miss Johnson's disappearance that the human mind could frame, to
+which Anne returned monosyllabic answers, the result, not of
+indifference, but of intense preoccupation.  Presently Loveday, the
+father, came to the door; her mother vanished with him, and they remained
+closeted together a long time.  Anne went into the garden and seated
+herself beneath the branching tree whose boughs had sheltered her during
+so many hours of her residence here.  Her attention was fixed more upon
+the miller's wing of the irregular building before her than upon that
+occupied by her mother, for she could not help expecting every moment to
+see some one run out with a wild face and announce some awful clearing up
+of the mystery.
+
+Every sound set her on the alert, and hearing the tread of a horse in the
+lane she looked round eagerly.  Gazing at her over the hedge was Festus
+Derriman, mounted on such an incredibly tall animal that he could see to
+her very feet over the thick and broad thorn fence.  She no sooner
+recognized him than she withdrew her glance; but as his eyes were fixed
+steadily upon her this was a futile manoeuvre.
+
+'I saw you look round!' he exclaimed crossly.  'What have I done to make
+you behave like that?  Come, Miss Garland, be fair.  'Tis no use to turn
+your back upon me.'  As she did not turn he went on--'Well, now, this is
+enough to provoke a saint.  Now I tell you what, Miss Garland; here I'll
+stay till you do turn round, if 'tis all the afternoon.  You know my
+temper--what I say I mean.'  He seated himself firmly in the saddle,
+plucked some leaves from the hedge, and began humming a song, to show how
+absolutely indifferent he was to the flight of time.
+
+'What have you come for, that you are so anxious to see me?' inquired
+Anne, when at last he had wearied her patience, rising and facing him
+with the added independence which came from a sense of the hedge between
+them.
+
+'There, I knew you would turn round!' he said, his hot angry face invaded
+by a smile in which his teeth showed like white hemmed in by red at
+chess.
+
+'What do you want, Mr. Derriman?' said she.
+
+'"What do you want, Mr. Derriman?"--now listen to that!  Is that my
+encouragement?'
+
+Anne bowed superciliously, and moved away.
+
+'I have just heard news that explains all that,' said the giant, eyeing
+her movements with somnolent irascibility.  'My uncle has been letting
+things out.  He was here late last night, and he saw you.'
+
+'Indeed he didn't,' said Anne.
+
+'O, now!  He saw Trumpet-major Loveday courting somebody like you in that
+garden walk; and when he came you ran indoors.'
+
+'It is not true, and I wish to hear no more.'
+
+'Upon my life, he said so!  How can you do it, Miss Garland, when I, who
+have enough money to buy up all the Lovedays, would gladly come to terms
+with ye?  What a simpleton you must be, to pass me over for him!  There,
+now you are angry because I said simpleton!--I didn't mean simpleton, I
+meant misguided--misguided rosebud!  That's it--run off,' he continued in
+a raised voice, as Anne made towards the garden door.  'But I'll have you
+yet.  Much reason you have to be too proud to stay with me.  But it won't
+last long; I shall marry you, madam, if I choose, as you'll see.'
+
+When he was quite gone, and Anne had calmed down from the not altogether
+unrelished fear and excitement that he always caused her, she returned to
+her seat under the tree, and began to wonder what Festus Derriman's story
+meant, which, from the earnestness of his tone, did not seem like a pure
+invention.  It suddenly flashed upon her mind that she herself had heard
+voices in the garden, and that the persons seen by Farmer Derriman, of
+whose visit and reclamation of his box the miller had told her, might
+have been Matilda and John Loveday.  She further recalled the strange
+agitation of Miss Johnson on the preceding evening, and that it occurred
+just at the entry of the dragoon, till by degrees suspicion amounted to
+conviction that he knew more than any one else supposed of that lady's
+disappearance.
+
+It was just at this time that the trumpet-major descended to the mill
+after his talk with his brother on the down.  As fate would have it,
+instead of entering the house he turned aside to the garden and walked
+down that pleasant enclosure, to learn if he were likely to find in the
+other half of it the woman he loved so well.
+
+Yes, there she was, sitting on the seat of logs that he had repaired for
+her, under the apple-tree; but she was not facing in his direction.  He
+walked with a noisier tread, he coughed, he shook a bough, he did
+everything, in short, but the one thing that Festus did in the same
+circumstances--call out to her.  He would not have ventured on that for
+the world.  Any of his signs would have been sufficient to attract her a
+day or two earlier; now she would not turn.  At last, in his fond
+anxiety, he did what he had never done before without an invitation, and
+crossed over into Mrs. Garland's half of the garden, till he stood before
+her.
+
+When she could not escape him she arose, and, saying 'Good afternoon,
+trumpet-major,' in a glacial manner unusual with her, walked away to
+another part of the garden.
+
+Loveday, quite at a loss, had not the strength of mind to persevere
+further.  He had a vague apprehension that some imperfect knowledge of
+the previous night's unhappy business had reached her; and, unable to
+remedy the evil without telling more than he dared, he went into the
+mill, where his father still was, looking doleful enough, what with his
+concern at events and the extra quantity of flour upon his face through
+sticking so closely to business that day.
+
+'Well, John; Bob has told you all, of course?  A queer, strange,
+perplexing thing, isn't it?  I can't make it out at all.  There must be
+something wrong in the woman, or it couldn't have happened.  I haven't
+been so upset for years.'
+
+'Nor have I.  I wouldn't it should have happened for all I own in the
+world,' said the dragoon.  'Have you spoke to Anne Garland to-day--or has
+anybody been talking to her?'
+
+'Festus Derriman rode by half-an-hour ago, and talked to her over the
+hedge.'
+
+John guessed the rest, and, after standing on the threshold in silence
+awhile, walked away towards the camp.
+
+All this time his brother Robert had been hastening along in pursuit of
+the woman who had withdrawn from the scene to avoid the exposure and
+complete overthrow which would have resulted had she remained.  As the
+distance lengthened between himself and the mill, Bob was conscious of
+some cooling down of the excitement that had prompted him to set out; but
+he did not pause in his walk till he had reached the head of the river
+which fed the mill-stream.  Here, for some indefinite reason, he allowed
+his eyes to be attracted by the bubbling spring whose waters never failed
+or lessened, and he stopped as if to look longer at the scene; it was
+really because his mind was so absorbed by John's story.
+
+The sun was warm, the spot was a pleasant one, and he deposited his
+bundle and sat down.  By degrees, as he reflected, first on John's view
+and then on his own, his convictions became unsettled; till at length he
+was so balanced between the impulse to go on and the impulse to go back,
+that a puff of wind either way would have been well-nigh sufficient to
+decide for him.  When he allowed John's story to repeat itself in his
+ears, the reasonableness and good sense of his advice seemed beyond
+question.  When, on the other hand, he thought of his poor Matilda's
+eyes, and her, to him, pleasant ways, their charming arrangements to
+marry, and her probable willingness still, he could hardly bring himself
+to do otherwise than follow on the road at the top of his speed.
+
+This strife of thought was so well maintained that sitting and standing,
+he remained on the borders of the spring till the shadows had stretched
+out eastwards, and the chance of overtaking Matilda had grown
+considerably less.  Still he did not positively go towards home.  At last
+he took a guinea from his pocket, and resolved to put the question to the
+hazard.  'Heads I go; tails I don't.'  The piece of gold spun in the air
+and came down heads.
+
+'No, I won't go, after all,' he said.  'I won't be steered by accidents
+any more.'
+
+He picked up his bundle and switch, and retraced his steps towards
+Overcombe Mill, knocking down the brambles and nettles as he went with
+gloomy and indifferent blows.  When he got within sight of the house he
+beheld David in the road.
+
+'All right--all right again, captain!', shouted that retainer.  'A
+wedding after all!  Hurrah!'
+
+'Ah--she's back again?' cried Bob, seizing David, ecstatically, and
+dancing round with him.
+
+'No--but it's all the same! it is of no consequence at all, and no harm
+will be done!  Maister and Mrs. Garland have made up a match, and mean to
+marry at once, that the wedding victuals may not be wasted!  They felt
+'twould be a thousand pities to let such good things get blue-vinnied for
+want of a ceremony to use 'em upon, and at last they have thought of
+this.'
+
+'Victuals--I don't care for the victuals!' bitterly cried Bob, in a tone
+of far higher thought.  'How you disappoint me!' and he went slowly
+towards the house.
+
+His father appeared in the opening of the mill-door, looking more
+cheerful than when they had parted.  'What, Robert, you've been after
+her?' he said.  'Faith, then, I wouldn't have followed her if I had been
+as sure as you were that she went away in scorn of us.  Since you told me
+that, I have not looked for her at all.'
+
+'I was wrong, father,' Bob replied gravely, throwing down his bundle and
+stick.  'Matilda, I find, has not gone away in scorn of us; she has gone
+away for other reasons.  I followed her some way; but I have come back
+again.  She may go.'
+
+'Why is she gone?' said the astonished miller.
+
+Bob had intended, for Matilda's sake, to give no reason to a living soul
+for her departure.  But he could not treat his father thus reservedly;
+and he told.
+
+'She has made great fools of us,' said the miller deliberately; 'and she
+might have made us greater ones.  Bob, I thought th' hadst more sense.'
+
+'Well, don't say anything against her, father,' implored Bob.  ''Twas a
+sorry haul, and there's an end on't.  Let her down quietly, and keep the
+secret.  You promise that?'
+
+'I do.'  Loveday the elder remained thinking awhile, and then went
+on--'Well, what I was going to say is this: I've hit upon a plan to get
+out of the awkward corner she has put us in.  What you'll think of it I
+can't say.'
+
+'David has just given me the heads.'
+
+'And do it hurt your feelings, my son, at such a time?'
+
+'No--I'll bring myself to bear it, anyhow!  Why should I object to other
+people's happiness because I have lost my own?' said Bob, with saintly
+self-sacrifice in his air.
+
+'Well said!' answered the miller heartily.  'But you may be sure that
+there will be no unseemly rejoicing, to disturb ye in your present frame
+of mind.  All the morning I felt more ashamed than I cared to own at the
+thought of how the neighbours, great and small, would laugh at what they
+would call your folly, when they knew what had happened; so I resolved to
+take this step to stave it off, if so be 'twas possible.  And when I saw
+Mrs. Garland I knew I had done right.  She pitied me so much for having
+had the house cleaned in vain, and laid in provisions to waste, that it
+put her into the humour to agree.  We mean to do it right off at once,
+afore the pies and cakes get mouldy and the blackpot stale.  'Twas a good
+thought of mine and hers, and I am glad 'tis settled,' he concluded
+cheerfully.
+
+'Poor Matilda!' murmured Bob.
+
+'There--I was afraid 'twould hurt thy feelings,' said the miller, with
+self-reproach: 'making preparations for thy wedding, and using them for
+my own!'
+
+'No,' said Bob heroically; 'it shall not.  It will be a great comfort in
+my sorrow to feel that the splendid grub, and the ale, and your stunning
+new suit of clothes, and the great table-cloths you've bought, will be
+just as useful now as if I had married myself.  Poor Matilda!  But you
+won't expect me to join in--you hardly can.  I can sheer off that day
+very easily, you know.'
+
+'Nonsense, Bob!' said the miller reproachfully.
+
+'I couldn't stand it--I should break down.'
+
+'Deuce take me if I would have asked her, then, if I had known 'twas
+going to drive thee out of the house!  Now, come, Bob, I'll find a way of
+arranging it and sobering it down, so that it shall be as melancholy as
+you can require--in short, just like a funeral, if thou'lt promise to
+stay?'
+
+'Very well,' said the afflicted one.  'On that condition I'll stay.'
+
+
+
+
+XXI.  'UPON THE HILL HE TURNED'
+
+
+Having entered into this solemn compact with his son, the elder Loveday's
+next action was to go to Mrs. Garland, and ask her how the toning down of
+the wedding had best be done.  'It is plain enough that to make merry
+just now would be slighting Bob's feelings, as if we didn't care who was
+not married, so long as we were,' he said.  'But then, what's to be done
+about the victuals?'
+
+'Give a dinner to the poor folk,' she suggested.  'We can get everything
+used up that way.'
+
+'That's true' said the miller.  'There's enough of 'em in these times to
+carry off any extras whatsoever.'
+
+'And it will save Bob's feelings wonderfully.  And they won't know that
+the dinner was got for another sort of wedding and another sort of
+guests; so you'll have their good-will for nothing.'
+
+The miller smiled at the subtlety of the view.  'That can hardly be
+called fair,' he said.  'Still, I did mean some of it for them, for the
+friends we meant to ask would not have cleared all.'
+
+Upon the whole the idea pleased him well, particularly when he noticed
+the forlorn look of his sailor son as he walked about the place, and
+pictured the inevitably jarring effect of fiddles and tambourines upon
+Bob's shattered nerves at such a crisis, even if the notes of the former
+were dulled by the application of a mute, and Bob shut up in a distant
+bedroom--a plan which had at first occurred to him.  He therefore told
+Bob that the surcharged larder was to be emptied by the charitable
+process above alluded to, and hoped he would not mind making himself
+useful in such a good and gloomy work.  Bob readily fell in with the
+scheme, and it was at once put in hand and the tables spread.
+
+The alacrity with which the substituted wedding was carried out, seemed
+to show that the worthy pair of neighbours would have joined themselves
+into one long ago, had there previously occurred any domestic incident
+dictating such a step as an apposite expedient, apart from their personal
+wish to marry.
+
+The appointed morning came, and the service quietly took place at the
+cheerful hour of ten, in the face of a triangular congregation, of which
+the base was the front pew, and the apex the west door.  Mrs. Garland
+dressed herself in the muslin shawl like Queen Charlotte's, that Bob had
+brought home, and her best plum-coloured gown, beneath which peeped out
+her shoes with red rosettes.  Anne was present, but she considerately
+toned herself down, so as not to too seriously damage her mother's
+appearance.  At moments during the ceremony she had a distressing sense
+that she ought not to be born, and was glad to get home again.
+
+The interest excited in the village, though real, was hardly enough to
+bring a serious blush to the face of coyness.  Neighbours' minds had
+become so saturated by the abundance of showy military and regal incident
+lately vouchsafed to them, that the wedding of middle-aged civilians was
+of small account, excepting in so far that it solved the question whether
+or not Mrs. Garland would consider herself too genteel to mate with a
+grinder of corn.
+
+In the evening, Loveday's heart was made glad by seeing the baked and
+boiled in rapid process of consumption by the kitchenful of people
+assembled for that purpose.  Three-quarters of an hour were sufficient to
+banish for ever his fears as to spoilt food.  The provisions being the
+cause of the assembly, and not its consequence, it had been determined to
+get all that would not keep consumed on that day, even if highways and
+hedges had to be searched for operators.  And, in addition to the poor
+and needy, every cottager's daughter known to the miller was invited, and
+told to bring her lover from camp--an expedient which, for letting
+daylight into the inside of full platters, was among the most happy ever
+known.
+
+While Mr. and Mrs. Loveday, Anne, and Bob were standing in the parlour,
+discussing the progress of the entertainment in the next room, John, who
+had not been down all day, entered the house and looked in upon them
+through the open door.
+
+'How's this, John?  Why didn't you come before?'
+
+'Had to see the captain, and--other duties,' said the trumpet-major, in a
+tone which showed no great zeal for explanations.
+
+'Well, come in, however,' continued the miller, as his son remained with
+his hand on the door-post, surveying them reflectively.
+
+'I cannot stay long,' said John, advancing.  'The Route is come, and we
+are going away.'
+
+'Going away!  Where to?'
+
+'To Exonbury.'
+
+'When?'
+
+'Friday morning.'
+
+'All of you?'
+
+'Yes; some to-morrow and some next day.  The King goes next week.'
+
+'I am sorry for this,' said the miller, not expressing half his sorrow by
+the simple utterance.  'I wish you could have been here to-day, since
+this is the case,' he added, looking at the horizon through the window.
+
+Mrs. Loveday also expressed her regret, which seemed to remind the
+trumpet-major of the event of the day, and he went to her and tried to
+say something befitting the occasion.  Anne had not said that she was
+either sorry or glad, but John Loveday fancied that she had looked rather
+relieved than otherwise when she heard his news.  His conversation with
+Bob on the down made Bob's manner, too, remarkably cool, notwithstanding
+that he had after all followed his brother's advice, which it was as yet
+too soon after the event for him to rightly value.  John did not know why
+the sailor had come back, never supposing that it was because he had
+thought better of going, and said to him privately, 'You didn't overtake
+her?'
+
+'I didn't try to,' said Bob.
+
+'And you are not going to?'
+
+'No; I shall let her drift.'
+
+'I am glad indeed, Bob; you have been wise,' said John heartily.
+
+Bob, however, still loved Matilda too well to be other than dissatisfied
+with John and the event that he had precipitated, which the elder brother
+only too promptly perceived; and it made his stay that evening of short
+duration.  Before leaving he said with some hesitation to his father,
+including Anne and her mother by his glance, 'Do you think to come up and
+see us off?'
+
+The miller answered for them all, and said that of course they would
+come.  'But you'll step down again between now and then?' he inquired.
+
+'I'll try to.'  He added after a pause, 'In case I should not, remember
+that Revalley will sound at half past five; we shall leave about eight.
+Next summer, perhaps, we shall come and camp here again.'
+
+'I hope so,' said his father and Mrs. Loveday.
+
+There was something in John's manner which indicated to Anne that he
+scarcely intended to come down again; but the others did not notice it,
+and she said nothing.  He departed a few minutes later, in the dusk of
+the August evening, leaving Anne still in doubt as to the meaning of his
+private meeting with Miss Johnson.
+
+John Loveday had been going to tell them that on the last night, by an
+especial privilege, it would be in his power to come and stay with them
+until eleven o'clock, but at the moment of leaving he abandoned the
+intention.  Anne's attitude had chilled him, and made him anxious to be
+off.  He utilized the spare hours of that last night in another way.
+
+This was by coming down from the outskirts of the camp in the evening,
+and seating himself near the brink of the mill-pond as soon as it was
+quite dark; where he watched the lights in the different windows till one
+appeared in Anne's bedroom, and she herself came forward to shut the
+casement, with the candle in her hand.  The light shone out upon the
+broad and deep mill-head, illuminating to a distinct individuality every
+moth and gnat that entered the quivering chain of radiance stretching
+across the water towards him, and every bubble or atom of froth that
+floated into its width.  She stood for some time looking out, little
+thinking what the darkness concealed on the other side of that wide
+stream; till at length she closed the casement, drew the curtains, and
+retreated into the room.  Presently the light went out, upon which John
+Loveday returned to camp and lay down in his tent.
+
+The next morning was dull and windy, and the trumpets of the --th sounded
+Reveille for the last time on Overcombe Down.  Knowing that the Dragoons
+were going away, Anne had slept heedfully, and was at once awakened by
+the smart notes.  She looked out of the window, to find that the miller
+was already astir, his white form being visible at the end of his garden,
+where he stood motionless, watching the preparations.  Anne also looked
+on as well as she could through the dim grey gloom, and soon she saw the
+blue smoke from the cooks' fires creeping fitfully along the ground,
+instead of rising in vertical columns, as it had done during the fine
+weather season.  Then the men began to carry their bedding to the
+waggons, and others to throw all refuse into the trenches, till the down
+was lively as an ant-hill.  Anne did not want to see John Loveday again,
+but hearing the household astir, she began to dress at leisure, looking
+out at the camp the while.
+
+When the soldiers had breakfasted, she saw them selling and giving away
+their superfluous crockery to the natives who had clustered round; and
+then they pulled down and cleared away the temporary kitchens which they
+had constructed when they came.  A tapping of tent-pegs and wriggling of
+picket-posts followed, and soon the cones of white canvas, now almost
+become a component part of the landscape, fell to the ground.  At this
+moment the miller came indoors and asked at the foot of the stairs if
+anybody was going up the hill with him.
+
+Anne felt that, in spite of the cloud hanging over John in her mind, it
+would ill become the present moment not to see him off, and she went
+downstairs to her mother, who was already there, though Bob was nowhere
+to be seen.  Each took an arm of the miller, and thus climbed to the top
+of the hill.  By this time the men and horses were at the place of
+assembly, and, shortly after the mill-party reached level ground, the
+troops slowly began to move forward.  When the trumpet-major, half buried
+in his uniform, arms, and horse-furniture, drew near to the spot where
+the Lovedays were waiting to see him pass, his father turned anxiously to
+Anne and said, 'You will shake hands with John?'
+
+Anne faintly replied 'Yes,' and allowed the miller to take her forward on
+his arm to the trackway, so as to be close to the flank of the
+approaching column.  It came up, many people on each side grasping the
+hands of the troopers in bidding them farewell; and as soon as John
+Loveday saw the members of his father's household, he stretched down his
+hand across his right pistol for the same performance.  The miller gave
+his, then Mrs. Loveday gave hers, and then the hand of the trumpet-major
+was extended towards Anne.  But as the horse did not absolutely stop, it
+was a somewhat awkward performance for a young woman to undertake, and,
+more on that account than on any other, Anne drew back, and the gallant
+trooper passed by without receiving her adieu.  Anne's heart reproached
+her for a moment; and then she thought that, after all, he was not going
+off to immediate battle, and that she would in all probability see him
+again at no distant date, when she hoped that the mystery of his conduct
+would be explained.  Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice at her
+elbow: 'Thank heaven, he's gone!  Now there's a chance for me.'
+
+She turned, and Festus Derriman was standing by her.
+
+'There's no chance for you,' she said indignantly.
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'Because there's another left!'
+
+The words had slipped out quite unintentionally, and she blushed quickly.
+She would have given anything to be able to recall them; but he had
+heard, and said, 'Who?'
+
+Anne went forward to the miller to avoid replying, and Festus caught her
+no more.
+
+'Has anybody been hanging about Overcombe Mill except Loveday's son the
+soldier?' he asked of a comrade.
+
+'His son the sailor,' was the reply.
+
+'O--his son the sailor,' said Festus slowly.  'Damn his son the sailor!'
+
+
+
+
+XXII.  THE TWO HOUSEHOLDS UNITED
+
+
+At this particular moment the object of Festus Derriman's fulmination was
+assuredly not dangerous as a rival.  Bob, after abstractedly watching the
+soldiers from the front of the house till they were out of sight, had
+gone within doors and seated himself in the mill-parlour, where his
+father found him, his elbows resting on the table and his forehead on his
+hands, his eyes being fixed upon a document that lay open before him.
+
+'What art perusing, Bob, with such a long face?'
+
+Bob sighed, and then Mrs. Loveday and Anne entered.  ''Tis only a state-
+paper that I fondly thought I should have a use for,' he said gloomily.
+And, looking down as before, he cleared his voice, as if moved inwardly
+to go on, and began to read in feeling tones from what proved to be his
+nullified marriage licence:--
+
+'"Timothy Titus Philemon, by permission Bishop of Bristol: To our well-
+beloved Robert Loveday, of the parish of Overcombe, Bachelor; and Matilda
+Johnson, of the same parish, Spinster.  Greeting."'
+
+Here Anne sighed, but contrived to keep down her sigh to a mere nothing.
+
+'Beautiful language, isn't it!' said Bob.  'I was never greeted like that
+afore!'
+
+'Yes; I have often thought it very excellent language myself,' said Mrs.
+Loveday.
+
+'Come to that, the old gentleman will greet thee like it again any day
+for a couple of guineas,' said the miller.
+
+'That's not the point, father!  You never could see the real meaning of
+these things. . . .  Well, then he goes on: "Whereas ye are, as it is
+alleged, determined to enter into the holy estate of matrimony--"  But
+why should I read on?  It all means nothing now--nothing, and the
+splendid words are all wasted upon air.  It seems as if I had been hailed
+by some venerable hoary prophet, and had turned away, put the helm hard
+up, and wouldn't hear.'
+
+Nobody replied, feeling probably that sympathy could not meet the case,
+and Bob went on reading the rest of it to himself, occasionally heaving a
+breath like the wind in a ship's shrouds.
+
+'I wouldn't set my mind so much upon her, if I was thee,' said his father
+at last.
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'Well, folk might call thee a fool, and say thy brains were turning to
+water.'
+
+Bob was apparently much struck by this thought, and, instead of
+continuing the discourse further, he carefully folded up the licence,
+went out, and walked up and down the garden.  It was startlingly apt what
+his father had said; and, worse than that, what people would call him
+might be true, and the liquefaction of his brains turn out to be no
+fable.  By degrees he became much concerned, and the more he examined
+himself by this new light the more clearly did he perceive that he was in
+a very bad way.
+
+On reflection he remembered that since Miss Johnson's departure his
+appetite had decreased amazingly.  He had eaten in meat no more than
+fourteen or fifteen ounces a day, but one-third of a quartern pudding on
+an average, in vegetables only a small heap of potatoes and half a York
+cabbage, and no gravy whatever; which, considering the usual appetite of
+a seaman for fresh food at the end of a long voyage, was no small index
+of the depression of his mind.  Then he had waked once every night, and
+on one occasion twice.  While dressing each morning since the gloomy day
+he had not whistled more than seven bars of a hornpipe without stopping
+and falling into thought of a most painful kind; and he had told none but
+absolutely true stories of foreign parts to the neighbouring villagers
+when they saluted and clustered about him, as usual, for anything he
+chose to pour forth--except that story of the whale whose eye was about
+as large as the round pond in Derriman's ewe-lease--which was like
+tempting fate to set a seal for ever upon his tongue as a traveller.  All
+this enervation, mental and physical, had been produced by Matilda's
+departure.
+
+He also considered what he had lost of the rational amusements of manhood
+during these unfortunate days.  He might have gone to the neighbouring
+fashionable resort every afternoon, stood before Gloucester Lodge till
+the King and Queen came out, held his hat in his hand, and enjoyed their
+Majesties' smiles at his homage all for nothing--watched the
+picket-mounting, heard the different bands strike up, observed the staff;
+and, above all, have seen the pretty town girls go trip-trip-trip along
+the esplanade, deliberately fixing their innocent eyes on the distant
+sea, the grey cliffs, and the sky, and accidentally on the soldiers and
+himself.
+
+'I'll raze out her image,' he said.  'She shall make a fool of me no
+more.'  And his resolve resulted in conduct which had elements of real
+greatness.
+
+He went back to his father, whom he found in the mill-loft.  ''Tis true,
+father, what you say,' he observed: 'my brains will turn to bilge-water
+if I think of her much longer.  By the oath of a--navigator, I wish I
+could sigh less and laugh more! She's gone--why can't I let her go, and
+be happy?  But how begin?'
+
+'Take it careless, my son,' said the miller, 'and lay yourself out to
+enjoy snacks and cordials.'
+
+'Ah--that's a thought!' said Bob.
+
+'Baccy is good for't.  So is sperrits.  Though I don't advise thee to
+drink neat.'
+
+'Baccy--I'd almost forgot it!' said Captain Loveday.
+
+He went to his room, hastily untied the package of tobacco that he had
+brought home, and began to make use of it in his own way, calling to
+David for a bottle of the old household mead that had lain in the cellar
+these eleven years.  He was discovered by his father three-quarters of an
+hour later as a half-invisible object behind a cloud of smoke.
+
+The miller drew a breath of relief.  'Why, Bob,' he said, 'I thought the
+house was a-fire!'
+
+'I'm smoking rather fast to drown my reflections, father.  'Tis no use to
+chaw.'
+
+To tempt his attenuated appetite the unhappy mate made David cook an
+omelet and bake a seed-cake, the latter so richly compounded that it
+opened to the knife like a freckled buttercup.  With the same object he
+stuck night-lines into the banks of the mill-pond, and drew up next
+morning a family of fat eels, some of which were skinned and prepared for
+his breakfast.  They were his favourite fish, but such had been his
+condition that, until the moment of making this effort, he had quite
+forgotten their existence at his father's back-door.
+
+In a few days Bob Loveday had considerably improved in tone and vigour.
+One other obvious remedy for his dejection was to indulge in the society
+of Miss Garland, love being so much more effectually got rid of by
+displacement than by attempted annihilation.  But Loveday's belief that
+he had offended her beyond forgiveness, and his ever-present sense of her
+as a woman who by education and antecedents was fitted to adorn a higher
+sphere than his own, effectually kept him from going near her for a long
+time, notwithstanding that they were inmates of one house.  The reserve
+was, however, in some degree broken by the appearance one morning, later
+in the season, of the point of a saw through the partition which divided
+Anne's room from the Loveday half of the house.  Though she dined and
+supped with her mother and the Loveday family, Miss Garland had still
+continued to occupy her old apartments, because she found it more
+convenient there to pursue her hobbies of wool-work and of copying her
+father's old pictures.  The division wall had not as yet been broken
+down.
+
+As the saw worked its way downwards under her astonished gaze Anne jumped
+up from her drawing; and presently the temporary canvasing and papering
+which had sealed up the old door of communication was cut completely
+through.  The door burst open, and Bob stood revealed on the other side,
+with the saw in his hand.
+
+'I beg your ladyship's pardon,' he said, taking off the hat he had been
+working in, as his handsome face expanded into a smile.  'I didn't know
+this door opened into your private room.'
+
+'Indeed, Captain Loveday!'
+
+'I am pulling down the division on principle, as we are now one family.
+But I really thought the door opened into your passage.'
+
+'It don't matter; I can get another room.'
+
+'Not at all.  Father wouldn't let me turn you out.  I'll close it up
+again.'
+
+But Anne was so interested in the novelty of a new doorway that she
+walked through it, and found herself in a dark low passage which she had
+never seen before.
+
+'It leads to the mill,' said Bob.  'Would you like to go in and see it at
+work?  But perhaps you have already.'
+
+'Only into the ground floor.'
+
+'Come all over it.  I am practising as grinder, you know, to help my
+father.'
+
+She followed him along the dark passage, in the side of which he opened a
+little trap, when she saw a great slimy cavern, where the long arms of
+the mill-wheel flung themselves slowly and distractedly round, and
+splashing water-drops caught the little light that strayed into the
+gloomy place, turning it into stars and flashes.  A cold mist-laden puff
+of air came into their faces, and the roar from within made it necessary
+for Anne to shout as she said, 'It is dismal! let us go on.'
+
+Bob shut the trap, the roar ceased, and they went on to the inner part of
+the mill, where the air was warm and nutty, and pervaded by a fog of
+flour.  Then they ascended the stairs, and saw the stones lumbering round
+and round, and the yellow corn running down through the hopper.  They
+climbed yet further to the top stage, where the wheat lay in bins, and
+where long rays like feelers stretched in from the sun through the little
+window, got nearly lost among cobwebs and timber, and completed their
+course by marking the opposite wall with a glowing patch of gold.
+
+In his earnestness as an exhibitor Bob opened the bolter, which was
+spinning rapidly round, the result being that a dense cloud of flour
+rolled out in their faces, reminding Anne that her complexion was
+probably much paler by this time than when she had entered the mill.  She
+thanked her companion for his trouble, and said she would now go down.  He
+followed her with the same deference as hitherto, and with a sudden and
+increasing sense that of all cures for his former unhappy passion this
+would have been the nicest, the easiest, and the most effectual, if he
+had only been fortunate enough to keep her upon easy terms.  But Miss
+Garland showed no disposition to go further than accept his services as a
+guide; she descended to the open air, shook the flour from her like a
+bird, and went on into the garden amid the September sunshine, whose rays
+lay level across the blue haze which the earth gave forth.  The gnats
+were dancing up and down in airy companies, the nasturtium flowers shone
+out in groups from the dark hedge over which they climbed, and the mellow
+smell of the decline of summer was exhaled by everything.  Bob followed
+her as far as the gate, looked after her, thought of her as the same girl
+who had half encouraged him years ago, when she seemed so superior to
+him; though now they were almost equal she apparently thought him beneath
+her.  It was with a new sense of pleasure that his mind flew to the fact
+that she was now an inmate of his father's house.
+
+His obsequious bearing was continued during the next week.  In the busy
+hours of the day they seldom met, but they regularly encountered each
+other at meals, and these cheerful occasions began to have an interest
+for him quite irrespective of dishes and cups.  When Anne entered and
+took her seat she was always loudly hailed by Miller Loveday as he
+whetted his knife; but from Bob she condescended to accept no such
+familiar greeting, and they often sat down together as if each had a
+blind eye in the direction of the other.  Bob sometimes told serious and
+correct stories about sea-captains, pilots, boatswains, mates, able
+seamen, and other curious fauna of the marine world; but these were
+directly addressed to his father and Mrs. Loveday, Anne being included at
+the clinching-point by a glance only.  He sometimes opened bottles of
+sweet cider for her, and then she thanked him; but even this did not lead
+to her encouraging his chat.
+
+One day when Anne was paring an apple she was left at table with the
+young man.  'I have made something for you,' he said.
+
+She looked all over the table; nothing was there save the ordinary
+remnants.
+
+'O I don't mean that it is here; it is out by the bridge at the
+mill-head.'
+
+He arose, and Anne followed with curiosity in her eyes, and with her firm
+little mouth pouted up to a puzzled shape.  On reaching the mossy mill-
+head she found that he had fixed in the keen damp draught which always
+prevailed over the wheel an AEolian harp of large size.  At present the
+strings were partly covered with a cloth.  He lifted it, and the wires
+began to emit a weird harmony which mingled curiously with the plashing
+of the wheel.
+
+'I made it on purpose for you, Miss Garland,' he said.
+
+She thanked him very warmly, for she had never seen anything like such an
+instrument before, and it interested her.  'It was very thoughtful of you
+to make it,' she added.  'How came you to think of such a thing?'
+
+'O I don't know exactly,' he replied, as if he did not care to be
+questioned on the point.  'I have never made one in my life till now.'
+
+Every night after this, during the mournful gales of autumn, the strange
+mixed music of water, wind, and strings met her ear, swelling and sinking
+with an almost supernatural cadence.  The character of the instrument was
+far enough removed from anything she had hitherto seen of Bob's hobbies;
+so that she marvelled pleasantly at the new depths of poetry this
+contrivance revealed as existent in that young seaman's nature, and
+allowed her emotions to flow out yet a little further in the old
+direction, notwithstanding her late severe resolve to bar them back.
+
+One breezy night, when the mill was kept going into the small hours, and
+the wind was exactly in the direction of the water-current, the music so
+mingled with her dreams as to wake her: it seemed to rhythmically set
+itself to the words, 'Remember me! think of me!'  She was much impressed;
+the sounds were almost too touching; and she spoke to Bob the next
+morning on the subject.
+
+'How strange it is that you should have thought of fixing that harp where
+the water gushes!' she gently observed.  'It affects me almost painfully
+at night.  You are poetical, Captain Bob.  But it is too--too sad!'
+
+'I will take it away,' said Captain Bob promptly.  'It certainly is too
+sad; I thought so myself.  I myself was kept awake by it one night.'
+
+'How came you to think of making such a peculiar thing?'
+
+'Well,' said Bob, 'it is hardly worth saying why.  It is not a good place
+for such a queer noisy machine; and I'll take it away.'
+
+'On second thoughts,' said Anne, 'I should like it to remain a little
+longer, because it sets me thinking.'
+
+'Of me?' he asked with earnest frankness.
+
+Anne's colour rose fast.
+
+'Well, yes,' she said, trying to infuse much plain matter-of-fact into
+her voice.  'Of course I am led to think of the person who invented it.'
+
+Bob seemed unaccountably embarrassed, and the subject was not pursued.
+About half-an-hour later he came to her again, with something of an
+uneasy look.
+
+'There was a little matter I didn't tell you just now, Miss Garland,' he
+said.  'About that harp thing, I mean.  I did make it, certainly, but it
+was my brother John who asked me to do it, just before he went away.  John
+is very musical, as you know, and he said it would interest you; but as
+he didn't ask me to tell, I did not.  Perhaps I ought to have, and not
+have taken the credit to myself.'
+
+'O, it is nothing!' said Anne quickly.  'It is a very incomplete
+instrument after all, and it will be just as well for you to take it away
+as you first proposed.'
+
+He said that he would, but he forgot to do it that day; and the following
+night there was a high wind, and the harp cried and moaned so movingly
+that Anne, whose window was quite near, could hardly bear the sound with
+its new associations.  John Loveday was present to her mind all night as
+an ill-used man; and yet she could not own that she had ill-used him.
+
+The harp was removed next day.  Bob, feeling that his credit for
+originality was damaged in her eyes, by way of recovering it set himself
+to paint the summer-house which Anne frequented, and when he came out he
+assured her that it was quite his own idea.
+
+'It wanted doing, certainly,' she said, in a neutral tone.
+
+'It is just about troublesome.'
+
+'Yes; you can't quite reach up.  That's because you are not very tall; is
+it not, Captain Loveday?'
+
+'You never used to say things like that.'
+
+'O, I don't mean that you are much less than tall!  Shall I hold the
+paint for you, to save your stepping down?'
+
+'Thank you, if you would.'
+
+She took the paint-pot, and stood looking at the brush as it moved up and
+down in his hand.
+
+'I hope I shall not sprinkle your fingers,' he observed as he dipped.
+
+'O, that would not matter!  You do it very well.'
+
+'I am glad to hear that you think so.'
+
+'But perhaps not quite so much art is demanded to paint a summer-house as
+to paint a picture?'
+
+Thinking that, as a painter's daughter, and a person of education
+superior to his own, she spoke with a flavour of sarcasm, he felt humbled
+and said--
+
+'You did not use to talk like that to me.'
+
+'I was perhaps too young then to take any pleasure in giving pain,' she
+observed daringly.
+
+'Does it give you pleasure?'
+
+Anne nodded.
+
+'I like to give pain to people who have given pain to me,' she said
+smartly, without removing her eyes from the green liquid in her hand.
+
+'I ask your pardon for that.'
+
+'I didn't say I meant you--though I did mean you.'
+
+Bob looked and looked at her side face till he was bewitched into putting
+down his brush.
+
+'It was that stupid forgetting of 'ee for a time!' he exclaimed.  'Well,
+I hadn't seen you for so very long--consider how many years!  O, dear
+Anne!' he said, advancing to take her hand, 'how well we knew one another
+when we were children!  You was a queen to me then; and so you are now,
+and always.'
+
+Possibly Anne was thrilled pleasantly enough at having brought the truant
+village lad to her feet again; but he was not to find the situation so
+easy as he imagined, and her hand was not to be taken yet.
+
+'Very pretty!' she said, laughing.  'And only six weeks since Miss
+Johnson left.'
+
+'Zounds, don't say anything about that!' implored Bob.  'I swear that I
+never--never deliberately loved her--for a long time together, that is;
+it was a sudden sort of thing, you know.  But towards you--I have more or
+less honoured and respectfully loved you, off and on, all my life.  There,
+that's true.'
+
+Anne retorted quickly--
+
+'I am willing, off and on, to believe you, Captain Robert.  But I don't
+see any good in your making these solemn declarations.'
+
+'Give me leave to explain, dear Miss Garland.  It is to get you to be
+pleased to renew an old promise--made years ago--that you'll think o'
+me.'
+
+'Not a word of any promise will I repeat.'
+
+'Well, well, I won't urge 'ee to-day.  Only let me beg of you to get over
+the quite wrong notion you have of me; and it shall be my whole endeavour
+to fetch your gracious favour.'
+
+Anne turned away from him and entered the house, whither in the course of
+a quarter of an hour he followed her, knocking at her door, and asking to
+be let in.  She said she was busy; whereupon he went away, to come back
+again in a short time and receive the same answer.
+
+'I have finished painting the summer-house for you,' he said through the
+door.
+
+'I cannot come to see it.  I shall be engaged till supper-time.'
+
+She heard him breathe a heavy sigh and withdraw, murmuring something
+about his bad luck in being cut away from the starn like this.  But it
+was not over yet.  When supper-time came and they sat down together, she
+took upon herself to reprove him for what he had said to her in the
+garden.
+
+Bob made his forehead express despair.
+
+'Now, I beg you this one thing,' he said.  'Just let me know your whole
+mind.  Then I shall have a chance to confess my faults and mend them, or
+clear my conduct to your satisfaction.'
+
+She answered with quickness, but not loud enough to be heard by the old
+people at the other end of the table--'Then, Captain Loveday, I will tell
+you one thing, one fault, that perhaps would have been more proper to my
+character than to yours.  You are too easily impressed by new faces, and
+that gives me a _bad opinion_ of you--yes, a _bad opinion_.'
+
+'O, that's it!' said Bob slowly, looking at her with the intense respect
+of a pupil for a master, her words being spoken in a manner so precisely
+between jest and earnest that he was in some doubt how they were to be
+received.  'Impressed by new faces.  It is wrong, certainly, of me.'
+
+The popping of a cork, and the pouring out of strong beer by the miller
+with a view to giving it a head, were apparently distractions sufficient
+to excuse her in not attending further to him; and during the remainder
+of the sitting her gentle chiding seemed to be sinking seriously into his
+mind.  Perhaps her own heart ached to see how silent he was; but she had
+always meant to punish him.  Day after day for two or three weeks she
+preserved the same demeanour, with a self-control which did justice to
+her character.  And, on his part, considering what he had to put up
+with--how she eluded him, snapped him off, refused to come out when he
+called her, refused to see him when he wanted to enter the little parlour
+which she had now appropriated to her private use, his patience testified
+strongly to his good-humour.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.  MILITARY PREPARATIONS ON AN EXTENDED SCALE
+
+
+Christmas had passed.  Dreary winter with dark evenings had given place
+to more dreary winter with light evenings.  Rapid thaws had ended in
+rain, rain in wind, wind in dust.  Showery days had come--the season of
+pink dawns and white sunsets; and people hoped that the March weather was
+over.
+
+The chief incident that concerned the household at the mill was that the
+miller, following the example of all his neighbours, had become a
+volunteer, and duly appeared twice a week in a red, long-tailed military
+coat, pipe-clayed breeches, black cloth gaiters, a heel-balled helmet-
+hat, with a tuft of green wool, and epaulettes of the same colour and
+material.  Bob still remained neutral.  Not being able to decide whether
+to enrol himself as a sea-fencible, a local militia-man, or a volunteer,
+he simply went on dancing attendance upon Anne.  Mrs. Loveday had become
+awake to the fact that the pair of young people stood in a curious
+attitude towards each other; but as they were never seen with their heads
+together, and scarcely ever sat even in the same room, she could not be
+sure what their movements meant.
+
+Strangely enough (or perhaps naturally enough), since entering the
+Loveday family herself, she had gradually grown to think less favourably
+of Anne doing the same thing, and reverted to her original idea of
+encouraging Festus; this more particularly because he had of late shown
+such perseverance in haunting the precincts of the mill, presumably with
+the intention of lighting upon the young girl.  But the weather had kept
+her mostly indoors.
+
+One afternoon it was raining in torrents.  Such leaves as there were on
+trees at this time of year--those of the laurel and other
+evergreens--staggered beneath the hard blows of the drops which fell upon
+them, and afterwards could be seen trickling down the stems beneath and
+silently entering the ground.  The surface of the mill-pond leapt up in a
+thousand spirts under the same downfall, and clucked like a hen in the
+rat-holes along the banks as it undulated under the wind.  The only dry
+spot visible from the front windows of the mill-house was the inside of a
+small shed, on the opposite side of the courtyard.  While Mrs. Loveday
+was noticing the threads of rain descending across its interior shade,
+Festus Derriman walked up and entered it for shelter, which, owing to the
+lumber within, it but scantily afforded to a man who would have been a
+match for one of Frederick William's Patagonians.
+
+It was an excellent opportunity for helping on her scheme.  Anne was in
+the back room, and by asking him in till the rain was over she would
+bring him face to face with her daughter, whom, as the days went on, she
+increasingly wished to marry other than a Loveday, now that the romance
+of her own alliance with the millet had in some respects worn off.  She
+was better provided for than before; she was not unhappy; but the plain
+fact was that she had married beneath her.  She beckoned to Festus
+through the window-pane; he instantly complied with her signal, having in
+fact placed himself there on purpose to be noticed; for he knew that Miss
+Garland would not be out-of-doors on such a day.
+
+'Good afternoon, Mrs. Loveday,' said Festus on entering.  'There now--if
+I didn't think that's how it would be!'  His voice had suddenly warmed to
+anger, for he had seen a door close in the back part of the room, a lithe
+figure having previously slipped through.
+
+Mrs. Loveday turned, observed that Anne was gone, and said, 'What is it?'
+as if she did not know.
+
+'O, nothing, nothing!' said Festus crossly.  'You know well enough what
+it is, ma'am; only you make pretence otherwise.  But I'll bring her to
+book yet.  You shall drop your haughty airs, my charmer!  She little
+thinks I have kept an account of 'em all.'
+
+'But you must treat her politely, sir,' said Mrs. Loveday, secretly
+pleased at these signs of uncontrollable affection.
+
+'Don't tell me of politeness or generosity, ma'am!  She is more than a
+match for me.  She regularly gets over me.  I have passed by this house
+five-and-fifty times since last Martinmas, and this is all my reward
+for't!'
+
+'But you will stay till the rain is over, sir?'
+
+'No.  I don't mind rain.  I'm off again.  She's got somebody else in her
+eye!'  And the yeoman went out, slamming the door.
+
+Meanwhile the slippery object of his hopes had gone along the dark
+passage, passed the trap which opened on the wheel, and through the door
+into the mill, where she was met by Bob, who looked up from the flour-
+shoot inquiringly and said, 'You want me, Miss Garland?'
+
+'O no,' said she.  'I only want to be allowed to stand here a few
+minutes.'
+
+He looked at her to know if she meant it, and finding that she did,
+returned to his post.  When the mill had rumbled on a little longer he
+came back.
+
+'Bob,' she said, when she saw him move, 'remember that you are at work,
+and have no time to stand close to me.'
+
+He bowed and went to his original post again, Anne watching from the
+window till Festus should leave.  The mill rumbled on as before, and at
+last Bob came to her for the third time.  'Now, Bob--' she began.
+
+'On my honour, 'tis only to ask a question.  Will you walk with me to
+church next Sunday afternoon?'
+
+'Perhaps I will,' she said.  But at this moment the yeoman left the
+house, and Anne, to escape further parley, returned to the dwelling by
+the way she had come.
+
+Sunday afternoon arrived, and the family was standing at the door waiting
+for the church bells to begin.  From that side of the house they could
+see southward across a paddock to the rising ground further ahead, where
+there grew a large elm-tree, beneath whose boughs footpaths crossed in
+different directions, like meridians at the pole.  The tree was old, and
+in summer the grass beneath it was quite trodden away by the feet of the
+many trysters and idlers who haunted the spot.  The tree formed a
+conspicuous object in the surrounding landscape.
+
+While they looked, a foot soldier in red uniform and white breeches came
+along one of the paths, and stopping beneath the elm, took from his
+pocket a paper, which he proceeded to nail up by the four corners to the
+trunk.  He drew back, looked at it, and went on his way.  Bob got his
+glass from indoors and levelled it at the placard, but after looking for
+a long time he could make out nothing but a lion and a unicorn at the
+top.  Anne, who was ready for church, moved away from the door, though it
+was yet early, and showed her intention of going by way of the elm.  The
+paper had been so impressively nailed up that she was curious to read it
+even at this theological time.  Bob took the opportunity of following,
+and reminded her of her promise.
+
+'Then walk behind me not at all close,' she said.
+
+'Yes,' he replied, immediately dropping behind.
+
+The ludicrous humility of his manner led her to add playfully over her
+shoulder, 'It serves you right, you know.'
+
+'I deserve anything, but I must take the liberty to say that I hope my
+behaviour about Matil--, in forgetting you awhile, will not make ye wish
+to keep me _always_ behind?'
+
+She replied confidentially, 'Why I am so earnest not to be seen with you
+is that I may appear to people to be independent of you.  Knowing what I
+do of your weaknesses I can do no otherwise.  You must be schooled into--'
+
+'O, Anne,' sighed Bob, 'you hit me hard--too hard!  If ever I do win you
+I am sure I shall have fairly earned you.'
+
+'You are not what you once seemed to be,' she returned softly.  'I don't
+quite like to let myself love you.'  The last words were not very
+audible, and as Bob was behind he caught nothing of them, nor did he see
+how sentimental she had become all of a sudden.  They walked the rest of
+the way in silence, and coming to the tree read as follows:--
+
+   ADDRESS TO ALL RANKS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF ENGLISHMEN.
+
+   FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN,--The French are now assembling the largest
+   force that ever was prepared to invade this Kingdom, with the
+   professed purpose of effecting our complete Ruin and Destruction.  They
+   do not disguise their intentions, as they have often done to other
+   Countries; but openly boast that they will come over in such Numbers
+   as cannot be resisted.
+
+   Wherever the French have lately appeared they have spared neither Rich
+   nor Poor, Old nor Young; but like a Destructive Pestilence have laid
+   waste and destroyed every Thing that before was fair and flourishing.
+
+   On this occasion no man's service is compelled, but you are invited
+   voluntarily to come forward in defence of everything that is dear to
+   you, by entering your Names on the Lists which are sent to the Tything-
+   man of every Parish, and engaging to act either as _Associated
+   Volunteers bearing Arms_, _as Pioneers and Labourers_, or as _Drivers
+   of Waggons_.
+
+   As Associated Volunteers you will be called out only once a week,
+   unless the actual Landing of the Enemy should render your further
+   Services necessary.
+
+   As Pioneers or Labourers you will be employed in Breaking up Roads to
+   hinder the Enemy's advance.
+
+   Those who have Pickaxes, Spades, Shovels, Bill-hooks, or other Working
+   Implements, are desired to mention them to the Constable or Tything-
+   man of their Parish, in order that they may be entered on the Lists
+   opposite their Homes, to be used if necessary. . . .
+
+   It is thought desirable to give you this Explanation, that you may not
+   be ignorant of the Duties to which you may be called.  But if the love
+   of true Liberty and honest Fame has not ceased to animate the Hearts
+   of Englishmen, Pay, though necessary, will be the least Part of your
+   Reward.  You will find your best Recompense in having done your Duty
+   to your King and Country by driving back or destroying your old and
+   implacable Enemy, envious of your Freedom and Happiness, and therefore
+   seeking to destroy them; in having protected your Wives and Children
+   from Death, or worse than Death, which will follow the Success of such
+   Inveterate Foes.
+
+   ROUSE, therefore, and unite as one man in the best of Causes!  United
+   we may defy the World to conquer us; but Victory will never belong to
+   those who are slothful and unprepared. {207}
+
+'I must go and join at once!' said Bob.
+
+Anne turned to him, all the playfulness gone from her face.  'I wish we
+lived in the north of England, Bob, so as to be further away from where
+he'll land!' she murmured uneasily.
+
+'Where we are would be Paradise to me, if you would only make it so.'
+
+'It is not right to talk so lightly at such a serious time,' she
+thoughtfully returned, going on towards the church.
+
+On drawing near, they saw through the boughs of a clump of intervening
+trees, still leafless, but bursting into buds of amber hue, a glittering
+which seemed to be reflected from points of steel.  In a few moments they
+heard above the tender chiming of the church bells the loud voice of a
+man giving words of command, at which all the metallic points suddenly
+shifted like the bristles of a porcupine, and glistened anew.
+
+''Tis the drilling,' said Loveday.  'They drill now between the services,
+you know, because they can't get the men together so readily in the week.
+It makes me feel that I ought to be doing more than I am!'
+
+When they had passed round the belt of trees, the company of recruits
+became visible, consisting of the able-bodied inhabitants of the hamlets
+thereabout, more or less known to Bob and Anne.  They were assembled on
+the green plot outside the churchyard-gate, dressed in their common
+clothes, and the sergeant who had been putting them through their drill
+was the man who nailed up the proclamation.  He was now engaged in
+untying a canvas money-bag, from which he drew forth a handful of
+shillings, giving one to each man in payment for his attendance.
+
+'Men, I dismissed ye too soon--parade, parade again, I say,' he cried.
+'My watch is fast, I find.  There's another twenty minutes afore the
+worship of God commences.  Now all of you that ha'n't got firelocks, fall
+in at the lower end.  Eyes right and dress!'
+
+As every man was anxious to see how the rest stood, those at the end of
+the line pressed forward for that purpose, till the line assumed the form
+of a bow.
+
+'Look at ye now!  Why, you are all a crooking in!  Dress, dress!'
+
+They dressed forthwith; but impelled by the same motive they soon resumed
+their former figure, and so they were despairingly permitted to remain.
+
+'Now, I hope you'll have a little patience,' said the sergeant, as he
+stood in the centre of the arc, 'and pay strict attention to the word of
+command, just exactly as I give it out to ye; and if I should go wrong, I
+shall be much obliged to any friend who'll put me right again, for I have
+only been in the army three weeks myself, and we are all liable to
+mistakes.'
+
+'So we be, so we be,' said the line heartily.
+
+''Tention, the whole, then.  Poise fawlocks!  Very well done!'
+
+'Please, what must we do that haven't got no firelocks!' said the lower
+end of the line in a helpless voice.
+
+'Now, was ever such a question!  Why, you must do nothing at all, but
+think _how_ you'd poise 'em _if_ you had 'em.  You middle men, that are
+armed with hurdle-sticks and cabbage-stumps just to make-believe, must of
+course use 'em as if they were the real thing.  Now then, cock fawlocks!
+Present!  Fire! (Pretend to, I mean, and the same time throw yer
+imagination into the field o' battle.)  Very good--very good indeed;
+except that some of you were a _little_ too soon, and the rest a _little_
+too late.'
+
+'Please, sergeant, can I fall out, as I am master-player in the choir,
+and my bass-viol strings won't stand at this time o' year, unless they be
+screwed up a little before the passon comes in?'
+
+'How can you think of such trifles as churchgoing at such a time as this,
+when your own native country is on the point of invasion?' said the
+sergeant sternly.  'And, as you know, the drill ends three minutes afore
+church begins, and that's the law, and it wants a quarter of an hour yet.
+Now, at the word _Prime_, shake the powder (supposing you've got it) into
+the priming-pan, three last fingers behind the rammer; then shut your
+pans, drawing your right arm nimble-like towards your body.  I ought to
+have told ye before this, that at _Hand your katridge_, seize it and
+bring it with a quick motion to your mouth, bite the top well off, and
+don't swaller so much of the powder as to make ye hawk and spet instead
+of attending to your drill.  What's that man a-saying of in the rear
+rank?'
+
+'Please, sir, 'tis Anthony Cripplestraw, wanting to know how he's to bite
+off his katridge, when he haven't a tooth left in 's head?'
+
+'Man!  Why, what's your genius for war?  Hold it up to your right-hand
+man's mouth, to be sure, and let him nip it off for ye.  Well, what have
+you to say, Private Tremlett?  Don't ye understand English?'
+
+'Ask yer pardon, sergeant; but what must we infantry of the awkward squad
+do if Boney comes afore we get our firelocks?'
+
+'Take a pike, like the rest of the incapables.  You'll find a store of
+them ready in the corner of the church tower.  Now then--Shoulder--r--r--r--'
+
+'There, they be tinging in the passon!' exclaimed David, Miller Loveday's
+man, who also formed one of the company, as the bells changed from
+chiming all three together to a quick beating of one.  The whole line
+drew a breath of relief, threw down their arms, and began running off.
+
+'Well, then, I must dismiss ye,' said the sergeant.  'Come back--come
+back!  Next drill is Tuesday afternoon at four.  And, mind, if your
+masters won't let ye leave work soon enough, tell me, and I'll write a
+line to Gover'ment!  'Tention!  To the right--left wheel, I mean--no,
+no--right wheel.  Mar--r--r--rch!'
+
+Some wheeled to the right and some to the left, and some obliging men,
+including Cripplestraw, tried to wheel both ways.
+
+'Stop, stop; try again!  'Cruits and comrades, unfortunately when I'm in
+a hurry I can never remember my right hand from my left, and never could
+as a boy.  You must excuse me, please.  Practice makes perfect, as the
+saying is; and, much as I've learnt since I 'listed, we always find
+something new.  Now then, right wheel! march! halt!  Stand at ease!
+dismiss!  I think that's the order o't, but I'll look in the Gover'ment
+book afore Tuesday.' {211}
+
+Many of the company who had been drilled preferred to go off and spend
+their shillings instead of entering the church; but Anne and Captain Bob
+passed in.  Even the interior of the sacred edifice was affected by the
+agitation of the times.  The religion of the country had, in fact,
+changed from love of God to hatred of Napoleon Buonaparte; and, as if to
+remind the devout of this alteration, the pikes for the pikemen (all
+those accepted men who were not otherwise armed) were kept in the church
+of each parish.  There, against the wall, they always stood--a whole
+sheaf of them, formed of new ash stems, with a spike driven in at one
+end, the stick being preserved from splitting by a ferule.  And there
+they remained, year after year, in the corner of the aisle, till they
+were removed and placed under the gallery stairs, and thence ultimately
+to the belfry, where they grew black, rusty, and worm-eaten, and were
+gradually stolen and carried off by sextons, parish clerks, whitewashers,
+window-menders, and other church servants for use at home as rake-stems,
+benefit-club staves, and pick-handles, in which degraded situations they
+may still occasionally be found.
+
+But in their new and shining state they had a terror for Anne, whose eyes
+were involuntarily drawn towards them as she sat at Bob's side during the
+service, filling her with bloody visions of their possible use not far
+from the very spot on which they were now assembled.  The sermon, too,
+was on the subject of patriotism; so that when they came out she began to
+harp uneasily upon the probability of their all being driven from their
+homes.
+
+Bob assured her that with the sixty thousand regulars, the militia
+reserve of a hundred and twenty thousand, and the three hundred thousand
+volunteers, there was not much to fear.
+
+'But I sometimes have a fear that poor John will be killed,' he continued
+after a pause.  'He is sure to be among the first that will have to face
+the invaders, and the trumpeters get picked off.'
+
+'There is the same chance for him as for the others,' said Anne.
+
+'Yes--yes--the same chance, such as it is.  You have never liked John
+since that affair of Matilda Johnson, have you?'
+
+'Why?' she quickly asked.
+
+'Well,' said Bob timidly, 'as it is a ticklish time for him, would it not
+be worth while to make up any differences before the crash comes?'
+
+'I have nothing to make up,' said Anne, with some distress.  She still
+fully believed the trumpet-major to have smuggled away Miss Johnson
+because of his own interest in that lady, which must have made his
+professions to herself a mere pastime; but that very conduct had in it
+the curious advantage to herself of setting Bob free.
+
+'Since John has been gone,' continued her companion, 'I have found out
+more of his meaning, and of what he really had to do with that woman's
+flight.  Did you know that he had anything to do with it?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'That he got her to go away?'
+
+She looked at Bob with surprise.  He was not exasperated with John, and
+yet he knew so much as this.
+
+'Yes,' she said; 'what did it mean?'
+
+He did not explain to her then; but the possibility of John's death,
+which had been newly brought home to him by the military events of the
+day, determined him to get poor John's character cleared.  Reproaching
+himself for letting her remain so long with a mistaken idea of him, Bob
+went to his father as soon as they got home, and begged him to get Mrs.
+Loveday to tell Anne the true reason of John's objection to Miss Johnson
+as a sister-in-law.
+
+'She thinks it is because they were old lovers new met, and that he wants
+to marry her,' he exclaimed to his father in conclusion.
+
+'Then _that's_ the meaning of the split between Miss Nancy and Jack,'
+said the miller.
+
+'What, were they any more than common friends?' asked Bob uneasily.
+
+'Not on her side, perhaps.'
+
+'Well, we must do it,' replied Bob, painfully conscious that common
+justice to John might bring them into hazardous rivalry, yet determined
+to be fair.  'Tell it all to Mrs. Loveday, and get her to tell Anne.'
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.  A LETTER, A VISITOR, AND A TIN BOX
+
+
+The result of the explanation upon Anne was bitter self-reproach.  She
+was so sorry at having wronged the kindly soldier that next morning she
+went by herself to the down, and stood exactly where his tent had covered
+the sod on which he had lain so many nights, thinking what sadness he
+must have suffered because of her at the time of packing up and going
+away.  After that she wiped from her eyes the tears of pity which had
+come there, descended to the house, and wrote an impulsive letter to him,
+in which occurred the following passages, indiscreet enough under the
+circumstances:--
+
+   'I find all justice, all rectitude, on your side, John; and all
+   impertinence, all inconsiderateness, on mine.  I am so much convinced
+   of your honour in the whole transaction, that I shall for the future
+   mistrust myself in everything.  And if it be possible, whenever I
+   differ from you on any point I shall take an hour's time for
+   consideration before I say that I differ.  If I have lost your
+   friendship, I have only myself to thank for it; but I sincerely hope
+   that you can forgive.'
+
+After writing this she went to the garden, where Bob was shearing the
+spring grass from the paths.  'What is John's direction?' she said,
+holding the sealed letter in her hand.
+
+'Exonbury Barracks,' Bob faltered, his countenance sinking.
+
+She thanked him and went indoors.  When he came in, later in the day, he
+passed the door of her empty sitting-room and saw the letter on the
+mantelpiece.  He disliked the sight of it.  Hearing voices in the other
+room, he entered and found Anne and her mother there, talking to
+Cripplestraw, who had just come in with a message from Squire Derriman,
+requesting Miss Garland, as she valued the peace of mind of an old and
+troubled man, to go at once and see him.
+
+'I cannot go,' she said, not liking the risk that such a visit involved.
+
+An hour later Cripplestraw shambled again into the passage, on the same
+errand.
+
+'Maister's very poorly, and he hopes that you'll come, Mis'ess Anne.  He
+wants to see 'ee very particular about the French.'
+
+Anne would have gone in a moment, but for the fear that some one besides
+the farmer might encounter her, and she answered as before.
+
+Another hour passed, and the wheels of a vehicle were heard.  Cripplestraw
+had come for the third time, with a horse and gig; he was dressed in his
+best clothes, and brought with him on this occasion a basket containing
+raisins, almonds, oranges, and sweet cakes.  Offering them to her as a
+gift from the old farmer, he repeated his request for her to accompany
+him, the gig and best mare having been sent as an additional inducement.
+
+'I believe the old gentleman is in love with you, Anne,' said her mother.
+
+'Why couldn't he drive down himself to see me?' Anne inquired of
+Cripplestraw.
+
+'He wants you at the house, please.'
+
+'Is Mr. Festus with him?'
+
+'No; he's away to Budmouth.'
+
+'I'll go,' said she.
+
+'And I may come and meet you?' said Bob.
+
+'There's my letter--what shall I do about that?' she said, instead of
+answering him.  'Take my letter to the post-office, and you may come,'
+she added.
+
+He said yes and went out, Cripplestraw retreating to the door till she
+should be ready.
+
+'What letter is it?' said her mother.
+
+'Only one to John,' said Anne.  'I have asked him to forgive my
+suspicions.  I could do no less.'
+
+'Do you want to marry _him_?' asked Mrs. Loveday bluntly.
+
+'Mother!'
+
+'Well; he will take that letter as an encouragement.  Can't you see that
+he will, you foolish girl?'
+
+Anne did see instantly.  'Of course!' she said.  'Tell Robert that he
+need not go.'
+
+She went to her room to secure the letter.  It was gone from the
+mantelpiece, and on inquiry it was found that the miller, seeing it
+there, had sent David with it to Budmouth hours ago.  Anne said nothing,
+and set out for Oxwell Hall with Cripplestraw.
+
+'William,' said Mrs. Loveday to the miller when Anne was gone and Bob had
+resumed his work in the garden, 'did you get that letter sent off on
+purpose?'
+
+'Well, I did.  I wanted to make sure of it.  John likes her, and now
+'twill be made up; and why shouldn't he marry her?  I'll start him in
+business, if so be she'll have him.'
+
+'But she is likely to marry Festus Derriman.'
+
+'I don't want her to marry anybody but John,' said the miller doggedly.
+
+'Not if she is in love with Bob, and has been for years, and he with
+her?' asked his wife triumphantly.
+
+'In love with Bob, and he with her?' repeated Loveday.
+
+'Certainly,' said she, going off and leaving him to his reflections.
+
+When Anne reached the hall she found old Mr. Derriman in his customary
+chair.  His complexion was more ashen, but his movement in rising at her
+entrance, putting a chair and shutting the door behind her, were much the
+same as usual.
+
+'Thank God you've come, my dear girl,' he said earnestly.  'Ah, you don't
+trip across to read to me now!  Why did ye cost me so much to fetch you?
+Fie!  A horse and gig, and a man's time in going three times.  And what I
+sent ye cost a good deal in Budmouth market, now everything is so dear
+there, and 'twould have cost more if I hadn't bought the raisins and
+oranges some months ago, when they were cheaper.  I tell you this because
+we are old friends, and I have nobody else to tell my troubles to.  But I
+don't begrudge anything to ye since you've come.'
+
+'I am not much pleased to come, even now,' said she.  'What can make you
+so seriously anxious to see me?'
+
+'Well, you be a good girl and true; and I've been thinking that of all
+people of the next generation that I can trust, you are the best.  'Tis
+my bonds and my title-deeds, such as they be, and the leases, you know,
+and a few guineas in packets, and more than these, my will, that I have
+to speak about.  Now do ye come this way.'
+
+'O, such things as those!' she returned, with surprise.  'I don't
+understand those things at all.'
+
+'There's nothing to understand.  'Tis just this.  The French will be here
+within two months; that's certain.  I have it on the best authority, that
+the army at Boulogne is ready, the boats equipped, the plans laid, and
+the First Consul only waits for a tide.  Heaven knows what will become o'
+the men o' these parts!  But most likely the women will he spared.  Now
+I'll show 'ee.'
+
+He led her across the hall to a stone staircase of semi-circular plan,
+which conducted to the cellars.
+
+'Down here?' she said.
+
+'Yes; I must trouble ye to come down here.  I have thought and thought
+who is the woman that can best keep a secret for six months, and I say,
+"Anne Garland."  You won't be married before then?'
+
+'O no!' murmured the young woman.
+
+'I wouldn't expect ye to keep a close tongue after such a thing as that.
+But it will not be necessary.'
+
+When they reached the bottom of the steps he struck a light from a tinder-
+box, and unlocked the middle one of three doors which appeared in the
+whitewashed wall opposite.  The rays of the candle fell upon the vault
+and sides of a long low cellar, littered with decayed woodwork from other
+parts of the hall, among the rest stair-balusters, carved finials,
+tracery panels, and wainscoting.  But what most attracted her eye was a
+small flagstone turned up in the middle of the floor, a heap of earth
+beside it, and a measuring-tape.  Derriman went to the corner of the
+cellar, and pulled out a clamped box from under the straw.  'You be
+rather heavy, my dear, eh?' he said, affectionately addressing the box as
+he lifted it.  'But you are going to be put in a safe place, you know, or
+that rascal will get hold of ye, and carry ye off and ruin me.'  He then
+with some difficulty lowered the box into the hole, raked in the earth
+upon it, and lowered the flagstone, which he was a long time in fixing to
+his satisfaction.  Miss Garland, who was romantically interested, helped
+him to brush away the fragments of loose earth; and when he had scattered
+over the floor a little of the straw that lay about, they again ascended
+to upper air.
+
+'Is this all, sir?' said Anne.
+
+'Just a moment longer, honey.  Will you come into the great parlour?'
+
+She followed him thither.
+
+'If anything happens to me while the fighting is going on--it may be on
+these very fields--you will know what to do,' he resumed.  'But first
+please sit down again, there's a dear, whilst I write what's in my head.
+See, there's the best paper, and a new quill that I've afforded myself
+for't.'
+
+'What a strange business!  I don't think I much like it, Mr. Derriman,'
+she said, seating herself.
+
+He had by this time begun to write, and murmured as he wrote--
+
+'"Twenty-three and a half from N.W.  Sixteen and three-quarters from
+N.E."--There, that's all.  Now I seal it up and give it to you to keep
+safe till I ask ye for it, or you hear of my being trampled down by the
+enemy.'
+
+'What does it mean?' she asked, as she received the paper.
+
+'Clk!  Ha! ha!  Why, that's the distance of the box from the two corners
+of the cellar.  I measured it before you came.  And, my honey, to make
+all sure, if the French soldiery are after ye, tell your mother the
+meaning on't, or any other friend, in case they should put ye to death,
+and the secret be lost.  But that I am sure I hope they won't do, though
+your pretty face will be a sad bait to the soldiers.  I often have wished
+you was my daughter, honey; and yet in these times the less cares a man
+has the better, so I am glad you bain't.  Shall my man drive you home?'
+
+'No, no,' she said, much depressed by the words he had uttered.  'I can
+find my way.  You need not trouble to come down.'
+
+'Then take care of the paper.  And if you outlive me, you'll find I have
+not forgot you.'
+
+
+
+
+XXV.  FESTUS SHOWS HIS LOVE
+
+
+Festus Derriman had remained in the Royal watering-place all that day,
+his horse being sick at stables; but, wishing to coax or bully from his
+uncle a remount for the coming summer, he set off on foot for Oxwell
+early in the evening.  When he drew near to the village, or rather to the
+hall, which was a mile from the village, he overtook a slim, quick-eyed
+woman, sauntering along at a leisurely pace.  She was fashionably dressed
+in a green spencer, with 'Mameluke' sleeves, and wore a velvet Spanish
+hat and feather.
+
+'Good afternoon t'ye, ma'am,' said Festus, throwing a sword-and-pistol
+air into his greeting.  'You are out for a walk?'
+
+'I _am_ out for a walk, captain,' said the lady, who had criticized him
+from the crevice of her eye, without seeming to do much more than
+continue her demure look forward, and gave the title as a sop to his
+apparent character.
+
+'From the town?--I'd swear it, ma'am; 'pon my honour I would!'
+
+'Yes, I am from the town, sir,' said she.
+
+'Ah, you are a visitor!  I know every one of the regular inhabitants; we
+soldiers are in and out there continually.  Festus Derriman, Yeomanry
+Cavalry, you know.  The fact is, the watering-place is under our charge;
+the folks will be quite dependent upon us for their deliverance in the
+coming struggle.  We hold our lives in our hands, and theirs, I may say,
+in our pockets.  What made you come here, ma'am, at such a critical
+time?'
+
+'I don't see that it is such a critical time?'
+
+'But it is, though; and so you'd say if you was as much mixed up with the
+military affairs of the nation as some of us.'
+
+The lady smiled.  'The King is coming this year, anyhow,' said she.
+
+'Never!' said Festus firmly.  'Ah, you are one of the attendants at court
+perhaps, come on ahead to get the King's chambers ready, in case Boney
+should not land?'
+
+'No,' she said; 'I am connected with the theatre, though not just at the
+present moment.  I have been out of luck for the last year or two; but I
+have fetched up again.  I join the company when they arrive for the
+season.'
+
+Festus surveyed her with interest.  'Faith! and is it so?  Well, ma'am,
+what part do you play?'
+
+'I am mostly the leading lady--the heroine,' she said, drawing herself up
+with dignity.
+
+'I'll come and have a look at ye if all's well, and the landing is put
+off--hang me if I don't!--Hullo, hullo, what do I see?'
+
+His eyes were stretched towards a distant field, which Anne Garland was
+at that moment hastily crossing, on her way from the hall to Overcombe.
+
+'I must be off.  Good-day to ye, dear creature!' he exclaimed, hurrying
+forward.
+
+The lady said, 'O, you droll monster!' as she smiled and watched him
+stride ahead.
+
+Festus bounded on over the hedge, across the intervening patch of green,
+and into the field which Anne was still crossing.  In a moment or two she
+looked back, and seeing the well-known Herculean figure of the yeoman
+behind her felt rather alarmed, though she determined to show no
+difference in her outward carriage.  But to maintain her natural gait was
+beyond her powers.  She spasmodically quickened her pace; fruitlessly,
+however, for he gained upon her, and when within a few strides of her
+exclaimed, 'Well, my darling!'  Anne started off at a run.
+
+Festus was already out of breath, and soon found that he was not likely
+to overtake her.  On she went, without turning her head, till an unusual
+noise behind compelled her to look round.  His face was in the act of
+falling back; he swerved on one side, and dropped like a log upon a
+convenient hedgerow-bank which bordered the path.  There he lay quite
+still.
+
+Anne was somewhat alarmed; and after standing at gaze for two or three
+minutes, drew nearer to him, a step and a half at a time, wondering and
+doubting, as a meek ewe draws near to some strolling vagabond who flings
+himself on the grass near the flock.
+
+'He is in a swoon!' she murmured.
+
+Her heart beat quickly, and she looked around.  Nobody was in sight; she
+advanced a step nearer still and observed him again.  Apparently his face
+was turning to a livid hue, and his breathing had become obstructed.
+
+''Tis not a swoon; 'tis apoplexy!' she said, in deep distress.  'I ought
+to untie his neck.'  But she was afraid to do this, and only drew a
+little closer still.
+
+Miss Garland was now within three feet of him, whereupon the senseless
+man, who could hold his breath no longer, sprang to his feet and darted
+at her, saying, 'Ha! ha! a scheme for a kiss!'
+
+She felt his arm slipping round her neck; but, twirling about with
+amazing dexterity, she wriggled from his embrace and ran away along the
+field.  The force with which she had extricated herself was sufficient to
+throw Festus upon the grass, and by the time that he got upon his legs
+again she was many yards off.  Uttering a word which was not exactly a
+blessing, he immediately gave chase; and thus they ran till Anne entered
+a meadow divided down the middle by a brook about six feet wide.  A
+narrow plank was thrown loosely across at the point where the path
+traversed this stream, and when Anne reached it she at once scampered
+over.  At the other side she turned her head to gather the probabilities
+of the situation, which were that Festus Derriman would overtake her even
+now.  By a sudden forethought she stooped, seized the end of the plank,
+and endeavoured to drag it away from the opposite bank.  But the weight
+was too great for her to do more than slightly move it, and with a
+desperate sigh she ran on again, having lost many valuable seconds.
+
+But her attempt, though ineffectual in dragging it down, had been enough
+to unsettle the little bridge; and when Derriman reached the middle,
+which he did half a minute later, the plank turned over on its edge,
+tilting him bodily into the river.  The water was not remarkably deep,
+but as the yeoman fell flat on his stomach he was completely immersed;
+and it was some time before he could drag himself out.  When he arose,
+dripping on the bank, and looked around, Anne had vanished from the mead.
+Then Festus's eyes glowed like carbuncles, and he gave voice to fearful
+imprecations, shaking his fist in the soft summer air towards Anne, in a
+way that was terrible for any maiden to behold.  Wading back through the
+stream, he walked along its bank with a heavy tread, the water running
+from his coat-tails, wrists, and the tips of his ears, in silvery
+dribbles, that sparkled pleasantly in the sun.  Thus he hastened away,
+and went round by a by-path to the hall.
+
+Meanwhile the author of his troubles was rapidly drawing nearer to the
+mill, and soon, to her inexpressible delight, she saw Bob coming to meet
+her.  She had heard the flounce, and, feeling more secure from her
+pursuer, had dropped her pace to a quick walk.  No sooner did she reach
+Bob than, overcome by the excitement of the moment, she flung herself
+into his arms.  Bob instantly enclosed her in an embrace so very thorough
+that there was no possible danger of her falling, whatever degree of
+exhaustion might have given rise to her somewhat unexpected action; and
+in this attitude they silently remained, till it was borne in upon Anne
+that the present was the first time in her life that she had ever been in
+such a position.  Her face then burnt like a sunset, and she did not know
+how to look up at him.  Feeling at length quite safe, she suddenly
+resolved not to give way to her first impulse to tell him the whole of
+what had happened, lest there should be a dreadful quarrel and fight
+between Bob and the yeoman, and great difficulties caused in the Loveday
+family on her account, the miller having important wheat transactions
+with the Derrimans.
+
+'You seem frightened, dearest Anne,' said Bob tenderly.
+
+'Yes,' she replied.  'I saw a man I did not like the look of, and he was
+inclined to follow me.  But, worse than that, I am troubled about the
+French.  O Bob! I am afraid you will be killed, and my mother, and John,
+and your father, and all of us hunted down!'
+
+'Now I have told you, dear little heart, that it cannot be.  We shall
+drive 'em into the sea after a battle or two, even if they land, which I
+don't believe they will.  We've got ninety sail of the line, and though
+it is rather unfortunate that we should have declared war against Spain
+at this ticklish time, there's enough for all.'  And Bob went into
+elaborate statistics of the navy, army, militia, and volunteers, to
+prolong the time of holding her.  When he had done speaking he drew
+rather a heavy sigh.
+
+'What's the matter, Bob?'
+
+'I haven't been yet to offer myself as a sea-fencible, and I ought to
+have done it long ago.'
+
+'You are only one.  Surely they can do without you?'
+
+Bob shook his head.  She arose from her restful position, her eye
+catching his with a shamefaced expression of having given way at last.
+Loveday drew from his pocket a paper, and said, as they slowly walked on,
+'Here's something to make us brave and patriotic.  I bought it in
+Budmouth.  Isn't it a stirring picture?'
+
+It was a hieroglyphic profile of Napoleon.  The hat represented a maimed
+French eagle; the face was ingeniously made up of human carcases, knotted
+and writhing together in such directions as to form a physiognomy; a
+band, or stock, shaped to resemble the English Channel, encircled his
+throat, and seemed to choke him; his epaulette was a hand tearing a
+cobweb that represented the treaty of peace with England; and his ear was
+a woman crouching over a dying child. {225}
+
+'It is dreadful!' said Anne.  'I don't like to see it.'
+
+She had recovered from her emotion, and walked along beside him with a
+grave, subdued face.  Bob did not like to assume the privileges of an
+accepted lover and draw her hand through his arm; for, conscious that she
+naturally belonged to a politer grade than his own, he feared lest her
+exhibition of tenderness were an impulse which cooler moments might
+regret.  A perfect Paul-and-Virginia life had not absolutely set in for
+him as yet, and it was not to be hastened by force.  When they had passed
+over the bridge into the mill-front they saw the miller standing at the
+door with a face of concern.
+
+'Since you have been gone,' he said, 'a Government man has been here, and
+to all the houses, taking down the numbers of the women and children, and
+their ages and the number of horses and waggons that can be mustered, in
+case they have to retreat inland, out of the way of the invading army.'
+
+The little family gathered themselves together, all feeling the crisis
+more seriously than they liked to express.  Mrs. Loveday thought how
+ridiculous a thing social ambition was in such a conjuncture as this, and
+vowed that she would leave Anne to love where she would.  Anne, too,
+forgot the little peculiarities of speech and manner in Bob and his
+father, which sometimes jarred for a moment upon her more refined sense,
+and was thankful for their love and protection in this looming trouble.
+
+On going upstairs she remembered the paper which Farmer Derriman had
+given her, and searched in her bosom for it.  She could not find it
+there.  'I must have left it on the table,' she said to herself.  It did
+not matter; she remembered every word.  She took a pen and wrote a
+duplicate, which she put safely away.
+
+But Anne was wrong.  She had, after all, placed the paper where she
+supposed, and there it ought to have been.  But in escaping from Festus,
+when he feigned apoplexy, it had fallen out upon the grass.  Five minutes
+after that event, when pursuer and pursued were two or three fields
+ahead, the gaily-dressed woman whom the yeoman had overtaken, peeped
+cautiously through the stile into the corner of the field which had been
+the scene of the scramble; and seeing the paper she climbed over, secured
+it, loosened the wafer without tearing the sheet, and read the memorandum
+within.  Unable to make anything of its meaning, the saunterer put it in
+her pocket, and, dismissing the matter from her mind, went on by the by-
+path which led to the back of the mill.  Here, behind the hedge, she
+stood and surveyed the old building for some time, after which she
+meditatively turned, and retraced her steps towards the Royal watering-
+place.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.  THE ALARM
+
+
+The night which followed was historic and memorable.  Mrs. Loveday was
+awakened by the boom of a distant gun: she told the miller, and they
+listened awhile.  The sound was not repeated, but such was the state of
+their feelings that Mr. Loveday went to Bob's room and asked if he had
+heard it.  Bob was wide awake, looking out of the window; he had heard
+the ominous sound, and was inclined to investigate the matter.  While the
+father and son were dressing they fancied that a glare seemed to be
+rising in the sky in the direction of the beacon hill.  Not wishing to
+alarm Anne and her mother, the miller assured them that Bob and himself
+were merely going out of doors to inquire into the cause of the report,
+after which they plunged into the gloom together.  A few steps' progress
+opened up more of the sky, which, as they had thought, was indeed
+irradiated by a lurid light; but whether it came from the beacon or from
+a more distant point they were unable to clearly tell.  They pushed on
+rapidly towards higher ground.
+
+Their excitement was merely of a piece with that of all men at this
+critical juncture.  Everywhere expectation was at fever heat.  For the
+last year or two only five-and-twenty miles of shallow water had divided
+quiet English homesteads from an enemy's army of a hundred and fifty
+thousand men.  We had taken the matter lightly enough, eating and
+drinking as in the days of Noe, and singing satires without end.  We
+punned on Buonaparte and his gunboats, chalked his effigy on
+stage-coaches, and published the same in prints.  Still, between these
+bursts of hilarity, it was sometimes recollected that England was the
+only European country which had not succumbed to the mighty little man
+who was less than human in feeling, and more than human in will; that our
+spirit for resistance was greater than our strength; and that the Channel
+was often calm.  Boats built of wood which was greenly growing in its
+native forest three days before it was bent as wales to their sides, were
+ridiculous enough; but they might be, after all, sufficient for a single
+trip between two visible shores.
+
+The English watched Buonaparte in these preparations, and Buonaparte
+watched the English.  At the distance of Boulogne details were lost, but
+we were impressed on fine days by the novel sight of a huge army moving
+and twinkling like a school of mackerel under the rays of the sun.  The
+regular way of passing an afternoon in the coast towns was to stroll up
+to the signal posts and chat with the lieutenant on duty there about the
+latest inimical object seen at sea.  About once a week there appeared in
+the newspapers either a paragraph concerning some adventurous English
+gentleman who had sailed out in a pleasure-boat till he lay near enough
+to Boulogne to see Buonaparte standing on the heights among his marshals;
+or else some lines about a mysterious stranger with a foreign accent,
+who, after collecting a vast deal of information on our resources, had
+hired a boat at a southern port, and vanished with it towards France
+before his intention could be divined.
+
+In forecasting his grand venture, Buonaparte postulated the help of
+Providence to a remarkable degree.  Just at the hour when his troops were
+on board the flat-bottomed boats and ready to sail, there was to be a
+great fog, that should spread a vast obscurity over the length and
+breadth of the Channel, and keep the English blind to events on the other
+side.  The fog was to last twenty-four hours, after which it might clear
+away.  A dead calm was to prevail simultaneously with the fog, with the
+twofold object of affording the boats easy transit and dooming our ships
+to lie motionless.  Thirdly, there was to be a spring tide, which should
+combine its manoeuvres with those of the fog and calm.
+
+Among the many thousands of minor Englishmen whose lives were affected by
+these tremendous designs may be numbered our old acquaintance Corporal
+Tullidge, who sported the crushed arm, and poor old Simon Burden, the
+dazed veteran who had fought at Minden.  Instead of sitting snugly in the
+settle of the Old Ship, in the village adjoining Overcombe, they were
+obliged to keep watch on the hill.  They made themselves as comfortable
+as was possible in the circumstances, dwelling in a hut of clods and
+turf, with a brick chimney for cooking.  Here they observed the nightly
+progress of the moon and stars, grew familiar with the heaving of moles,
+the dancing of rabbits on the hillocks, the distant hoot of owls, the
+bark of foxes from woods further inland; but saw not a sign of the enemy.
+As, night after night, they walked round the two ricks which it was their
+duty to fire at a signal--one being of furze for a quick flame, the other
+of turf, for a long, slow radiance--they thought and talked of old times,
+and drank patriotically from a large wood flagon that was filled every
+day.
+
+Bob and his father soon became aware that the light was from the beacon.
+By the time that they reached the top it was one mass of towering flame,
+from which the sparks fell on the green herbage like a fiery dew; the
+forms of the two old men being seen passing and repassing in the midst of
+it.  The Lovedays, who came up on the smoky side, regarded the scene for
+a moment, and then emerged into the light.
+
+'Who goes there?' said Corporal Tullidge, shouldering a pike with his
+sound arm.  'O, 'tis neighbour Loveday!'
+
+'Did you get your signal to fire it from the east?' said the miller
+hastily.
+
+'No; from Abbotsea Beach.'
+
+'But you are not to go by a coast signal!'
+
+'Chok' it all, wasn't the Lord-Lieutenant's direction, whenever you see
+Rainbarrow's Beacon burn to the nor'east'ard, or Haggardon to the
+nor'west'ard, or the actual presence of the enemy on the shore?'
+
+'But is he here?'
+
+'No doubt o't!  The beach light is only just gone down, and Simon heard
+the guns even better than I.'
+
+'Hark, hark!  I hear 'em!' said Bob.
+
+They listened with parted lips, the night wind blowing through Simon
+Burden's few teeth as through the ruins of Stonehenge.  From far down on
+the lower levels came the noise of wheels and the tramp of horses upon
+the turnpike road.
+
+'Well, there must be something in it,' said Miller Loveday gravely.  'Bob,
+we'll go home and make the women-folk safe, and then I'll don my
+soldier's clothes and be off.  God knows where our company will
+assemble!'
+
+They hastened down the hill, and on getting into the road waited and
+listened again.  Travellers began to come up and pass them in vehicles of
+all descriptions.  It was difficult to attract their attention in the dim
+light, but by standing on the top of a wall which fenced the road Bob was
+at last seen.
+
+'What's the matter?' he cried to a butcher who was flying past in his
+cart, his wife sitting behind him without a bonnet.
+
+'The French have landed!' said the man, without drawing rein.
+
+'Where?' shouted Bob.
+
+'In West Bay; and all Budmouth is in uproar!' replied the voice, now
+faint in the distance.
+
+Bob and his father hastened on till they reached their own house.  As
+they had expected, Anne and her mother, in common with most of the
+people, were both dressed, and stood at the door bonneted and shawled,
+listening to the traffic on the neighbouring highway, Mrs. Loveday having
+secured what money and small valuables they possessed in a huge pocket
+which extended all round her waist, and added considerably to her weight
+and diameter.
+
+''Tis true enough,' said the miller: 'he's come!  You and Anne and the
+maid must be off to Cousin Jim's at King's-Bere, and when you get there
+you must do as they do.  I must assemble with the company.'
+
+'And I?' said Bob.
+
+'Thou'st better run to the church, and take a pike before they be all
+gone.'
+
+The horse was put into the gig, and Mrs. Loveday, Anne, and the servant-
+maid were hastily packed into the vehicle, the latter taking the reins;
+David's duties as a fighting-man forbidding all thought of his domestic
+offices now.  Then the silver tankard, teapot, pair of candlesticks like
+Ionic columns, and other articles too large to be pocketed were thrown
+into a basket and put up behind.  Then came the leave-taking, which was
+as sad as it was hurried.  Bob kissed Anne, and there was no affectation
+in her receiving that mark of affection as she said through her tears,
+'God bless you!'  At last they moved off in the dim light of dawn,
+neither of the three women knowing which road they were to take, but
+trusting to chance to find it.
+
+As soon as they were out of sight Bob went off for a pike, and his
+father, first new-flinting his firelock, proceeded to don his uniform,
+pipe-claying his breeches with such cursory haste as to bespatter his
+black gaiters with the same ornamental compound.  Finding when he was
+ready that no bugle had as yet sounded, he went with David to the cart-
+house, dragged out the waggon, and put therein some of the most useful
+and easily-handled goods, in case there might be an opportunity for
+conveying them away.  By the time this was done and the waggon pushed
+back and locked in, Bob had returned with his weapon, somewhat mortified
+at being doomed to this low form of defence.  The miller gave his son a
+parting grasp of the hand, and arranged to meet him at King's-Bere at the
+first opportunity if the news were true; if happily false, here at their
+own house.
+
+'Bother it all!' he exclaimed, looking at his stock of flints.
+
+'What?' said Bob.
+
+'I've got no ammunition: not a blessed round!'
+
+'Then what's the use of going?' asked his son.
+
+The miller paused.  'O, I'll go,' he said.  'Perhaps somebody will lend
+me a little if I get into a hot corner?'
+
+'Lend ye a little!  Father, you was always so simple!' said Bob
+reproachfully.
+
+'Well--I can bagnet a few, anyhow,' said the miller.
+
+The bugle had been blown ere this, and Loveday the father disappeared
+towards the place of assembly, his empty cartridge-box behind him.  Bob
+seized a brace of loaded pistols which he had brought home from the ship,
+and, armed with these and a pike, he locked the door and sallied out
+again towards the turnpike road.
+
+By this time the yeomanry of the district were also on the move, and
+among them Festus Derriman, who was sleeping at his uncle's, and had been
+awakened by Cripplestraw.  About the time when Bob and his father were
+descending from the beacon the stalwart yeoman was standing in the stable-
+yard adjusting his straps, while Cripplestraw saddled the horse.  Festus
+clanked up and down, looked gloomily at the beacon, heard the retreating
+carts and carriages, and called Cripplestraw to him, who came from the
+stable leading the horse at the same moment that Uncle Benjy peeped
+unobserved from a mullioned window above their heads, the distant light
+of the beacon fire touching up his features to the complexion of an old
+brass clock-face.
+
+'I think that before I start, Cripplestraw,' said Festus, whose lurid
+visage was undergoing a bleaching process curious to look upon, 'you
+shall go on to Budmouth, and make a bold inquiry whether the cowardly
+enemy is on shore as yet, or only looming in the bay.'
+
+'I'd go in a moment, sir,' said the other, 'if I hadn't my bad leg again.
+I should have joined my company afore this; but they said at last drill
+that I was too old.  So I shall wait up in the hay-loft for tidings as
+soon as I have packed you off, poor gentleman!'
+
+'Do such alarms as these, Cripplestraw, ever happen without foundation?
+Buonaparte is a wretch, a miserable wretch, and this may be only a false
+alarm to disappoint such as me?'
+
+'O no, sir; O no!'
+
+'But sometimes there are false alarms?'
+
+'Well, sir, yes.  There was a pretended sally o' gunboats last year.'
+
+'And was there nothing else pretended--something more like this, for
+instance?'
+
+Cripplestraw shook his head.  'I notice yer modesty, Mr. Festus, in
+making light of things.  But there never was, sir.  You may depend upon
+it he's come.  Thank God, my duty as a Local don't require me to go to
+the front, but only the valiant men like my master.  Ah, if Boney could
+only see 'ee now, sir, he'd know too well there is nothing to be got from
+such a determined skilful officer but blows and musket-balls!'
+
+'Yes, yes.  Cripplestraw, if I ride off to Budmouth and meet 'em, all my
+training will be lost.  No skill is required as a forlorn hope.'
+
+'True; that's a point, sir.  You would outshine 'em all, and be picked
+off at the very beginning as a too-dangerous brave man.'
+
+'But if I stay here and urge on the faint-hearted ones, or get up into
+the turret-stair by that gateway, and pop at the invaders through the
+loophole, I shouldn't be so completely wasted, should I?'
+
+'You would not, Mr. Derriman.  But, as you was going to say next, the
+fire in yer veins won't let ye do that.  You are valiant; very good: you
+don't want to husband yer valiance at home.  The arg'ment is plain.'
+
+'If my birth had been more obscure,' murmured the yeoman, 'and I had only
+been in the militia, for instance, or among the humble pikemen, so much
+wouldn't have been expected of me--of my fiery nature.  Cripplestraw, is
+there a drop of brandy to be got at in the house?  I don't feel very
+well.'
+
+'Dear nephew,' said the old gentleman from above, whom neither of the
+others had as yet noticed, 'I haven't any spirits opened--so unfortunate!
+But there's a beautiful barrel of crab-apple cider in draught; and
+there's some cold tea from last night.'
+
+'What, is he listening?' said Festus, staring up.  'Now I warrant how
+glad he is to see me forced to go--called out of bed without breakfast,
+and he quite safe, and sure to escape because he's an old
+man!--Cripplestraw, I like being in the yeomanry cavalry; but I wish I
+hadn't been in the ranks; I wish I had been only the surgeon, to stay in
+the rear while the bodies are brought back to him--I mean, I should have
+thrown my heart at such a time as this more into the labour of restoring
+wounded men and joining their shattered limbs together--u-u-ugh!--more
+than I can into causing the wounds--I am too humane, Cripplestraw, for
+the ranks!'
+
+'Yes, yes,' said his companion, depressing his spirits to a kindred
+level.  'And yet, such is fate, that, instead of joining men's limbs
+together, you'll have to get your own joined--poor young sojer!--all
+through having such a warlike soul.'
+
+'Yes,' murmured Festus, and paused.  'You can't think how strange I feel
+here, Cripplestraw,' he continued, laying his hand upon the centre
+buttons of his waistcoat.  'How I do wish I was only the surgeon!'
+
+He slowly mounted, and Uncle Benjy, in the meantime, sang to himself as
+he looked on, '_Twen-ty-three and half from N.W._  _Six-teen and three-
+quar-ters from N.E._'
+
+'What's that old mummy singing?' said Festus savagely.
+
+'Only a hymn for preservation from our enemies, dear nephew,' meekly
+replied the farmer, who had heard the remark.  '_Twen-ty-three and half
+from N.W_.'
+
+Festus allowed his horse to move on a few paces, and then turned again,
+as if struck by a happy invention.  'Cripplestraw,' he began, with an
+artificial laugh, 'I am obliged to confess, after all--I must see her!
+'Tisn't nature that makes me draw back--'tis love.  I must go and look
+for her.'
+
+'A woman, sir?'
+
+'I didn't want to confess it; but 'tis a woman.  Strange that I should be
+drawn so entirely against my natural wish to rush at 'em!'
+
+Cripplestraw, seeing which way the wind blew, found it advisable to blow
+in harmony.  'Ah, now at last I see, sir!  Spite that few men live that
+be worthy to command ye; spite that you could rush on, marshal the troops
+to victory, as I may say; but then--what of it? there's the unhappy fate
+of being smit with the eyes of a woman, and you are unmanned!  Maister
+Derriman, who is himself, when he's got a woman round his neck like a
+millstone?'
+
+'It is something like that.'
+
+'I feel the case.  Be you valiant?--I know, of course, the words being a
+matter of form--be you valiant, I ask?  Yes, of course.  Then don't you
+waste it in the open field.  Hoard it up, I say, sir, for a higher class
+of war--the defence of yer adorable lady.  Think what you owe her at this
+terrible time!  Now, Maister Derriman, once more I ask ye to cast off
+that first haughty wish to rush to Budmouth, and to go where your mis'ess
+is defenceless and alone.'
+
+'I will, Cripplestraw, now you put it like that!'
+
+'Thank ye, thank ye heartily, Maister Derriman.  Go now and hide with
+her.'
+
+'But can I?  Now, hang flattery!--can a man hide without a stain?  Of
+course I would not hide in any mean sense; no, not I!'
+
+'If you be in love, 'tis plain you may, since it is not your own life,
+but another's, that you are concerned for, and you only save your own
+because it can't be helped.'
+
+''Tis true, Cripplestraw, in a sense.  But will it be understood that
+way?  Will they see it as a brave hiding?'
+
+'Now, sir, if you had not been in love I own to ye that hiding would look
+queer, but being to save the tears, groans, fits, swowndings, and perhaps
+death of a comely young woman, yer principle is good; you honourably
+retreat because you be too gallant to advance.  This sounds strange, ye
+may say, sir; but it is plain enough to less fiery minds.'
+
+Festus did for a moment try to uncover his teeth in a natural smile, but
+it died away.  'Cripplestraw, you flatter me; or do you mean it?  Well,
+there's truth in it.  I am more gallant in going to her than in marching
+to the shore.  But we cannot be too careful about our good names, we
+soldiers.  I must not be seen.  I'm off.'
+
+Cripplestraw opened the hurdle which closed the arch under the portico
+gateway, and Festus passed under, Uncle Benjamin singing, _Twen-ty-three
+and a half from N.W._ with a sort of sublime ecstasy, feeling, as Festus
+had observed, that his money was safe, and that the French would not
+personally molest an old man in such a ragged, mildewed coat as that he
+wore, which he had taken the precaution to borrow from a scarecrow in one
+of his fields for the purpose.
+
+Festus rode on full of his intention to seek out Anne, and under cover of
+protecting her retreat accompany her to King's-Bere, where he knew the
+Lovedays had relatives.  In the lane he met Granny Seamore, who, having
+packed up all her possessions in a small basket, was placidly retreating
+to the mountains till all should be over.
+
+'Well, granny, have ye seen the French?' asked Festus.
+
+'No,' she said, looking up at him through her brazen spectacles.  'If I
+had I shouldn't ha' seed thee!'
+
+'Faugh!' replied the yeoman, and rode on.  Just as he reached the old
+road, which he had intended merely to cross and avoid, his countenance
+fell.  Some troops of regulars, who appeared to be dragoons, were
+rattling along the road.  Festus hastened towards an opposite gate, so as
+to get within the field before they should see him; but, as ill-luck
+would have it, as soon as he got inside, a party of six or seven of his
+own yeomanry troop were straggling across the same field and making for
+the spot where he was.  The dragoons passed without seeing him; but when
+he turned out into the road again it was impossible to retreat towards
+Overcombe village because of the yeomen.  So he rode straight on, and
+heard them coming at his heels.  There was no other gate, and the highway
+soon became as straight as a bowstring.  Unable thus to turn without
+meeting them, and caught like an eel in a water-pipe, Festus drew nearer
+and nearer to the fateful shore.  But he did not relinquish hope.  Just
+ahead there were cross-roads, and he might have a chance of slipping down
+one of them without being seen.  On reaching the spot he found that he
+was not alone.  A horseman had come up the right-hand lane and drawn
+rein.  It was an officer of the German legion, and seeing Festus he held
+up his hand.  Festus rode up to him and saluted.
+
+'It ist false report!' said the officer.
+
+Festus was a man again.  He felt that nothing was too much for him.  The
+officer, after some explanation of the cause of alarm, said that he was
+going across to the road which led by the moor, to stop the troops and
+volunteers converging from that direction, upon which Festus offered to
+give information along the Casterbridge road.  The German crossed over,
+and was soon out of sight in the lane, while Festus turned back upon the
+way by which he had come.  The party of yeomanry cavalry was rapidly
+drawing near, and he soon recognized among them the excited voices of
+Stubb of Duddle Hole, Noakes of Muckleford, and other comrades of his
+orgies at the hall.  It was a magnificent opportunity, and Festus drew
+his sword.  When they were within speaking distance he reined round his
+charger's head to Budmouth and shouted, 'On, comrades, on!  I am waiting
+for you.  You have been a long time getting up with me, seeing the
+glorious nature of our deeds to-day!'
+
+'Well said, Derriman, well said!' replied the foremost of the riders.
+'Have you heard anything new?'
+
+'Only that he's here with his tens of thousands, and that we are to ride
+to meet him sword in hand as soon as we have assembled in the town ahead
+here.'
+
+'O Lord!' said Noakes, with a slight falling of the lower jaw.
+
+'The man who quails now is unworthy of the name of yeoman,' said Festus,
+still keeping ahead of the other troopers and holding up his sword to the
+sun.  'O Noakes, fie, fie!  You begin to look pale, man.'
+
+'Faith, perhaps you'd look pale,' said Noakes, with an envious glance
+upon Festus's daring manner, 'if you had a wife and family depending upon
+ye!'
+
+'I'll take three frog-eating Frenchmen single-handed!' rejoined Derriman,
+still flourishing his sword.
+
+'They have as good swords as you; as you will soon find,' said another of
+the yeomen.
+
+'If they were three times armed,' said Festus--'ay, thrice three times--I
+would attempt 'em three to one.  How do you feel now, my old friend
+Stubb?' (turning to another of the warriors.)  'O, friend Stubb! no
+bouncing health to our lady-loves in Oxwell Hall this summer as last.  Eh,
+Brownjohn?'
+
+'I am afraid not,' said Brownjohn gloomily.
+
+'No rattling dinners at Stacie's Hotel, and the King below with his
+staff.  No wrenching off door-knockers and sending 'em to the bakehouse
+in a pie that nobody calls for.  Weeks of cut-and-thrust work rather!'
+
+'I suppose so.'
+
+'Fight how we may we shan't get rid of the cursed tyrant before autumn,
+and many thousand brave men will lie low before it's done,' remarked a
+young yeoman with a calm face, who meant to do his duty without much
+talking.
+
+'No grinning matches at Mai-dun Castle this summer,' Festus resumed; 'no
+thread-the-needle at Greenhill Fair, and going into shows and driving the
+showman crazy with cock-a-doodle-doo!'
+
+'I suppose not.'
+
+'Does it make you seem just a trifle uncomfortable, Noakes?  Keep up your
+spirits, old comrade.  Come, forward! we are only ambling on like so many
+donkey-women.  We have to get into Budmouth, join the rest of the troop,
+and then march along the coast west'ard, as I imagine.  At this rate we
+shan't be well into the thick of battle before twelve o'clock.  Spur on,
+comrades.  No dancing on the green, Lockham, this year in the moonlight!
+You was tender upon that girl; gad, what will become o' her in the
+struggle?'
+
+'Come, come, Derriman,' expostulated Lockham--'this is all very well, but
+I don't care for 't.  I am as ready to fight as any man, but--'
+
+'Perhaps when you get into battle, Derriman, and see what it's like, your
+courage will cool down a little,' added Noakes on the same side, but with
+secret admiration of Festus's reckless bravery.
+
+'I shall be bayoneted first,' said Festus.  'Now let's rally, and on!'
+
+Since Festus was determined to spur on wildly, the rest of the yeomen did
+not like to seem behindhand, and they rapidly approached the town.  Had
+they been calm enough to reflect, they might have observed that for the
+last half-hour no carts or carriages had met them on the way, as they had
+done further back.  It was not till the troopers reached the turnpike
+that they learnt what Festus had known a quarter of an hour before.  At
+the intelligence Derriman sheathed his sword with a sigh; and the party
+soon fell in with comrades who had arrived there before them, whereupon
+the source and details of the alarm were boisterously discussed.
+
+'What, didn't you know of the mistake till now?' asked one of these of
+the new-comers.  'Why, when I was dropping over the hill by the cross-
+roads I looked back and saw that man talking to the messenger, and he
+must have told him the truth.'  The speaker pointed to Festus.  They
+turned their indignant eyes full upon him.  That he had sported with
+their deepest feelings, while knowing the rumour to be baseless, was soon
+apparent to all.
+
+'Beat him black and blue with the flat of our blades!' shouted two or
+three, turning their horses' heads to drop back upon Derriman, in which
+move they were followed by most of the party.
+
+But Festus, foreseeing danger from the unexpected revelation, had already
+judiciously placed a few intervening yards between himself and his fellow-
+yeomen, and now, clapping spurs to his horse, rattled like thunder and
+lightning up the road homeward.  His ready flight added hotness to their
+pursuit, and as he rode and looked fearfully over his shoulder he could
+see them following with enraged faces and drawn swords, a position which
+they kept up for a distance of more than a mile.  Then he had the
+satisfaction of seeing them drop off one by one, and soon he and his
+panting charger remained alone on the highway.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.  DANGER TO ANNE
+
+
+He stopped and reflected how to turn this rebuff to advantage.  Baulked
+in his project of entering the watering-place and enjoying
+congratulations upon his patriotic bearing during the advance, he sulkily
+considered that he might be able to make some use of his enforced
+retirement by riding to Overcombe and glorifying himself in the eyes of
+Miss Garland before the truth should have reached that hamlet.  Having
+thus decided he spurred on in a better mood.
+
+By this time the volunteers were on the march, and as Derriman ascended
+the road he met the Overcombe company, in which trudged Miller Loveday
+shoulder to shoulder with the other substantial householders of the place
+and its neighbourhood, duly equipped with pouches, cross-belts,
+firelocks, flint-boxes, pickers, worms, magazines, priming-horns, heel-
+ball, and pomatum.  There was nothing to be gained by further suppression
+of the truth, and briefly informing them that the danger was not so
+immediate as had been supposed, Festus galloped on.  At the end of
+another mile he met a large number of pikemen, including Bob Loveday,
+whom the yeoman resolved to sound upon the whereabouts of Anne.  The
+circumstances were such as to lead Bob to speak more frankly than he
+might have done on reflection, and he told Festus the direction in which
+the women had been sent.  Then Festus informed the group that the report
+of invasion was false, upon which they all turned to go homeward with
+greatly relieved spirits.
+
+Bob walked beside Derriman's horse for some distance.  Loveday had
+instantly made up his mind to go and look for the women, and ease their
+anxiety by letting them know the good news as soon as possible.  But he
+said nothing of this to Festus during their return together; nor did
+Festus tell Bob that he also had resolved to seek them out, and by
+anticipating every one else in that enterprise, make of it a glorious
+opportunity for bringing Miss Garland to her senses about him.  He still
+resented the ducking that he had received at her hands, and was not
+disposed to let that insult pass without obtaining some sort of sweet
+revenge.
+
+As soon as they had parted Festus cantered on over the hill, meeting on
+his way the Longpuddle volunteers, sixty rank and file, under Captain
+Cunningham; the Casterbridge company, ninety strong (known as the
+'Consideration Company' in those days), under Captain Strickland; and
+others--all with anxious faces and covered with dust.  Just passing the
+word to them and leaving them at halt, he proceeded rapidly onward in the
+direction of King's-Bere.  Nobody appeared on the road for some time,
+till after a ride of several miles he met a stray corporal of volunteers,
+who told Festus in answer to his inquiry that he had certainly passed no
+gig full of women of the kind described.  Believing that he had missed
+them by following the highway, Derriman turned back into a lane along
+which they might have chosen to journey for privacy's sake,
+notwithstanding the badness and uncertainty of its track.  Arriving again
+within five miles of Overcombe, he at length heard tidings of the
+wandering vehicle and its precious burden, which, like the Ark when sent
+away from the country of the Philistines, had apparently been left to the
+instincts of the beast that drew it.  A labouring man, just at daybreak,
+had seen the helpless party going slowly up a distant drive, which he
+pointed out.
+
+No sooner had Festus parted from this informant than he beheld Bob
+approaching, mounted on the miller's second and heavier horse.  Bob
+looked rather surprised, and Festus felt his coming glory in danger.
+
+'They went down that lane,' he said, signifying precisely the opposite
+direction to the true one.  'I, too, have been on the look-out for
+missing friends.'
+
+As Festus was riding back there was no reason to doubt his information,
+and Loveday rode on as misdirected.  Immediately that he was out of sight
+Festus reversed his course, and followed the track which Anne and her
+companions were last seen to pursue.
+
+This road had been ascended by the gig in question nearly two hours
+before the present moment.  Molly, the servant, held the reins, Mrs.
+Loveday sat beside her, and Anne behind.  Their progress was but slow,
+owing partly to Molly's want of skill, and partly to the steepness of the
+road, which here passed over downs of some extent, and was rarely or
+never mended.  It was an anxious morning for them all, and the beauties
+of the early summer day fell upon unheeding eyes.  They were too anxious
+even for conjecture, and each sat thinking her own thoughts, occasionally
+glancing westward, or stopping the horse to listen to sounds from more
+frequented roads along which other parties were retreating.  Once, while
+they listened and gazed thus, they saw a glittering in the distance, and
+heard the tramp of many horses.  It was a large body of cavalry going in
+the direction of the King's watering-place, the same regiment of
+dragoons, in fact, which Festus had seen further on in its course.  The
+women in the gig had no doubt that these men were marching at once to
+engage the enemy.  By way of varying the monotony of the journey Molly
+occasionally burst into tears of horror, believing Buonaparte to be in
+countenance and habits precisely what the caricatures represented him.
+Mrs. Loveday endeavoured to establish cheerfulness by assuring her
+companions of the natural civility of the French nation, with whom
+unprotected women were safe from injury, unless through the casual
+excesses of soldiery beyond control.  This was poor consolation to Anne,
+whose mind was more occupied with Bob than with herself, and a miserable
+fear that she would never again see him alive so paled her face and
+saddened her gaze forward, that at last her mother said, 'Who was you
+thinking of, my dear?'  Anne's only reply was a look at her mother, with
+which a tear mingled.
+
+Molly whipped the horse, by which she quickened his pace for five yards,
+when he again fell into the perverse slowness that showed how fully
+conscious he was of being the master-mind and chief personage of the
+four.  Whenever there was a pool of water by the road he turned aside to
+drink a mouthful, and remained there his own time in spite of Molly's tug
+at the reins and futile fly-flapping on his rump.  They were now in the
+chalk district, where there were no hedges, and a rough attempt at
+mending the way had been made by throwing down huge lumps of that glaring
+material in heaps, without troubling to spread it or break them abroad.
+The jolting here was most distressing, and seemed about to snap the
+springs.
+
+'How that wheel do wamble,' said Molly at last.  She had scarcely spoken
+when the wheel came off, and all three were precipitated over it into the
+road.
+
+Fortunately the horse stood still, and they began to gather themselves
+up.  The only one of the three who had suffered in the least from the
+fall was Anne, and she was only conscious of a severe shaking which had
+half stupefied her for the time.  The wheel lay flat in the road, so that
+there was no possibility of driving further in their present plight.  They
+looked around for help.  The only friendly object near was a lonely
+cottage, from its situation evidently the home of a shepherd.
+
+The horse was unharnessed and tied to the back of the gig, and the three
+women went across to the house.  On getting close they found that the
+shutters of all the lower windows were closed, but on trying the door it
+opened to the hand.  Nobody was within; the house appeared to have been
+abandoned in some confusion, and the probability was that the shepherd
+had fled on hearing the alarm.  Anne now said that she felt the effects
+of her fall too severely to be able to go any further just then, and it
+was agreed that she should be left there while Mrs. Loveday and Molly
+went on for assistance, the elder lady deeming Molly too young and vacant-
+minded to be trusted to go alone.  Molly suggested taking the horse, as
+the distance might be great, each of them sitting alternately on his back
+while the other led him by the head.  This they did, Anne watching them
+vanish down the white and lumpy road.
+
+She then looked round the room, as well as she could do so by the light
+from the open door.  It was plain, from the shutters being closed, that
+the shepherd had left his house before daylight, the candle and
+extinguisher on the table pointing to the same conclusion.  Here she
+remained, her eyes occasionally sweeping the bare, sunny expanse of down,
+that was only relieved from absolute emptiness by the overturned gig hard
+by.  The sheep seemed to have gone away, and scarcely a bird flew across
+to disturb the solitude.  Anne had risen early that morning, and leaning
+back in the withy chair, which she had placed by the door, she soon fell
+into an uneasy doze, from which she was awakened by the distant tramp of
+a horse.  Feeling much recovered from the effects of the overturn, she
+eagerly rose and looked out.  The horse was not Miller Loveday's, but a
+powerful bay, bearing a man in full yeomanry uniform.
+
+Anne did not wait to recognize further; instantly re-entering the house,
+she shut the door and bolted it.  In the dark she sat and listened: not a
+sound.  At the end of ten minutes, thinking that the rider if he were not
+Festus had carelessly passed by, or that if he were Festus he had not
+seen her, she crept softly upstairs and peeped out of the window.
+Excepting the spot of shade, formed by the gig as before, the down was
+quite bare.  She then opened the casement and stretched out her neck.
+
+'Ha, young madam!  There you are!  I knew 'ee!  Now you are caught!' came
+like a clap of thunder from a point three or four feet beneath her, and
+turning down her frightened eyes she beheld Festus Derriman lurking close
+to the wall.  His attention had first been attracted by her shutting the
+door of the cottage; then by the overturned gig; and after making sure,
+by examining the vehicle, that he was not mistaken in her identity, he
+had dismounted, led his horse round to the side, and crept up to entrap
+her.
+
+Anne started back into the room, and remained still as a stone.  Festus
+went on--'Come, you must trust to me.  The French have landed.  I have
+been trying to meet with you every hour since that confounded trick you
+played me.  You threw me into the water.  Faith, it was well for you I
+didn't catch ye then!  I should have taken a revenge in a better way than
+I shall now.  I mean to have that kiss of ye.  Come, Miss Nancy; do you
+hear?--'Tis no use for you to lurk inside there.  You'll have to turn out
+as soon as Boney comes over the hill--Are you going to open the door, I
+say, and speak to me in a civil way?  What do you think I am, then, that
+you should barricade yourself against me as if I was a wild beast or
+Frenchman?  Open the door, or put out your head, or do something; or 'pon
+my soul I'll break in the door!'
+
+It occurred to Anne at this point of the tirade that the best policy
+would be to temporize till somebody should return, and she put out her
+head and face, now grown somewhat pale.
+
+'That's better,' said Festus.  'Now I can talk to you.  Come, my dear,
+will you open the door?  Why should you be afraid of me?'
+
+'I am not altogether afraid of you; I am safe from the French here,' said
+Anne, not very truthfully, and anxiously casting her eyes over the vacant
+down.
+
+'Then let me tell you that the alarm is false, and that no landing has
+been attempted.  Now will you open the door and let me in?  I am tired.  I
+have been on horseback ever since daylight, and have come to bring you
+the good tidings.'
+
+Anne looked as if she doubted the news.
+
+'Come,' said Festus.
+
+'No, I cannot let you in,' she murmured, after a pause.
+
+'Dash my wig, then,' he cried, his face flaming up, 'I'll find a way to
+get in!  Now, don't you provoke me!  You don't know what I am capable of.
+I ask you again, will you open the door?'
+
+'Why do you wish it?' she said faintly.
+
+'I have told you I want to sit down; and I want to ask you a question.'
+
+'You can ask me from where you are.'
+
+'I cannot ask you properly.  It is about a serious matter: whether you
+will accept my heart and hand.  I am not going to throw myself at your
+feet; but I ask you to do your duty as a woman, namely, give your solemn
+word to take my name as soon as the war is over and I have time to attend
+to you.  I scorn to ask it of a haughty hussy who will only speak to me
+through a window; however, I put it to you for the last time, madam.'
+
+There was no sign on the down of anybody's return, and she said, 'I'll
+think of it, sir.'
+
+'You have thought of it long enough; I want to know.  Will you or won't
+you?'
+
+'Very well; I think I will.'  And then she felt that she might be buying
+personal safety too dearly by shuffling thus, since he would spread the
+report that she had accepted him, and cause endless complication.  'No,'
+she said, 'I have changed my mind.  I cannot accept you, Mr. Derriman.'
+
+'That's how you play with me!' he exclaimed, stamping.  '"Yes," one
+moment; "No," the next.  Come, you don't know what you refuse.  That old
+hall is my uncle's own, and he has nobody else to leave it to.  As soon
+as he's dead I shall throw up farming and start as a squire.  And now,'
+he added with a bitter sneer, 'what a fool you are to hang back from such
+a chance!'
+
+'Thank you, I don't value it,' said Anne.
+
+'Because you hate him who would make it yours?'
+
+'It may not lie in your power to do that.'
+
+'What--has the old fellow been telling you his affairs?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Then why do you mistrust me?  Now, after this will you open the door,
+and show that you treat me as a friend if you won't accept me as a lover?
+I only want to sit and talk to you.'
+
+Anne thought she would trust him; it seemed almost impossible that he
+could harm her.  She retired from the window and went downstairs.  When
+her hand was upon the bolt of the door, her mind misgave her.  Instead of
+withdrawing it she remained in silence where she was, and he began again--
+
+'Are you going to unfasten it?'
+
+Anne did not speak.
+
+'Now, dash my wig, I will get at you!  You've tried me beyond endurance.
+One kiss would have been enough that day in the mead; now I'll have
+forty, whether you will or no!'
+
+He flung himself against the door; but as it was bolted, and had in
+addition a great wooden bar across it, this produced no effect.  He was
+silent for a moment, and then the terrified girl heard him attempt the
+shuttered window.  She ran upstairs and again scanned the down.  The
+yellow gig still lay in the blazing sunshine, and the horse of Festus
+stood by the corner of the garden--nothing else was to be seen.  At this
+moment there came to her ear the noise of a sword drawn from its
+scabbard; and, peeping over the window-sill, she saw her tormentor drive
+his sword between the joints of the shutters, in an attempt to rip them
+open.  The sword snapped off in his hand.  With an imprecation he pulled
+out the piece, and returned the two halves to the scabbard.
+
+'Ha! ha!' he cried, catching sight of the top of her head.  ''Tis only a
+joke, you know; but I'll get in all the same.  All for a kiss!  But never
+mind, we'll do it yet!'  He spoke in an affectedly light tone, as if
+ashamed of his previous resentful temper; but she could see by the livid
+back of his neck that he was brimful of suppressed passion.  'Only a
+jest, you know,' he went on.  'How are we going to do it now?  Why, in
+this way.  I go and get a ladder, and enter at the upper window where my
+love is.  And there's the ladder lying under that corn-rick in the first
+enclosed field.  Back in two minutes, dear!'
+
+He ran off, and was lost to her view.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.  ANNE DOES WONDERS
+
+
+Anne fearfully surveyed her position.  The upper windows of the cottage
+were of flimsiest lead-work, and to keep him out would be hopeless.  She
+felt that not a moment was to be lost in getting away.  Running
+downstairs she opened the door, and then it occurred to her terrified
+understanding that there would be no chance of escaping him by flight
+afoot across such an extensive down, since he might mount his horse and
+easily ride after her.  The animal still remained tethered at the corner
+of the garden; if she could release him and frighten him away before
+Festus returned, there would not be quite such odds against her.  She
+accordingly unhooked the horse by reaching over the bank, and then,
+pulling off her muslin neckerchief, flapped it in his eyes to startle
+him.  But the gallant steed did not move or flinch; she tried again, and
+he seemed rather pleased than otherwise.  At this moment she heard a cry
+from the cottage, and turning, beheld her adversary approaching round the
+corner of the building.
+
+'I thought I should tole out the mouse by that trick!' cried Festus
+exultingly.  Instead of going for a ladder, he had simply hidden himself
+at the back to tempt her down.
+
+Poor Anne was now desperate.  The bank on which she stood was level with
+the horse's back, and the creature seemed quiet as a lamb.  With a
+determination of which she was capable in emergencies, she seized the
+rein, flung herself upon the sheepskin, and held on by the mane.  The
+amazed charger lifted his head, sniffed, wrenched his ears hither and
+thither, and started off at a frightful speed across the down.
+
+'O, my heart and limbs!' said Festus under his breath, as, thoroughly
+alarmed, he gazed after her.  'She on Champion!  She'll break her neck,
+and I shall be tried for manslaughter, and disgrace will be brought upon
+the name of Derriman!'
+
+Champion continued to go at a stretch-gallop, but he did nothing worse.
+Had he plunged or reared, Derriman's fears might have been verified, and
+Anne have come with deadly force to the ground.  But the course was good,
+and in the horse's speed lay a comparative security.  She was scarcely
+shaken in her precarious half-horizontal position, though she was awed to
+see the grass, loose stones, and other objects pass her eyes like strokes
+whenever she opened them, which was only just for a second at intervals
+of half a minute; and to feel how wildly the stirrups swung, and that
+what struck her knee was the bucket of the carbine, and that it was a
+pistol-holster which hurt her arm.
+
+They quickly cleared the down, and Anne became conscious that the course
+of the horse was homeward.  As soon as the ground began to rise towards
+the outer belt of upland which lay between her and the coast, Champion,
+now panting and reeking with moisture, lessened his speed in sheer
+weariness, and proceeded at a rapid jolting trot.  Anne felt that she
+could not hold on half so well; the gallop had been child's play compared
+with this.  They were in a lane, ascending to a ridge, and she made up
+her mind for a fall.  Over the ridge rose an animated spot, higher and
+higher; it turned out to be the upper part of a man, and the man to be a
+soldier.  Such was Anne's attitude that she only got an occasional
+glimpse of him; and, though she feared that he might be a Frenchman, she
+feared the horse more than the enemy, as she had feared Festus more than
+the horse.  Anne had energy enough left to cry, 'Stop him; stop him!' as
+the soldier drew near.
+
+He, astonished at the sight of a military horse with a bundle of drapery
+across his back, had already placed himself in the middle of the lane,
+and he now held out his arms till his figure assumed the form of a Latin
+cross planted in the roadway.  Champion drew near, swerved, and stood
+still almost suddenly, a check sufficient to send Anne slipping down his
+flank to the ground.  The timely friend stepped forward and helped her to
+her feet, when she saw that he was John Loveday.
+
+'Are you hurt?' he said hastily, having turned quite pale at seeing her
+fall.
+
+'O no; not a bit,' said Anne, gathering herself up with forced briskness,
+to make light of the misadventure.
+
+'But how did you get in such a place?'
+
+'There, he's gone!' she exclaimed, instead of replying, as Champion swept
+round John Loveday and cantered off triumphantly in the direction of
+Oxwell, a performance which she followed with her eyes.
+
+'But how did you come upon his back, and whose horse is it?'
+
+'I will tell you.'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'I--cannot tell you.'
+
+John looked steadily at her, saying nothing.
+
+'How did you come here?' she asked.  'Is it true that the French have not
+landed at all?'
+
+'Quite true; the alarm was groundless.  I'll tell you all about it.  You
+look very tired.  You had better sit down a few minutes.  Let us sit on
+this bank.'
+
+He helped her to the slope indicated, and continued, still as if his
+thoughts were more occupied with the mystery of her recent situation than
+with what he was saying: 'We arrived at Budmouth Barracks this morning,
+and are to lie there all the summer.  I could not write to tell father we
+were coming.  It was not because of any rumour of the French, for we knew
+nothing of that till we met the people on the road, and the colonel said
+in a moment the news was false.  Buonaparte is not even at Boulogne just
+now.  I was anxious to know how you had borne the fright, so I hastened
+to Overcombe at once, as soon as I could get out of barracks.'
+
+Anne, who had not been at all responsive to his discourse, now swayed
+heavily against him, and looking quickly down he found that she had
+silently fainted.  To support her in his arms was of course the impulse
+of a moment.  There was no water to be had, and he could think of nothing
+else but to hold her tenderly till she came round again.  Certainly he
+desired nothing more.
+
+Again he asked himself, what did it all mean?
+
+He waited, looking down upon her tired eyelids, and at the row of lashes
+lying upon each cheek, whose natural roundness showed itself in singular
+perfection now that the customary pink had given place to a pale
+luminousness caught from the surrounding atmosphere.  The dumpy ringlets
+about her forehead and behind her poll, which were usually as tight as
+springs, had been partially uncoiled by the wildness of her ride, and
+hung in split locks over her forehead and neck.  John, who, during the
+long months of his absence, had lived only to meet her again, was in a
+state of ecstatic reverence, and bending down he gently kissed her.
+
+Anne was just becoming conscious.
+
+'O, Mr. Derriman, never, never!' she murmured, sweeping her face with her
+hand.
+
+'I thought he was at the bottom of it,' said John.
+
+Anne opened her eyes, and started back from him.  'What is it?' she said
+wildly.
+
+'You are ill, my dear Miss Garland,' replied John in trembling anxiety,
+and taking her hand.
+
+'I am not ill, I am wearied out!' she said.  'Can't we walk on?  How far
+are we from Overcombe?'
+
+'About a mile.  But tell me, somebody has been hurting you--frightening
+you.  I know who it was; it was Derriman, and that was his horse.  Now do
+you tell me all.'
+
+Anne reflected.  'Then if I tell you,' she said, 'will you discuss with
+me what I had better do, and not for the present let my mother and your
+father know?  I don't want to alarm them, and I must not let my affairs
+interrupt the business connexion between the mill and the hall that has
+gone on for so many years.'
+
+The trumpet-major promised, and Anne told the adventure.  His brow
+reddened as she went on, and when she had done she said, 'Now you are
+angry.  Don't do anything dreadful, will you?  Remember that this Festus
+will most likely succeed his uncle at Oxwell, in spite of present
+appearances, and if Bob succeeds at the mill there should be no enmity
+between them.'
+
+'That's true.  I won't tell Bob.  Leave him to me.  Where is Derriman
+now?  On his way home, I suppose.  When I have seen you into the house I
+will deal with him--quite quietly, so that he shall say nothing about
+it.'
+
+'Yes, appeal to him, do!  Perhaps he will be better then.'
+
+They walked on together, Loveday seeming to experience much quiet bliss.
+
+'I came to look for you,' he said, 'because of that dear, sweet letter
+you wrote.'
+
+'Yes, I did write you a letter,' she admitted, with misgiving, now
+beginning to see her mistake.  'It was because I was sorry I had blamed
+you.'
+
+'I am almost glad you did blame me,' said John cheerfully, 'since, if you
+had not, the letter would not have come.  I have read it fifty times a
+day.'
+
+This put Anne into an unhappy mood, and they proceeded without much
+further talk till the mill chimneys were visible below them.  John then
+said that he would leave her to go in by herself.
+
+'Ah, you are going back to get into some danger on my account?'
+
+'I can't get into much danger with such a fellow as he, can I?' said
+John, smiling.
+
+'Well, no,' she answered, with a sudden carelessness of tone.  It was
+indispensable that he should be undeceived, and to begin the process by
+taking an affectedly light view of his personal risks was perhaps as good
+a way to do it as any.  Where friendliness was construed as love, an
+assumed indifference was the necessary expression for friendliness.
+
+So she let him go; and, bidding him hasten back as soon as he could, went
+down the hill, while John's feet retraced the upland.
+
+The trumpet-major spent the whole afternoon and evening in that long and
+difficult search for Festus Derriman.  Crossing the down at the end of
+the second hour he met Molly and Mrs. Loveday.  The gig had been
+repaired, they had learnt the groundlessness of the alarm, and they would
+have been proceeding happily enough but for their anxiety about Anne.
+John told them shortly that she had got a lift home, and proceeded on his
+way.
+
+The worthy object of his search had in the meantime been plodding
+homeward on foot, sulky at the loss of his charger, encumbered with his
+sword, belts, high boots, and uniform, and in his own discomfiture
+careless whether Anne Garland's life had been endangered or not.
+
+At length Derriman reached a place where the road ran between high banks,
+one of which he mounted and paced along as a change from the hard
+trackway.  Ahead of him he saw an old man sitting down, with eyes fixed
+on the dust of the road, as if resting and meditating at one and the same
+time.  Being pretty sure that he recognized his uncle in that venerable
+figure, Festus came forward stealthily, till he was immediately above the
+old man's back.  The latter was clothed in faded nankeen breeches,
+speckled stockings, a drab hat, and a coat which had once been light
+blue, but from exposure as a scarecrow had assumed the complexion and
+fibre of a dried pudding-cloth.  The farmer was, in fact, returning to
+the hall, which he had left in the morning some time later than his
+nephew, to seek an asylum in a hollow tree about two miles off.  The tree
+was so situated as to command a view of the building, and Uncle Benjy had
+managed to clamber up inside this natural fortification high enough to
+watch his residence through a hole in the bark, till, gathering from the
+words of occasional passers-by that the alarm was at least premature, he
+had ventured into daylight again.
+
+He was now engaged in abstractedly tracing a diagram in the dust with his
+walking-stick, and muttered words to himself aloud.  Presently he arose
+and went on his way without turning round.  Festus was curious enough to
+descend and look at the marks.  They represented an oblong, with two semi-
+diagonals, and a little square in the middle.  Upon the diagonals were
+the figures 20 and 17, and on each side of the parallelogram stood a
+letter signifying the point of the compass.
+
+'What crazy thing is running in his head now?' said Festus to himself,
+with supercilious pity, recollecting that the farmer had been singing
+those very numbers earlier in the morning.  Being able to make nothing of
+it, he lengthened his strides, and treading on tiptoe overtook his
+relative, saluting him by scratching his back like a hen.  The startled
+old farmer danced round like a top, and gasping, said, as he perceived
+his nephew, 'What, Festy! not thrown from your horse and killed, then,
+after all!'
+
+'No, nunc.  What made ye think that?'
+
+'Champion passed me about an hour ago, when I was in hiding--poor timid
+soul of me, for I had nothing to lose by the French coming--and he looked
+awful with the stirrups dangling and the saddle empty.  'Tis a gloomy
+sight, Festy, to see a horse cantering without a rider, and I thought you
+had been--feared you had been thrown off and killed as dead as a nit.'
+
+'Bless your dear old heart for being so anxious!  And what pretty picture
+were you drawing just now with your walking-stick!'
+
+'O, that!  That is only a way I have of amusing myself.  It showed how
+the French might have advanced to the attack, you know.  Such trifles
+fill the head of a weak old man like me.'
+
+'Or the place where something is hid away--money, for instance?'
+
+'Festy,' said the farmer reproachfully, 'you always know I use the old
+glove in the bedroom cupboard for any guinea or two I possess.'
+
+'Of course I do,' said Festus ironically.
+
+They had now reached a lonely inn about a mile and a half from the hall,
+and, the farmer not responding to his nephew's kind invitation to come in
+and treat him, Festus entered alone.  He was dusty, draggled, and weary,
+and he remained at the tavern long.  The trumpet-major, in the meantime,
+having searched the roads in vain, heard in the course of the evening of
+the yeoman's arrival at this place, and that he would probably be found
+there still.  He accordingly approached the door, reaching it just as the
+dusk of evening changed to darkness.
+
+There was no light in the passage, but John pushed on at hazard, inquired
+for Derriman, and was told that he would be found in the back parlour
+alone.  When Loveday first entered the apartment he was unable to see
+anything, but following the guidance of a vigorous snoring, he came to
+the settle, upon which Festus lay asleep, his position being faintly
+signified by the shine of his buttons and other parts of his uniform.
+John laid his hand upon the reclining figure and shook him, and by
+degrees Derriman stopped his snore and sat up.
+
+'Who are you?' he said, in the accents of a man who has been drinking
+hard.  'Is it you, dear Anne?  Let me kiss you; yes, I will.'
+
+'Shut your mouth, you pitiful blockhead; I'll teach you genteeler manners
+than to persecute a young woman in that way!' and taking Festus by the
+ear, he gave it a good pull.  Festus broke out with an oath, and struck a
+vague blow in the air with his fist; whereupon the trumpet-major dealt
+him a box on the right ear, and a similar one on the left to artistically
+balance the first.  Festus jumped up and used his fists wildly, but
+without any definite result.
+
+'Want to fight, do ye, eh?' said John.  'Nonsense! you can't fight, you
+great baby, and never could.  You are only fit to be smacked!' and he
+dealt Festus a specimen of the same on the cheek with the palm of his
+hand.
+
+'No, sir, no!  O, you are Loveday, the young man she's going to be
+married to, I suppose?  Dash me, I didn't want to hurt her, sir.'
+
+'Yes, my name is Loveday; and you'll know where to find me, since we
+can't finish this to-night.  Pistols or swords, whichever you like, my
+boy.  Take that, and that, so that you may not forget to call upon me!'
+and again he smacked the yeoman's ears and cheeks.  'Do you know what it
+is for, eh?'
+
+'No, Mr. Loveday, sir--yes, I mean, I do.'
+
+'What is it for, then?  I shall keep smacking until you tell me.  Gad! if
+you weren't drunk, I'd half kill you here to-night.'
+
+'It is because I served her badly.  Damned if I care!  I'll do it again,
+and be hanged to 'ee!  Where's my horse Champion?  Tell me that,' and he
+hit at the trumpet-major.
+
+John parried this attack, and taking him firmly by the collar, pushed him
+down into the seat, saying, 'Here I hold 'ee till you beg pardon for your
+doings to-day.  Do you want any more of it, do you?'  And he shook the
+yeoman to a sort of jelly.
+
+'I do beg pardon--no, I don't.  I say this, that you shall not take such
+liberties with old Squire Derriman's nephew, you dirty miller's son, you
+flour-worm, you smut in the corn!  I'll call you out to-morrow morning,
+and have my revenge.'
+
+'Of course you will; that's what I came for.'  And pushing him back into
+the corner of the settle, Loveday went out of the house, feeling
+considerable satisfaction at having got himself into the beginning of as
+nice a quarrel about Anne Garland as the most jealous lover could desire.
+
+But of one feature in this curious adventure he had not the least
+notion--that Festus Derriman, misled by the darkness, the fumes of his
+potations, and the constant sight of Anne and Bob together, never once
+supposed his assailant to be any other man than Bob, believing the
+trumpet-major miles away.
+
+There was a moon during the early part of John's walk home, but when he
+had arrived within a mile of Overcombe the sky clouded over, and rain
+suddenly began to fall with some violence.  Near him was a wooden granary
+on tall stone staddles, and perceiving that the rain was only a
+thunderstorm which would soon pass away, he ascended the steps and
+entered the doorway, where he stood watching the half-obscured moon
+through the streaming rain.  Presently, to his surprise, he beheld a
+female figure running forward with great rapidity, not towards the
+granary for shelter, but towards open ground.  What could she be running
+for in that direction?  The answer came in the appearance of his brother
+Bob from that quarter, seated on the back of his father's heavy horse.  As
+soon as the woman met him, Bob dismounted and caught her in his arms.
+They stood locked together, the rain beating into their unconscious
+forms, and the horse looking on.
+
+The trumpet-major fell back inside the granary, and threw himself on a
+heap of empty sacks which lay in the corner: he had recognized the woman
+to be Anne.  Here he reclined in a stupor till he was aroused by the
+sound of voices under him, the voices of Anne and his brother, who,
+having at last discovered that they were getting wet, had taken shelter
+under the granary floor.
+
+'I have been home,' said she.  'Mother and Molly have both got back long
+ago.  We were all anxious about you, and I came out to look for you.  O,
+Bob, I am so glad to see you again!'
+
+John might have heard every word of the conversation, which was continued
+in the same strain for a long time; but he stopped his ears, and would
+not.  Still they remained, and still was he determined that they should
+not see him.  With the conserved hope of more than half a year dashed
+away in a moment, he could yet feel that the cruelty of a protest would
+be even greater than its inutility.  It was absolutely by his own
+contrivance that the situation had been shaped.  Bob, left to himself,
+would long ere this have been the husband of another woman.
+
+The rain decreased, and the lovers went on.  John looked after them as
+they strolled, aqua-tinted by the weak moon and mist.  Bob had thrust one
+of his arms through the rein of the horse, and the other was round Anne's
+waist.  When they were lost behind the declivity the trumpet-major came
+out, and walked homeward even more slowly than they.  As he went on, his
+face put off its complexion of despair for one of serene resolve.  For
+the first time in his dealings with friends he entered upon a course of
+counterfeiting, set his features to conceal his thought, and instructed
+his tongue to do likewise.  He threw fictitiousness into his very gait,
+even now, when there was nobody to see him, and struck at stems of wild
+parsley with his regimental switch as he had used to do when soldiering
+was new to him, and life in general a charming experience.
+
+Thus cloaking his sickly thought, he descended to the mill as the others
+had done before him, occasionally looking down upon the wet road to
+notice how close Anne's little tracks were to Bob's all the way along,
+and how precisely a curve in his course was followed by a curve in hers.
+But after this he erected his head and walked so smartly up to the front
+door that his spurs rang through the court.
+
+They had all reached home, but before any of them could speak he cried
+gaily, 'Ah, Bob, I have been thinking of you!  By God, how are you, my
+boy?  No French cut-throats after all, you see.  Here we are, well and
+happy together again.'
+
+'A good Providence has watched over us,' said Mrs. Loveday cheerfully.
+'Yes, in all times and places we are in God's hand.'
+
+'So we be, so we be!' said the miller, who still shone in all the
+fierceness of uniform.  'Well, now we'll ha'e a drop o' drink.'
+
+'There's none,' said David, coming forward with a drawn face.
+
+'What!' said the miller.
+
+'Afore I went to church for a pike to defend my native country from
+Boney, I pulled out the spigots of all the barrels, maister; for, thinks
+I--damn him!--since we can't drink it ourselves, he shan't have it, nor
+none of his men.'
+
+'But you shouldn't have done it till you was sure he'd come!' said the
+miller, aghast.
+
+'Chok' it all, I was sure!' said David.  'I'd sooner see churches fall
+than good drink wasted; but how was I to know better?'
+
+'Well, well; what with one thing and another this day will cost me a
+pretty penny!' said Loveday, bustling off to the cellar, which he found
+to be several inches deep in stagnant liquor.  'John, how can I welcome
+'ee?' he continued hopelessly, on his return to the room.  'Only go and
+see what he's done!'
+
+'I've ladled up a drap wi' a spoon, trumpet-major,' said David.  ''Tisn't
+bad drinking, though it do taste a little of the floor, that's true.'
+
+John said that he did not require anything at all; and then they all sat
+down to supper, and were very temperately gay with a drop of mild elder-
+wine which Mrs. Loveday found in the bottom of a jar.  The trumpet-major,
+adhering to the part he meant to play, gave humorous accounts of his
+adventures since he had last sat there.  He told them that the season was
+to be a very lively one--that the royal family was coming, as usual, and
+many other interesting things; so that when he left them to return to
+barracks few would have supposed the British army to contain a lighter-
+hearted man.
+
+Anne was the only one who doubted the reality of this behaviour.  When
+she had gone up to her bedroom she stood for some time looking at the
+wick of the candle as if it were a painful object, the expression of her
+face being shaped by the conviction that John's afternoon words when he
+helped her out of the way of Champion were not in accordance with his
+words to-night, and that the dimly-realized kiss during her faintness was
+no imaginary one.  But in the blissful circumstances of having Bob at
+hand again she took optimist views, and persuaded herself that John would
+soon begin to see her in the light of a sister.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.  A DISSEMBLER
+
+
+To cursory view, John Loveday seemed to accomplish this with amazing
+ease.  Whenever he came from barracks to Overcombe, which was once or
+twice a week, he related news of all sorts to her and Bob with infinite
+zest, and made the time as happy a one as had ever been known at the
+mill, save for himself alone.  He said nothing of Festus, except so far
+as to inform Anne that he had expected to see him and been disappointed.
+On the evening after the King's arrival at his seaside residence John
+appeared again, staying to supper and describing the royal entry, the
+many tasteful illuminations and transparencies which had been exhibited,
+the quantities of tallow candles burnt for that purpose, and the swarms
+of aristocracy who had followed the King thither.
+
+When supper was over Bob went outside the house to shut the shutters,
+which had, as was often the case, been left open some time after lights
+were kindled within.  John still sat at the table when his brother
+approached the window, though the others had risen and retired.  Bob was
+struck by seeing through the pane how John's face had changed.  Throughout
+the supper-time he had been talking to Anne in the gay tone habitual with
+him now, which gave greater strangeness to the gloom of his present
+appearance.  He remained in thought for a moment, took a letter from his
+breast-pocket, opened it, and, with a tender smile at his weakness,
+kissed the writing before restoring it to its place.  The letter was one
+that Anne had written to him at Exonbury.
+
+Bob stood perplexed; and then a suspicion crossed his mind that John,
+from brotherly goodness, might be feigning a satisfaction with recent
+events which he did not feel.  Bob now made a noise with the shutters, at
+which the trumpet-major rose and went out, Bob at once following him.
+
+'Jack,' said the sailor ingenuously, 'I'm terribly sorry that I've done
+wrong.'
+
+'How?' asked his brother.
+
+'In courting our little Anne.  Well, you see, John, she was in the same
+house with me, and somehow or other I made myself her beau.  But I have
+been thinking that perhaps you had the first claim on her, and if so,
+Jack, I'll make way for 'ee.  I--I don't care for her much, you know--not
+so very much, and can give her up very well.  It is nothing serious
+between us at all.  Yes, John, you try to get her; I can look elsewhere.'
+Bob never knew how much he loved Anne till he found himself making this
+speech of renunciation.
+
+'O Bob, you are mistaken!' said the trumpet-major, who was not deceived.
+'When I first saw her I admired her, and I admire her now, and like her.
+I like her so well that I shall be glad to see you marry her.'
+
+'But,' replied Bob, with hesitation, 'I thought I saw you looking very
+sad, as if you were in love; I saw you take out a letter, in short.
+That's what it was disturbed me and made me come to you.'
+
+'O, I see your mistake!' said John, laughing forcedly.
+
+At this minute Mrs. Loveday and the miller, who were taking a twilight
+walk in the garden, strolled round near to where the brothers stood.  She
+talked volubly on events in Budmouth, as most people did at this time.
+'And they tell me that the theatre has been painted up afresh,' she was
+saying, 'and that the actors have come for the season, with the most
+lovely actresses that ever were seen.'
+
+When they had passed by John continued, 'I _am_ in love, Bob; but--not
+with Anne.'
+
+'Ah! who is it then?' said the mate hopefully.
+
+'One of the actresses at the theatre,' John replied, with a concoctive
+look at the vanishing forms of Mr. and Mrs. Loveday.  'She is a very
+lovely woman, you know.  But we won't say anything more about it--it
+dashes a man so.'
+
+'O, one of the actresses!' said Bob, with open mouth.
+
+'But don't you say anything about it!' continued the trumpet-major
+heartily.  'I don't want it known.'
+
+'No, no--I won't, of course.  May I not know her name?'
+
+'No, not now, Bob.  I cannot tell 'ee,' John answered, and with truth,
+for Loveday did not know the name of any actress in the world.
+
+When his brother had gone, Captain Bob hastened off in a state of great
+animation to Anne, whom he found on the top of a neighbouring hillock
+which the daylight had scarcely as yet deserted.
+
+'You have been a long time coming, sir,' said she, in sprightly tones of
+reproach.
+
+'Yes, dearest; and you'll be glad to hear why.  I've found out the whole
+mystery--yes--why he's queer, and everything.'
+
+Anne looked startled.
+
+'He's up to the gunnel in love!  We must try to help him on in it, or I
+fear he'll go melancholy-mad like.'
+
+'We help him?' she asked faintly.
+
+'He's lost his heart to one of the play-actresses at Budmouth, and I
+think she slights him.'
+
+'O, I am so glad!' she exclaimed.
+
+'Glad that his venture don't prosper?'
+
+'O no; glad he's so sensible.  How long is it since that alarm of the
+French?'
+
+'Six weeks, honey.  Why do you ask?'
+
+'Men can forget in six weeks, can't they, Bob?'
+
+The impression that John had really kissed her still remained.
+
+'Well, some men might,' observed Bob judicially.  '_I_ couldn't.  Perhaps
+John might.  I couldn't forget _you_ in twenty times as long.  Do you
+know, Anne, I half thought it was you John cared about; and it was a
+weight off my heart when he said he didn't.'
+
+'Did he say he didn't?'
+
+'Yes.  He assured me himself that the only person in the hold of his
+heart was this lovely play-actress, and nobody else.'
+
+'How I should like to see her!'
+
+'Yes.  So should I.'
+
+'I would rather it had been one of our own neighbours' girls, whose birth
+and breeding we know of; but still, if that is his taste, I hope it will
+end well for him.  How very quick he has been!  I certainly wish we could
+see her.'
+
+'I don't know so much as her name.  He is very close, and wouldn't tell a
+thing about her.'
+
+'Couldn't we get him to go to the theatre with us? and then we could
+watch him, and easily find out the right one.  Then we would learn if she
+is a good young woman; and if she is, could we not ask her here, and so
+make it smoother for him?  He has been very gay lately; that means
+budding love: and sometimes between his gaieties he has had melancholy
+moments; that means there's difficulty.'
+
+Bob thought her plan a good one, and resolved to put it in practice on
+the first available evening.  Anne was very curious as to whether John
+did really cherish a new passion, the story having quite surprised her.
+Possibly it was true; six weeks had passed since John had shown a single
+symptom of the old attachment, and what could not that space of time
+effect in the heart of a soldier whose very profession it was to leave
+girls behind him?
+
+After this John Loveday did not come to see them for nearly a month, a
+neglect which was set down by Bob as an additional proof that his
+brother's affections were no longer exclusively centred in his old home.
+When at last he did arrive, and the theatre-going was mentioned to him,
+the flush of consciousness which Anne expected to see upon his face was
+unaccountably absent.
+
+'Yes, Bob; I should very well like to go to the theatre,' he replied
+heartily.  'Who is going besides?'
+
+'Only Anne,' Bob told him, and then it seemed to occur to the trumpet-
+major that something had been expected of him.  He rose and said
+privately to Bob with some confusion, 'O yes, of course we'll go.  As I
+am connected with one of the--in short I can get you in for nothing, you
+know.  At least let me manage everything.'
+
+'Yes, yes.  I wonder you didn't propose to take us before, Jack, and let
+us have a good look at her.'
+
+'I ought to have.  You shall go on a King's night.  You won't want me to
+point her out, Bob; I have my reasons at present for asking it?'
+
+'We'll be content with guessing,' said his brother.
+
+When the gallant John was gone, Anne observed, 'Bob, how he is changed!  I
+watched him.  He showed no feeling, even when you burst upon him suddenly
+with the subject nearest his heart.'
+
+'It must be because his suit don't fay,' said Captain Bob.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.  AT THE THEATRE ROYAL
+
+
+In two or three days a message arrived asking them to attend at the
+theatre on the coming evening, with the added request that they would
+dress in their gayest clothes, to do justice to the places taken.
+Accordingly, in the course of the afternoon they drove off, Bob having
+clothed himself in a splendid suit, recently purchased as an attempt to
+bring himself nearer to Anne's style when they appeared in public
+together.  As finished off by this dashing and really fashionable attire,
+he was the perfection of a beau in the dog-days; pantaloons and boots of
+the newest make; yards and yards of muslin wound round his neck, forming
+a sort of asylum for the lower part of his face; two fancy waistcoats,
+and coat-buttons like circular shaving glasses.  The absurd extreme of
+female fashion, which was to wear muslin dresses in January, was at this
+time equalled by that of the men, who wore clothes enough in August to
+melt them.  Nobody would have guessed from Bob's presentation now that he
+had ever been aloft on a dark night in the Atlantic, or knew the hundred
+ingenuities that could be performed with a rope's end and a marline-spike
+as well as his mother tongue.
+
+It was a day of days.  Anne wore her celebrated celestial blue pelisse,
+her Leghorn hat, and her muslin dress with the waist under the arms; the
+latter being decorated with excellent Honiton lace bought of the woman
+who travelled from that place to Overcombe and its neighbourhood with a
+basketful of her own manufacture, and a cushion on which she worked by
+the wayside.  John met the lovers at the inn outside the town, and after
+stabling the horse they entered the town together, the trumpet-major
+informing them that the watering-place had never been so full before,
+that the Court, the Prince of Wales, and everybody of consequence was
+there, and that an attic could scarcely be got for money.  The King had
+gone for a cruise in his yacht, and they would be in time to see him
+land.
+
+Then drums and fifes were heard, and in a minute or two they saw Sergeant
+Stanner advancing along the street with a firm countenance, fiery poll,
+and rigid staring eyes, in front of his recruiting-party.  The sergeant's
+sword was drawn, and at intervals of two or three inches along its
+shining blade were impaled fluttering one-pound notes, to express the
+lavish bounty that was offered.  He gave a stern, suppressed nod of
+friendship to our people, and passed by.  Next they came up to a waggon,
+bowered over with leaves and flowers, so that the men inside could hardly
+be seen.
+
+'Come to see the King, hip-hip hurrah!' cried a voice within, and turning
+they saw through the leaves the nose and face of Cripplestraw.  The
+waggon contained all Derriman's workpeople.
+
+'Is your master here?' said John.
+
+'No, trumpet-major, sir.  But young maister is coming to fetch us at nine
+o'clock, in case we should be too blind to drive home.'
+
+'O! where is he now?'
+
+'Never mind,' said Anne impatiently, at which the trumpet-major
+obediently moved on.
+
+By the time they reached the pier it was six o'clock; the royal yacht was
+returning; a fact announced by the ships in the harbour firing a salute.
+The King came ashore with his hat in his hand, and returned the
+salutations of the well-dressed crowd in his old indiscriminate fashion.
+While this cheering and waving of handkerchiefs was going on Anne stood
+between the two brothers, who protectingly joined their hands behind her
+back, as if she were a delicate piece of statuary that a push might
+damage.  Soon the King had passed, and receiving the military salutes of
+the piquet, joined the Queen and princesses at Gloucester Lodge, the
+homely house of red brick in which he unostentatiously resided.
+
+As there was yet some little time before the theatre would open, they
+strayed upon the velvet sands, and listened to the songs of the sailors,
+one of whom extemporized for the occasion:--
+
+   'Portland Road the King aboard, the King aboard!
+   Portland Road the King aboard,
+   We weighed and sailed from Portland Road!' {272}
+
+When they had looked on awhile at the combats at single-stick which were
+in progress hard by, and seen the sum of five guineas handed over to the
+modest gentleman who had broken most heads, they returned to Gloucester
+Lodge, whence the King and other members of his family now reappeared,
+and drove, at a slow trot, round to the theatre in carriages drawn by the
+Hanoverian white horses that were so well known in the town at this date.
+
+When Anne and Bob entered the theatre they found that John had taken
+excellent places, and concluded that he had got them for nothing through
+the influence of the lady of his choice.  As a matter of fact he had paid
+full prices for those two seats, like any other outsider, and even then
+had a difficulty in getting them, it being a King's night.  When they
+were settled he himself retired to an obscure part of the pit, from which
+the stage was scarcely visible.
+
+'We can see beautifully,' said Bob, in an aristocratic voice, as he took
+a delicate pinch of snuff, and drew out the magnificent
+pocket-handkerchief brought home from the East for such occasions.  'But
+I am afraid poor John can't see at all.'
+
+'But we can see him,' replied Anne, 'and notice by his face which of them
+it is he is so charmed with.  The light of that corner candle falls right
+upon his cheek.'
+
+By this time the King had appeared in his place, which was overhung by a
+canopy of crimson satin fringed with gold.  About twenty places were
+occupied by the royal family and suite; and beyond them was a crowd of
+powdered and glittering personages of fashion, completely filling the
+centre of the little building; though the King so frequently patronized
+the local stage during these years that the crush was not inconvenient.
+
+The curtain rose and the play began.  To-night it was one of Colman's,
+who at this time enjoyed great popularity, and Mr. Bannister supported
+the leading character.  Anne, with her hand privately clasped in Bob's,
+and looking as if she did not know it, partly watched the piece and
+partly the face of the impressionable John who had so soon transferred
+his affections elsewhere.  She had not long to wait.  When a certain one
+of the subordinate ladies of the comedy entered on the stage the trumpet-
+major in his corner not only looked conscious, but started and gazed with
+parted lips.
+
+'This must be the one,' whispered Anne quickly.  'See, he is agitated!'
+
+She turned to Bob, but at the same moment his hand convulsively closed
+upon hers as he, too, strangely fixed his eyes upon the newly-entered
+lady.
+
+'What is it?'
+
+Anne looked from one to the other without regarding the stage at all.  Her
+answer came in the voice of the actress who now spoke for the first time.
+The accents were those of Miss Matilda Johnson.
+
+One thought rushed into both their minds on the instant, and Bob was the
+first to utter it.
+
+'What--is she the woman of his choice after all?'
+
+'If so, it is a dreadful thing!' murmured Anne.
+
+But, as may be imagined, the unfortunate John was as much surprised by
+this rencounter as the other two.  Until this moment he had been in utter
+ignorance of the theatrical company and all that pertained to it.
+Moreover, much as he knew of Miss Johnson, he was not aware that she had
+ever been trained in her youth as an actress, and that after lapsing into
+straits and difficulties for a couple of years she had been so fortunate
+as to again procure an engagement here.
+
+The trumpet-major, though not prominently seated, had been seen by
+Matilda already, who had observed still more plainly her old betrothed
+and Anne in the other part of the house.  John was not concerned on his
+own account at being face to face with her, but at the extraordinary
+suspicion that this conjuncture must revive in the minds of his best
+beloved friends.  After some moments of pained reflection he tapped his
+knee.
+
+'Gad, I won't explain; it shall go as it is!' he said.  'Let them think
+her mine.  Better that than the truth, after all.'
+
+Had personal prominence in the scene been at this moment proportioned to
+intentness of feeling, the whole audience, regal and otherwise, would
+have faded into an indistinct mist of background, leaving as the sole
+emergent and telling figures Bob and Anne at one point, the trumpet-major
+on the left hand, and Matilda at the opposite corner of the stage.  But
+fortunately the deadlock of awkward suspense into which all four had
+fallen was terminated by an accident.  A messenger entered the King's box
+with despatches.  There was an instant pause in the performance.  The
+despatch-box being opened the King read for a few moments with great
+interest, the eyes of the whole house, including those of Anne Garland,
+being anxiously fixed upon his face; for terrible events fell as
+unexpectedly as thunderbolts at this critical time of our history.  The
+King at length beckoned to Lord ---, who was immediately behind him, the
+play was again stopped, and the contents of the despatch were publicly
+communicated to the audience.
+
+Sir Robert Calder, cruising off Finisterre, had come in sight of
+Villeneuve, and made the signal for action, which, though checked by the
+weather, had resulted in the capture of two Spanish line-of-battle ships,
+and the retreat of Villeneuve into Ferrol.
+
+The news was received with truly national feeling, if noise might be
+taken as an index of patriotism.  'Rule Britannia' was called for and
+sung by the whole house.  But the importance of the event was far from
+being recognized at this time; and Bob Loveday, as he sat there and heard
+it, had very little conception how it would bear upon his destiny.
+
+This parenthetic excitement diverted for a few minutes the eyes of Bob
+and Anne from the trumpet-major; and when the play proceeded, and they
+looked back to his corner, he was gone.
+
+'He's just slipped round to talk to her behind the scenes,' said Bob
+knowingly.  'Shall we go too, and tease him for a sly dog?'
+
+'No, I would rather not.'
+
+'Shall we go home, then?'
+
+'Not unless her presence is too much for you?'
+
+'O--not at all.  We'll stay here.  Ah, there she is again.'
+
+They sat on, and listened to Matilda's speeches which she delivered with
+such delightful coolness that they soon began to considerably interest
+one of the party.
+
+'Well, what a nerve the young woman has!' he said at last in tones of
+admiration, and gazing at Miss Johnson with all his might.  'After all,
+Jack's taste is not so bad.  She's really deuced clever.'
+
+'Bob, I'll go home if you wish to,' said Anne quickly.
+
+'O no--let us see how she fleets herself off that bit of a scrape she's
+playing at now.  Well, what a hand she is at it, to be sure!'
+
+Anne said no more, but waited on, supremely uncomfortable, and almost
+tearful.  She began to feel that she did not like life particularly well;
+it was too complicated: she saw nothing of the scene, and only longed to
+get away, and to get Bob away with her.  At last the curtain fell on the
+final act, and then began the farce of 'No Song no Supper.'  Matilda did
+not appear in this piece, and Anne again inquired if they should go home.
+This time Bob agreed, and taking her under his care with redoubled
+affection, to make up for the species of coma which had seized upon his
+heart for a time, he quietly accompanied her out of the house.
+
+When they emerged upon the esplanade, the August moon was shining across
+the sea from the direction of St. Aldhelm's Head.  Bob unconsciously
+loitered, and turned towards the pier.  Reaching the end of the promenade
+they surveyed the quivering waters in silence for some time, until a long
+dark line shot from behind the promontory of the Nothe, and swept forward
+into the harbour.
+
+'What boat is that?' said Anne.
+
+'It seems to be some frigate lying in the Roads,' said Bob carelessly, as
+he brought Anne round with a gentle pressure of his arm and bent his
+steps towards the homeward end of the town.
+
+Meanwhile, Miss Johnson, having finished her duties for that evening,
+rapidly changed her dress, and went out likewise.  The prominent position
+which Anne and Captain Bob had occupied side by side in the theatre, left
+her no alternative but to suppose that the situation was arranged by Bob
+as a species of defiance to herself; and her heart, such as it was,
+became proportionately embittered against him.  In spite of the rise in
+her fortunes, Miss Johnson still remembered--and always would
+remember--her humiliating departure from Overcombe; and it had been to
+her even a more grievous thing that Bob had acquiesced in his brother's
+ruling than that John had determined it.  At the time of setting out she
+was sustained by a firm faith that Bob would follow her, and nullify his
+brother's scheme; but though she waited Bob never came.
+
+She passed along by the houses facing the sea, and scanned the shore, the
+footway, and the open road close to her, which, illuminated by the
+slanting moon to a great brightness, sparkled with minute facets of
+crystallized salts from the water sprinkled there during the day.  The
+promenaders at the further edge appeared in dark profiles; and beyond
+them was the grey sea, parted into two masses by the tapering braid of
+moonlight across the waves.
+
+Two forms crossed this line at a startling nearness to her; she marked
+them at once as Anne and Bob Loveday.  They were walking slowly, and in
+the earnestness of their discourse were oblivious of the presence of any
+human beings save themselves.  Matilda stood motionless till they had
+passed.
+
+'How I love them!' she said, treading the initial step of her walk
+onwards with a vehemence that walking did not demand.
+
+'So do I--especially one,' said a voice at her elbow; and a man wheeled
+round her, and looked in her face, which had been fully exposed to the
+moon.
+
+'You--who are you?' she asked.
+
+'Don't you remember, ma'am?  We walked some way together towards
+Overcombe earlier in the summer.'  Matilda looked more closely, and
+perceived that the speaker was Derriman, in plain clothes.  He continued,
+'You are one of the ladies of the theatre, I know.  May I ask why you
+said in such a queer way that you loved that couple?'
+
+'In a queer way?'
+
+'Well, as if you hated them.'
+
+'I don't mind your knowing that I have good reason to hate them.  You do
+too, it seems?'
+
+'That man,' said Festus savagely, 'came to me one night about that very
+woman; insulted me before I could put myself on my guard, and ran away
+before I could come up with him and avenge myself.  The woman tricks me
+at every turn!  I want to part 'em.'
+
+'Then why don't you?  There's a splendid opportunity.  Do you see that
+soldier walking along?  He's a marine; he looks into the gallery of the
+theatre every night: and he's in connexion with the press-gang that came
+ashore just now from the frigate lying in Portland Roads.  They are often
+here for men.'
+
+'Yes.  Our boatmen dread 'em.'
+
+'Well, we have only to tell him that Loveday is a seaman to be clear of
+him this very night.'
+
+'Done!' said Festus.  'Take my arm and come this way.'  They walked
+across to the footway.  'Fine night, sergeant.'
+
+'It is, sir.'
+
+'Looking for hands, I suppose?'
+
+'It is not to be known, sir.  We don't begin till half past ten.'
+
+'It is a pity you don't begin now.  I could show 'ee excellent game.'
+
+'What, that little nest of fellows at the "Old Rooms" in Cove Row?  I
+have just heard of 'em.'
+
+'No--come here.'  Festus, with Miss Johnson on his arm, led the sergeant
+quickly along the parade, and by the time they reached the Narrows the
+lovers, who walked but slowly, were visible in front of them.  'There's
+your man,' he said.
+
+'That buck in pantaloons and half-boots--a looking like a squire?'
+
+'Twelve months ago he was mate of the brig Pewit; but his father has made
+money, and keeps him at home.'
+
+'Faith, now you tell of it, there's a hint of sea legs about him.  What's
+the young beau's name?'
+
+'Don't tell!' whispered Matilda, impulsively clutching Festus's arm.
+
+But Festus had already said, 'Robert Loveday, son of the miller at
+Overcombe.  You may find several likely fellows in that neighbourhood.'
+
+The marine said that he would bear it in mind, and they left him.
+
+'I wish you had not told,' said Matilda tearfully.  'She's the worst!'
+
+'Dash my eyes now; listen to that!  Why, you chicken-hearted old stager,
+you was as well agreed as I.  Come now; hasn't he used you badly?'
+
+Matilda's acrimony returned.  'I was down on my luck, or he wouldn't have
+had the chance!' she said.
+
+'Well, then, let things be.'
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.  MIDNIGHT VISITORS
+
+
+Miss Garland and Loveday walked leisurely to the inn and called for horse-
+and-gig.  While the hostler was bringing it round, the landlord, who knew
+Bob and his family well, spoke to him quietly in the passage.
+
+'Is this then because you want to throw dust in the eyes of the Black
+Diamond chaps?' (with an admiring glance at Bob's costume).
+
+'The Black Diamond?' said Bob; and Anne turned pale.
+
+'She hove in sight just after dark, and at nine o'clock a boat having
+more than a dozen marines on board, with cloaks on, rowed into harbour.'
+
+Bob reflected.  'Then there'll be a press to-night; depend upon it,' he
+said.
+
+'They won't know you, will they, Bob?' said Anne anxiously.
+
+'They certainly won't know him for a seaman now,' remarked the landlord,
+laughing, and again surveying Bob up and down.  'But if I was you two, I
+should drive home-along straight and quiet; and be very busy in the mill
+all to-morrow, Mr. Loveday.'
+
+They drove away; and when they had got onward out of the town, Anne
+strained her eyes wistfully towards Portland.  Its dark contour, lying
+like a whale on the sea, was just perceptible in the gloom as the
+background to half-a-dozen ships' lights nearer at hand.
+
+'They can't make you go, now you are a gentleman tradesman, can they?'
+she asked.
+
+'If they want me they can have me, dearest.  I have often said I ought to
+volunteer.'
+
+'And not care about me at all?'
+
+'It is just that that keeps me at home.  I won't leave you if I can help
+it.'
+
+'It cannot make such a vast difference to the country whether one man
+goes or stays!  But if you want to go you had better, and not mind us at
+all!'
+
+Bob put a period to her speech by a mark of affection to which history
+affords many parallels in every age.  She said no more about the Black
+Diamond; but whenever they ascended a hill she turned her head to look at
+the lights in Portland Roads, and the grey expanse of intervening sea.
+
+Though Captain Bob had stated that he did not wish to volunteer, and
+would not leave her if he could help it, the remark required some
+qualification.  That Anne was charming and loving enough to chain him
+anywhere was true; but he had begun to find the mill-work terribly
+irksome at times.  Often during the last month, when standing among the
+rumbling cogs in his new miller's suit, which ill became him, he had
+yawned, thought wistfully of the old pea-jacket, and the waters of the
+deep blue sea.  His dread of displeasing his father by showing anything
+of this change of sentiment was great; yet he might have braved it but
+for knowing that his marriage with Anne, which he hoped might take place
+the next year, was dependent entirely upon his adherence to the mill
+business.  Even were his father indifferent, Mrs. Loveday would never
+intrust her only daughter to the hands of a husband who would be away
+from home five-sixths of his time.
+
+But though, apart from Anne, he was not averse to seafaring in itself, to
+be smuggled thither by the machinery of a press-gang was intolerable; and
+the process of seizing, stunning, pinioning, and carrying off unwilling
+hands was one which Bob as a man had always determined to hold out
+against to the utmost of his power.  Hence, as they went towards home, he
+frequently listened for sounds behind him, but hearing none he assured
+his sweetheart that they were safe for that night at least.  The mill was
+still going when they arrived, though old Mr. Loveday was not to be seen;
+he had retired as soon as he heard the horse's hoofs in the lane, leaving
+Bob to watch the grinding till three o'clock; when the elder would rise,
+and Bob withdraw to bed--a frequent arrangement between them since Bob
+had taken the place of grinder.
+
+Having reached the privacy of her own room, Anne threw open the window,
+for she had not the slightest intention of going to bed just yet.  The
+tale of the Black Diamond had disturbed her by a slow, insidious process
+that was worse than sudden fright.  Her window looked into the court
+before the house, now wrapped in the shadow of the trees and the hill;
+and she leaned upon its sill listening intently.  She could have heard
+any strange sound distinctly enough in one direction; but in the other
+all low noises were absorbed in the patter of the mill, and the rush of
+water down the race.
+
+However, what she heard came from the hitherto silent side, and was
+intelligible in a moment as being the footsteps of men.  She tried to
+think they were some late stragglers from Budmouth.  Alas! no; the tramp
+was too regular for that of villagers.  She hastily turned, extinguished
+the candle, and listened again.  As they were on the main road there was,
+after all, every probability that the party would pass the bridge which
+gave access to the mill court without turning in upon it, or even
+noticing that such an entrance existed.  In this again she was
+disappointed: they crossed into the front without a pause.  The
+pulsations of her heart became a turmoil now, for why should these men,
+if they were the press-gang, and strangers to the locality, have supposed
+that a sailor was to be found here, the younger of the two millers
+Loveday being never seen now in any garb which could suggest that he was
+other than a miller pure, like his father?  One of the men spoke.
+
+'I am not sure that we are in the right place,' he said.
+
+'This is a mill, anyhow,' said another.
+
+'There's lots about here.'
+
+'Then come this way a moment with your light.'
+
+Two of the group went towards the cart-house on the opposite side of the
+yard, and when they reached it a dark lantern was opened, the rays being
+directed upon the front of the miller's waggon.
+
+'"Loveday and Son, Overcombe Mill,"' continued the man, reading from the
+waggon.  '"Son," you see, is lately painted in.  That's our man.'
+
+He moved to turn off the light, but before he had done so it flashed over
+the forms of the speakers, and revealed a sergeant, a naval officer, and
+a file of marines.
+
+Anne waited to see no more.  When Bob stayed up to grind, as he was doing
+to-night, he often sat in his room instead of remaining all the time in
+the mill; and this room was an isolated chamber over the bakehouse, which
+could not be reached without going downstairs and ascending the
+step-ladder that served for his staircase.  Anne descended in the dark,
+clambered up the ladder, and saw that light strayed through the chink
+below the door.  His window faced towards the garden, and hence the light
+could not as yet have been seen by the press-gang.
+
+'Bob, dear Bob!' she said, through the keyhole.  'Put out your light, and
+run out of the back-door!'
+
+'Why?' said Bob, leisurely knocking the ashes from the pipe he had been
+smoking.
+
+'The press-gang!'
+
+'They have come?  By God! who can have blown upon me?  All right,
+dearest.  I'm game.'
+
+Anne, scarcely knowing what she did, descended the ladder and ran to the
+back-door, hastily unbolting it to save Bob's time, and gently opening it
+in readiness for him.  She had no sooner done this than she felt hands
+laid upon her shoulder from without, and a voice exclaiming, 'That's how
+we doos it--quite an obleeging young man!'
+
+Though the hands held her rather roughly, Anne did not mind for herself,
+and turning she cried desperately, in tones intended to reach Bob's ears:
+'They are at the back-door; try the front!'
+
+But inexperienced Miss Garland little knew the shrewd habits of the
+gentlemen she had to deal with, who, well used to this sort of pastime,
+had already posted themselves at every outlet from the premises.
+
+'Bring the lantern,' shouted the fellow who held her.  'Why--'tis a girl!
+I half thought so--Here is a way in,' he continued to his comrades,
+hastening to the foot of the ladder which led to Bob's room.
+
+'What d'ye want?' said Bob, quietly opening the door, and showing himself
+still radiant in the full dress that he had worn with such effect at the
+Theatre Royal, which he had been about to change for his mill suit when
+Anne gave the alarm.
+
+'This gentleman can't be the right one,' observed a marine, rather
+impressed by Bob's appearance.
+
+'Yes, yes; that's the man,' said the sergeant.  'Now take it quietly, my
+young cock-o'-wax.  You look as if you meant to, and 'tis wise of ye.'
+
+'Where are you going to take me?' said Bob.
+
+'Only aboard the Black Diamond.  If you choose to take the bounty and
+come voluntarily, you'll be allowed to go ashore whenever your ship's in
+port.  If you don't, and we've got to pinion ye, you will not have your
+liberty at all.  As you must come, willy-nilly, you'll do the first if
+you've any brains whatever.'
+
+Bob's temper began to rise.  'Don't you talk so large, about your
+pinioning, my man.  When I've settled--'
+
+'Now or never, young blow-hard,' interrupted his informant.
+
+'Come, what jabber is this going on?' said the lieutenant, stepping
+forward.  'Bring your man.'
+
+One of the marines set foot on the ladder, but at the same moment a shoe
+from Bob's hand hit the lantern with well-aimed directness, knocking it
+clean out of the grasp of the man who held it.  In spite of the darkness
+they began to scramble up the ladder.  Bob thereupon shut the door, which
+being but of slight construction, was as he knew only a momentary
+defence.  But it gained him time enough to open the window, gather up his
+legs upon the sill, and spring across into the apple-tree growing
+without.  He alighted without much hurt beyond a few scratches from the
+boughs, a shower of falling apples testifying to the force of his leap.
+
+'Here he is!' shouted several below who had seen Bob's figure flying like
+a raven's across the sky.
+
+There was stillness for a moment in the tree.  Then the fugitive made
+haste to climb out upon a low-hanging branch towards the garden, at which
+the men beneath all rushed in that direction to catch him as he dropped,
+saying, 'You may as well come down, old boy.  'Twas a spry jump, and we
+give ye credit for 't.'
+
+The latter movement of Loveday had been a mere feint.  Partly hidden by
+the leaves he glided back to the other part of the tree, from whence it
+was easy to jump upon a thatch-covered out-house.  This intention they
+did not appear to suspect, which gave him the opportunity of sliding down
+the slope and entering the back door of the mill.
+
+'He's here, he's here!' the men exclaimed, running back from the tree.
+
+By this time they had obtained another light, and pursued him closely
+along the back quarters of the mill.  Bob had entered the lower room,
+seized hold of the chain by which the flour-sacks were hoisted from story
+to story by connexion with the mill-wheel, and pulled the rope that hung
+alongside for the purpose of throwing it into gear.  The foremost
+pursuers arrived just in time to see Captain Bob's legs and shoe-buckles
+vanishing through the trap-door in the joists overhead, his person having
+been whirled up by the machinery like any bag of flour, and the trap
+falling to behind him.
+
+'He's gone up by the hoist!' said the sergeant, running up the ladder in
+the corner to the next floor, and elevating the light just in time to see
+Bob's suspended figure ascending in the same way through the same sort of
+trap into the second floor.  The second trap also fell together behind
+him, and he was lost to view as before.
+
+It was more difficult to follow now; there was only a flimsy little
+ladder, and the men ascended cautiously.  When they stepped out upon the
+loft it was empty.
+
+'He must ha' let go here,' said one of the marines, who knew more about
+mills than the others.  'If he had held fast a moment longer, he would
+have been dashed against that beam.'
+
+They looked up.  The hook by which Bob had held on had ascended to the
+roof, and was winding round the cylinder.  Nothing was visible elsewhere
+but boarded divisions like the stalls of a stable, on each side of the
+stage they stood upon, these compartments being more or less heaped up
+with wheat and barley in the grain.
+
+'Perhaps he's buried himself in the corn.'
+
+The whole crew jumped into the corn-bins, and stirred about their yellow
+contents; but neither arm, leg, nor coat-tail was uncovered.  They
+removed sacks, peeped among the rafters of the roof, but to no purpose.
+The lieutenant began to fume at the loss of time.
+
+'What cursed fools to let the man go!  Why, look here, what's this?'  He
+had opened the door by which sacks were taken in from waggons without,
+and dangling from the cat-head projecting above it was the rope used in
+lifting them.  'There's the way he went down,' the officer continued.
+'The man's gone.'
+
+Amidst mumblings and curses the gang descended the pair of ladders and
+came into the open air; but Captain Bob was nowhere to be seen.  When
+they reached the front door of the house the miller was standing on the
+threshold, half dressed.
+
+'Your son is a clever fellow, miller,' said the lieutenant; 'but it would
+have been much better for him if he had come quiet.'
+
+'That's a matter of opinion,' said Loveday.
+
+'I have no doubt that he's in the house.'
+
+'He may be; and he may not.'
+
+'Do you know where he is?'
+
+'I do not; and if I did I shouldn't tell.'
+
+'Naturally.'
+
+'I heard steps beating up the road, sir,' said the sergeant.
+
+They turned from the door, and leaving four of the marines to keep watch
+round the house, the remainder of the party marched into the lane as far
+as where the other road branched off.  While they were pausing to decide
+which course to take, one of the soldiers held up the light.  A black
+object was discernible upon the ground before them, and they found it to
+be a hat--the hat of Bob Loveday.
+
+'We are on the track,' cried the sergeant, deciding for this direction.
+
+They tore on rapidly, and the footsteps previously heard became audible
+again, increasing in clearness, which told that they gained upon the
+fugitive, who in another five minutes stopped and turned.  The rays of
+the candle fell upon Anne.
+
+'What do you want?' she said, showing her frightened face.
+
+They made no reply, but wheeled round and left her.  She sank down on the
+bank to rest, having done all she could.  It was she who had taken down
+Bob's hat from a nail, and dropped it at the turning with the view of
+misleading them till he should have got clear off.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.  DELIVERANCE
+
+
+But Anne Garland was too anxious to remain long away from the centre of
+operations.  When she got back she found that the press-gang were
+standing in the court discussing their next move.
+
+'Waste no more time here,' the lieutenant said.  'Two more villages to
+visit to-night, and the nearest three miles off.  There's nobody else in
+this place, and we can't come back again.'
+
+When they were moving away, one of the private marines, who had kept his
+eye on Anne, and noticed her distress, contrived to say in a whisper as
+he passed her, 'We are coming back again as soon as it begins to get
+light; that's only said to deceive 'ee.  Keep your young man out of the
+way.'
+
+They went as they had come; and the little household then met together,
+Mrs. Loveday having by this time dressed herself and come down.  A long
+and anxious discussion followed.
+
+'Somebody must have told upon the chap,' Loveday remarked.  'How should
+they have found him out else, now he's been home from sea this
+twelvemonth?'
+
+Anne then mentioned what the friendly marine had told her; and fearing
+lest Bob was in the house, and would be discovered there when daylight
+came, they searched and called for him everywhere.
+
+'What clothes has he got on?' said the miller.
+
+'His lovely new suit,' said his wife.  'I warrant it is quite spoiled!'
+
+'He's got no hat,' said Anne.
+
+'Well,' said Loveday, 'you two go and lie down now and I'll bide up; and
+as soon as he comes in, which he'll do most likely in the course of the
+night, I'll let him know that they are coming again.'
+
+Anne and Mrs. Loveday went to their bedrooms, and the miller entered the
+mill as if he were simply staying up to grind.  But he continually left
+the flour-shoot to go outside and walk round; each time he could see no
+living being near the spot.  Anne meanwhile had lain down dressed upon
+her bed, the window still open, her ears intent upon the sound of
+footsteps and dreading the reappearance of daylight and the gang's
+return.  Three or four times during the night she descended to the mill
+to inquire of her stepfather if Bob had shown himself; but the answer was
+always in the negative.
+
+At length the curtains of her bed began to reveal their pattern, the
+brass handles of the drawers gleamed forth, and day dawned.  While the
+light was yet no more than a suffusion of pallor, she arose, put on her
+hat, and determined to explore the surrounding premises before the men
+arrived.  Emerging into the raw loneliness of the daybreak, she went upon
+the bridge and looked up and down the road.  It was as she had left it,
+empty, and the solitude was rendered yet more insistent by the silence of
+the mill-wheel, which was now stopped, the miller having given up
+expecting Bob and retired to bed about three o'clock.  The footprints of
+the marines still remained in the dust on the bridge, all the heel-marks
+towards the house, showing that the party had not as yet returned.
+
+While she lingered she heard a slight noise in the other direction, and,
+turning, saw a woman approaching.  The woman came up quickly, and, to her
+amazement, Anne recognized Matilda.  Her walk was convulsive, face pale,
+almost haggard, and the cold light of the morning invested it with all
+the ghostliness of death.  She had plainly walked all the way from
+Budmouth, for her shoes were covered with dust.
+
+'Has the press-gang been here?' she gasped.  'If not they are coming!'
+
+'They have been.'
+
+'And got him--I am too late!'
+
+'No; they are coming back again.  Why did you--'
+
+'I came to try to save him.  Can we save him?  Where is he?'
+
+Anne looked the woman in the face, and it was impossible to doubt that
+she was in earnest.
+
+'I don't know,' she answered.  'I am trying to find him before they
+come.'
+
+'Will you not let me help you?' cried the repentant Matilda.
+
+Without either objecting or assenting Anne turned and led the way to the
+back part of the homestead.
+
+Matilda, too, had suffered that night.  From the moment of parting with
+Festus Derriman a sentiment of revulsion from the act to which she had
+been a party set in and increased, till at length it reached an intensity
+of remorse which she could not passively bear.  She had risen before day
+and hastened thitherward to know the worst, and if possible hinder
+consequences that she had been the first to set in train.
+
+After going hither and thither in the adjoining field, Anne entered the
+garden.  The walks were bathed in grey dew, and as she passed observantly
+along them it appeared as if they had been brushed by some foot at a much
+earlier hour.  At the end of the garden, bushes of broom, laurel, and yew
+formed a constantly encroaching shrubbery, that had come there almost by
+chance, and was never trimmed.  Behind these bushes was a garden-seat,
+and upon it lay Bob sound asleep.
+
+The ends of his hair were clotted with damp, and there was a foggy film
+upon the mirror-like buttons of his coat, and upon the buckles of his
+shoes.  His bunch of new gold seals was dimmed by the same insidious
+dampness; his shirt-frill and muslin neckcloth were limp as seaweed.  It
+was plain that he had been there a long time.  Anne shook him, but he did
+not awake, his breathing being slow and stertorous.
+
+'Bob, wake; 'tis your own Anne!' she said, with innocent earnestness; and
+then, fearfully turning her head, she saw that Matilda was close behind
+her.
+
+'You needn't mind me,' said Matilda bitterly.  'I am on your side now.
+Shake him again.'
+
+Anne shook him again, but he slept on.  Then she noticed that his
+forehead bore the mark of a heavy wound.
+
+'I fancy I hear something!' said her companion, starting forward and
+endeavouring to wake Bob herself.  'He is stunned, or drugged!' she said;
+'there is no rousing him.'
+
+Anne raised her head and listened.  From the direction of the eastern
+road came the sound of a steady tramp.  'They are coming back!' she said,
+clasping her hands.  'They will take him, ill as he is!  He won't open
+his eyes--no, it is no use!  O, what shall we do?'
+
+Matilda did not reply, but running to the end of the seat on which Bob
+lay, tried its weight in her arms.
+
+'It is not too heavy,' she said.  'You take that end, and I'll take this.
+We'll carry him away to some place of hiding.'
+
+Anne instantly seized the other end, and they proceeded with their burden
+at a slow pace to the lower garden-gate, which they reached as the tread
+of the press-gang resounded over the bridge that gave access to the mill
+court, now hidden from view by the hedge and the trees of the garden.
+
+'We will go down inside this field,' said Anne faintly.
+
+'No!' said the other; 'they will see our foot-tracks in the dew.  We must
+go into the road.'
+
+'It is the very road they will come down when they leave the mill.'
+
+'It cannot be helped; it is neck or nothing with us now.'
+
+So they emerged upon the road, and staggered along without speaking,
+occasionally resting for a moment to ease their arms; then shaking him to
+arouse him, and finding it useless, seizing the seat again.  When they
+had gone about two hundred yards Matilda betrayed signs of exhaustion,
+and she asked, 'Is there no shelter near?'
+
+'When we get to that little field of corn,' said Anne.
+
+'It is so very far.  Surely there is some place near?'
+
+She pointed to a few scrubby bushes overhanging a little stream, which
+passed under the road near this point.
+
+'They are not thick enough,' said Anne.
+
+'Let us take him under the bridge,' said Matilda.  'I can go no further.'
+
+Entering the opening by which cattle descended to drink, they waded into
+the weedy water, which here rose a few inches above their ankles.  To
+ascend the stream, stoop under the arch, and reach the centre of the
+roadway, was the work of a few minutes.
+
+'If they look under the arch we are lost,' murmured Anne.
+
+'There is no parapet to the bridge, and they may pass over without
+heeding.'
+
+They waited, their heads almost in contact with the reeking arch, and
+their feet encircled by the stream, which was at its summer lowness now.
+For some minutes they could hear nothing but the babble of the water over
+their ankles, and round the legs of the seat on which Bob slumbered, the
+sounds being reflected in a musical tinkle from the hollow sides of the
+arch.  Anne's anxiety now was lest he should not continue sleeping till
+the search was over, but start up with his habitual imprudence, and
+scorning such means of safety, rush out into their arms.
+
+A quarter of an hour dragged by, and then indications reached their ears
+that the re-examination of the mill had begun and ended.  The well-known
+tramp drew nearer, and reverberated through the ground over their heads,
+where its volume signified to the listeners that the party had been
+largely augmented by pressed men since the night preceding.  The gang
+passed the arch, and the noise regularly diminished, as if no man among
+them had thought of looking aside for a moment.
+
+Matilda broke the silence.  'I wonder if they have left a watch behind?'
+she said doubtfully.
+
+'I will go and see,' said Anne.  'Wait till I return.'
+
+'No; I can do no more.  When you come back I shall be gone.  I ask one
+thing of you.  If all goes well with you and him, and he marries
+you--don't be alarmed; my plans lie elsewhere--when you are his wife tell
+him who helped to carry him away.  But don't mention my name to the rest
+of your family, either now or at any time.'
+
+Anne regarded the speaker for a moment, and promised; after which she
+waded out from the archway.
+
+Matilda stood looking at Bob for a moment, as if preparing to go, till
+moved by some impulse she bent and lightly kissed him once.
+
+'How can you!' cried Anne reproachfully.  When leaving the mouth of the
+arch she had bent back and seen the act.
+
+Matilda flushed.  'You jealous baby!' she said scornfully.
+
+Anne hesitated for a moment, then went out from the water, and hastened
+towards the mill.
+
+She entered by the garden, and, seeing no one, advanced and peeped in at
+the window.  Her mother and Mr. Loveday were sitting within as usual.
+
+'Are they all gone?' said Anne softly.
+
+'Yes.  They did not trouble us much, beyond going into every room, and
+searching about the garden, where they saw steps.  They have been lucky
+to-night; they have caught fifteen or twenty men at places further on; so
+the loss of Bob was no hurt to their feelings.  I wonder where in the
+world the poor fellow is!'
+
+'I will show you,' said Anne.  And explaining in a few words what had
+happened, she was promptly followed by David and Loveday along the road.
+She lifted her dress and entered the arch with some anxiety on account of
+Matilda; but the actress was gone, and Bob lay on the seat as she had
+left him.
+
+Bob was brought out, and water thrown upon his face; but though he moved
+he did not rouse himself until some time after he had been borne into the
+house.  Here he opened his eyes, and saw them standing round, and
+gathered a little consciousness.
+
+'You are all right, my boy!' said his father.  'What hev happened to ye?
+Where did ye get that terrible blow?'
+
+'Ah--I can mind now,' murmured Bob, with a stupefied gaze around.  'I
+fell in slipping down the topsail halyard--the rope, that is, was too
+short--and I fell upon my head.  And then I went away.  When I came back
+I thought I wouldn't disturb ye: so I lay down out there, to sleep out
+the watch; but the pain in my head was so great that I couldn't get to
+sleep; so I picked some of the poppy-heads in the border, which I once
+heard was a good thing for sending folks to sleep when they are in pain.
+So I munched up all I could find, and dropped off quite nicely.'
+
+'I wondered who had picked 'em!' said Molly.  'I noticed they were gone.'
+
+'Why, you might never have woke again!' said Mrs. Loveday, holding up her
+hands.  'How is your head now?'
+
+'I hardly know,' replied the young man, putting his hand to his forehead
+and beginning to doze again.  'Where be those fellows that boarded us?
+With this--smooth water and--fine breeze we ought to get away from 'em.
+Haul in--the larboard braces, and--bring her to the wind.'
+
+'You are at home, dear Bob,' said Anne, bending over him, 'and the men
+are gone.'
+
+'Come along upstairs: th' beest hardly awake now,' said his father and
+Bob was assisted to bed.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII.  A DISCOVERY TURNS THE SCALE
+
+
+In four-and-twenty hours Bob had recovered.  But though physically
+himself again, he was not at all sure of his position as a patriot.  He
+had that practical knowledge of seamanship of which the country stood
+much in need, and it was humiliating to find that impressment seemed to
+be necessary to teach him to use it for her advantage.  Many neighbouring
+young men, less fortunate than himself, had been pressed and taken; and
+their absence seemed a reproach to him.  He went away by himself into the
+mill-roof, and, surrounded by the corn-heaps, gave vent to
+self-condemnation.
+
+'Certainly, I am no man to lie here so long for the pleasure of sighting
+that young girl forty times a day, and letting her sight me--bless her
+eyes!--till I must needs want a press-gang to teach me what I've forgot.
+And is it then all over with me as a British sailor?  We'll see.'
+
+When he was thrown under the influence of Anne's eyes again, which were
+more tantalizingly beautiful than ever just now (so it seemed to him),
+his intention of offering his services to the Government would wax
+weaker, and he would put off his final decision till the next day.  Anne
+saw these fluctuations of his mind between love and patriotism, and being
+terrified by what she had heard of sea-fights, used the utmost art of
+which she was capable to seduce him from his forming purpose.  She came
+to him in the mill, wearing the very prettiest of her morning jackets--the
+one that only just passed the waist, and was laced so tastefully round
+the collar and bosom.  Then she would appear in her new hat, with a
+bouquet of primroses on one side; and on the following Sunday she walked
+before him in lemon-coloured boots, so that her feet looked like a pair
+of yellow-hammers flitting under her dress.
+
+But dress was the least of the means she adopted for chaining him down.
+She talked more tenderly than ever; asked him to begin small undertakings
+in the garden on her account; she sang about the house, that the place
+might seem cheerful when he came in.  This singing for a purpose required
+great effort on her part, leaving her afterwards very sad.  When Bob
+asked her what was the matter, she would say, 'Nothing; only I am
+thinking how you will grieve your father, and cross his purposes, if you
+carry out your unkind notion of going to sea, and forsaking your place in
+the mill.'
+
+'Yes,' Bob would say uneasily.  'It will trouble him, I know.'
+
+Being also quite aware how it would trouble her, he would again postpone,
+and thus another week passed away.
+
+All this time John had not come once to the mill.  It appeared as if Miss
+Johnson absorbed all his time and thoughts.  Bob was often seen chuckling
+over the circumstance.  'A sly rascal!' he said.  'Pretending on the day
+she came to be married that she was not good enough for me, when it was
+only that he wanted her for himself.  How he could have persuaded her to
+go away is beyond me to say!'
+
+Anne could not contest this belief of her lover's, and remained silent;
+but there had more than once occurred to her mind a doubt of its
+probability.  Yet she had only abandoned her opinion that John had
+schemed for Matilda, to embrace the opposite error; that, finding he had
+wronged the young lady, he had pitied and grown to love her.
+
+'And yet Jack, when he was a boy, was the simplest fellow alive,' resumed
+Bob.  'By George, though, I should have been hot against him for such a
+trick, if in losing her I hadn't found a better!  But she'll never come
+down to him in the world: she has high notions now.  I am afraid he's
+doomed to sigh in vain!'
+
+Though Bob regretted this possibility, the feeling was not reciprocated
+by Anne.  It was true that she knew nothing of Matilda's temporary
+treachery, and that she disbelieved the story of her lack of virtue; but
+she did not like the woman.  'Perhaps it will not matter if he is doomed
+to sigh in vain,' she said.  'But I owe him no ill-will.  I have profited
+by his doings, incomprehensible as they are.'  And she bent her fair eyes
+on Bob and smiled.
+
+Bob looked dubious.  'He thinks he has affronted me, now I have seen
+through him, and that I shall be against meeting him.  But, of course, I
+am not so touchy.  I can stand a practical joke, as can any man who has
+been afloat.  I'll call and see him, and tell him so.'
+
+Before he started, Bob bethought him of something which would still
+further prove to the misapprehending John that he was entirely forgiven.
+He went to his room, and took from his chest a packet containing a lock
+of Miss Johnson's hair, which she had given him during their brief
+acquaintance, and which till now he had quite forgotten.  When, at
+starting, he wished Anne goodbye, it was accompanied by such a beaming
+face, that she knew he was full of an idea, and asked what it might be
+that pleased him so.
+
+'Why, this,' he said, smacking his breast-pocket.  'A lock of hair that
+Matilda gave me.'
+
+Anne sank back with parted lips.
+
+'I am going to give it to Jack--he'll jump for joy to get it!  And it
+will show him how willing I am to give her up to him, fine piece as she
+is.'
+
+'Will you see her to-day, Bob?' Anne asked with an uncertain smile.
+
+'O no--unless it is by accident.'
+
+On reaching the outskirts of the town he went straight to the barracks,
+and was lucky enough to find John in his room, at the left-hand corner of
+the quadrangle.  John was glad to see him; but to Bob's surprise he
+showed no immediate contrition, and thus afforded no room for the
+brotherly speech of forgiveness which Bob had been going to deliver.  As
+the trumpet-major did not open the subject, Bob felt it desirable to
+begin himself.
+
+'I have brought ye something that you will value, Jack,' he said, as they
+sat at the window, overlooking the large square barrack-yard.  'I have
+got no further use for it, and you should have had it before if it had
+entered my head.'
+
+'Thank you, Bob; what is it?' said John, looking absently at an awkward
+squad of young men who were drilling in the enclosure.
+
+''Tis a young woman's lock of hair.'
+
+'Ah!' said John, quite recovering from his abstraction, and slightly
+flushing.  Could Bob and Anne have quarrelled?  Bob drew the paper from
+his pocket, and opened it.
+
+'Black!' said John.
+
+'Yes--black enough.'
+
+'Whose?'
+
+'Why, Matilda's.'
+
+'O, Matilda's!'
+
+'Whose did you think then?'
+
+Instead of replying, the trumpet-major's face became as red as sunset,
+and he turned to the window to hide his confusion.
+
+Bob was silent, and then he, too, looked into the court.  At length he
+arose, walked to his brother, and laid his hand upon his shoulder.
+'Jack,' he said, in an altered voice, 'you are a good fellow.  Now I see
+it all.'
+
+'O no--that's nothing,' said John hastily.
+
+'You've been pretending that you care for this woman that I mightn't
+blame myself for heaving you out from the other--which is what I've done
+without knowing it.'
+
+'What does it matter?'
+
+'But it does matter!  I've been making you unhappy all these weeks and
+weeks through my thoughtlessness.  They seemed to think at home, you
+know, John, that you had grown not to care for her; or I wouldn't have
+done it for all the world!'
+
+'You stick to her, Bob, and never mind me.  She belongs to you.  She
+loves you.  I have no claim upon her, and she thinks nothing about me.'
+
+'She likes you, John, thoroughly well; so does everybody; and if I hadn't
+come home, putting my foot in it--  That coming home of mine has been a
+regular blight upon the family!  I ought never to have stayed.  The sea
+is my home, and why couldn't I bide there?'
+
+The trumpet-major drew Bob's discourse off the subject as soon as he
+could, and Bob, after some unconsidered replies and remarks, seemed
+willing to avoid it for the present.  He did not ask John to accompany
+him home, as he had intended; and on leaving the barracks turned
+southward and entered the town to wander about till he could decide what
+to do.
+
+It was the 3rd of September, but the King's watering-place still retained
+its summer aspect.  The royal bathing-machine had been drawn out just as
+Bob reached Gloucester Buildings, and he waited a minute, in the lack of
+other distraction, to look on.  Immediately that the King's machine had
+entered the water a group of florid men with fiddles, violoncellos, a
+trombone, and a drum, came forward, packed themselves into another
+machine that was in waiting, and were drawn out into the waves in the
+King's rear.  All that was to be heard for a few minutes were the slow
+pulsations of the sea; and then a deafening noise burst from the interior
+of the second machine with power enough to split the boards asunder; it
+was the condensed mass of musicians inside, striking up the strains of
+'God save the King,' as his Majesty's head rose from the water.  Bob took
+off his hat and waited till the end of the performance, which, intended
+as a pleasant surprise to George III. by the loyal burghers, was possibly
+in the watery circumstances tolerated rather than desired by that
+dripping monarch. {303}
+
+Loveday then passed on to the harbour, where he remained awhile, looking
+at the busy scene of loading and unloading craft and swabbing the decks
+of yachts; at the boats and barges rubbing against the quay wall, and at
+the houses of the merchants, some ancient structures of solid stone,
+others green-shuttered with heavy wooden bow-windows which appeared as if
+about to drop into the harbour by their own weight.  All these things he
+gazed upon, and thought of one thing--that he had caused great misery to
+his brother John.
+
+The town clock struck, and Bob retraced his steps till he again
+approached the Esplanade and Gloucester Lodge, where the morning sun
+blazed in upon the house fronts, and not a spot of shade seemed to be
+attainable.  A huzzaing attracted his attention, and he observed that a
+number of people had gathered before the King's residence, where a brown
+curricle had stopped, out of which stepped a hale man in the prime of
+life, wearing a blue uniform, gilt epaulettes, cocked hat, and sword, who
+crossed the pavement and went in.  Bob went up and joined the group.
+'What's going on?' he said.
+
+'Captain Hardy,' replied a bystander.
+
+'What of him?'
+
+'Just gone in--waiting to see the King.'
+
+'But the captain is in the West Indies?'
+
+'No.  The fleet is come home; they can't find the French anywhere.'
+
+'Will they go and look for them again?' asked Bob.
+
+'O yes.  Nelson is determined to find 'em.  As soon as he's refitted
+he'll put to sea again.  Ah, here's the King coming in.'
+
+Bob was so interested in what he had just heard that he scarcely noticed
+the arrival of the King, and a body of attendant gentlemen.  He went on
+thinking of his new knowledge; Captain Hardy was come.  He was doubtless
+staying with his family at their small manor-house at Pos'ham, a few
+miles from Overcombe, where he usually spent the intervals between his
+different cruises.
+
+Loveday returned to the mill without further delay; and shortly
+explaining that John was very well, and would come soon, went on to talk
+of the arrival of Nelson's captain.
+
+'And is he come at last?' said the miller, throwing his thoughts years
+backward.  'Well can I mind when he first left home to go on board the
+Helena as midshipman!'
+
+'That's not much to remember.  I can remember it too,' said Mrs. Loveday.
+
+''Tis more than twenty years ago anyhow.  And more than that, I can mind
+when he was born; I was a lad, serving my 'prenticeship at the time.  He
+has been in this house often and often when 'a was young.  When he came
+home after his first voyage he stayed about here a long time, and used to
+look in at the mill whenever he went past.  "What will you be next, sir?"
+said mother to him one day as he stood with his back to the doorpost.  "A
+lieutenant, Dame Loveday," says he.  "And what next?" says she.  "A
+commander."  "And next?"  "Next, post-captain."  "And then?"  "Then it
+will be almost time to die."  I'd warrant that he'd mind it to this very
+day if you were to ask him.'
+
+Bob heard all this with a manner of preoccupation, and soon retired to
+the mill.  Thence he went to his room by the back passage, and taking his
+old seafaring garments from a dark closet in the wall conveyed them to
+the loft at the top of the mill, where he occupied the remaining spare
+moments of the day in brushing the mildew from their folds, and hanging
+each article by the window to get aired.  In the evening he returned to
+the loft, and dressing himself in the old salt suit, went out of the
+house unobserved by anybody, and ascended the road towards Captain
+Hardy's native village and present temporary home.
+
+The shadeless downs were now brown with the droughts of the passing
+summer, and few living things met his view, the natural rotundity of the
+elevation being only occasionally disturbed by the presence of a barrow,
+a thorn-bush, or a piece of dry wall which remained from some attempted
+enclosure.  By the time that he reached the village it was dark, and the
+larger stars had begun to shine when he walked up to the door of the old-
+fashioned house which was the family residence of this branch of the
+South-Wessex Hardys.
+
+'Will the captain allow me to wait on him to-night?' inquired Loveday,
+explaining who and what he was.
+
+The servant went away for a few minutes, and then told Bob that he might
+see the captain in the morning.
+
+'If that's the case, I'll come again,' replied Bob, quite cheerful that
+failure was not absolute.
+
+He had left the door but a few steps when he was called back and asked if
+he had walked all the way from Overcombe Mill on purpose.
+
+Loveday replied modestly that he had done so.
+
+'Then will you come in?'  He followed the speaker into a small study or
+office, and in a minute or two Captain Hardy entered.
+
+The captain at this time was a bachelor of thirty-five, rather stout in
+build, with light eyes, bushy eyebrows, a square broad face, plenty of
+chin, and a mouth whose corners played between humour and grimness.  He
+surveyed Loveday from top to toe.
+
+'Robert Loveday, sir, son of the miller at Overcombe,' said Bob, making a
+low bow.
+
+'Ah!  I remember your father, Loveday,' the gallant seaman replied.
+'Well, what do you want to say to me?'  Seeing that Bob found it rather
+difficult to begin, he leant leisurely against the mantelpiece, and went
+on, 'Is your father well and hearty?  I have not seen him for many, many
+years.'
+
+'Quite well, thank 'ee.'
+
+'You used to have a brother in the army, I think?  What was his
+name--John?  A very fine fellow, if I recollect.'
+
+'Yes, cap'n; he's there still.'
+
+'And you are in the merchant-service?'
+
+'Late first mate of the brig Pewit.'
+
+'How is it you're not on board a man-of-war?'
+
+'Ay, sir, that's the thing I've come about,' said Bob, recovering
+confidence.  'I should have been, but 'tis womankind has hampered me.
+I've waited and waited on at home because of a young woman--lady, I might
+have said, for she's sprung from a higher class of society than I.  Her
+father was a landscape painter--maybe you've heard of him, sir?  The name
+is Garland.'
+
+'He painted that view of our village here,' said Captain Hardy, looking
+towards a dark little picture in the corner of the room.
+
+Bob looked, and went on, as if to the picture, 'Well, sir, I have found
+that--  However, the press-gang came a week or two ago, and didn't get
+hold of me.  I didn't care to go aboard as a pressed man.'
+
+'There has been a severe impressment.  It is of course a disagreeable
+necessity, but it can't be helped.'
+
+'Since then, sir, something has happened that makes me wish they had
+found me, and I have come to-night to ask if I could enter on board your
+ship the Victory.'
+
+The captain shook his head severely, and presently observed: 'I am glad
+to find that you think of entering the service, Loveday; smart men are
+badly wanted.  But it will not be in your power to choose your ship.'
+
+'Well, well, sir; then I must take my chance elsewhere,' said Bob, his
+face indicating the disappointment he would not fully express.  ''Twas
+only that I felt I would much rather serve under you than anybody else,
+my father and all of us being known to ye, Captain Hardy, and our
+families belonging to the same parts.'
+
+Captain Hardy took Bob's altitude more carefully.  'Are you a good
+practical seaman?' he asked musingly.
+
+'Ay, sir; I believe I am.'
+
+'Active?  Fond of skylarking?'
+
+'Well, I don't know about the last.  I think I can say I am active
+enough.  I could walk the yard-arm, if required, cross from mast to mast
+by the stays, and do what most fellows do who call themselves spry.'
+
+The captain then put some questions about the details of navigation,
+which Loveday, having luckily been used to square rigs, answered
+satisfactorily.  'As to reefing topsails,' he added, 'if I don't do it
+like a flash of lightning, I can do it so that they will stand blowing
+weather.  The Pewit was not a dull vessel, and when we were convoyed home
+from Lisbon, she could keep well in sight of the frigate scudding at a
+distance, by putting on full sail.  We had enough hands aboard to reef
+topsails man-o'-war fashion, which is a rare thing in these days, sir,
+now that able seamen are so scarce on trading craft.  And I hear that men
+from square-rigged vessels are liked much the best in the navy, as being
+more ready for use?  So that I shouldn't be altogether so raw,' said Bob
+earnestly, 'if I could enter on your ship, sir.  Still, if I can't, I
+can't.'
+
+'I might ask for you, Loveday,' said the captain thoughtfully, 'and so
+get you there that way.  In short, I think I may say I will ask for you.
+So consider it settled.'
+
+'My thanks to you, sir,' said Loveday.
+
+'You are aware that the Victory is a smart ship, and that cleanliness and
+order are, of necessity, more strictly insisted upon there than in some
+others?'
+
+'Sir, I quite see it.'
+
+'Well, I hope you will do your duty as well on a line-of-battle ship as
+you did when mate of the brig, for it is a duty that may be serious.'
+
+Bob replied that it should be his one endeavour; and receiving a few
+instructions for getting on board the guard-ship, and being conveyed to
+Portsmouth, he turned to go away.
+
+'You'll have a stiff walk before you fetch Overcombe Mill this dark
+night, Loveday,' concluded the captain, peering out of the window.  'I'll
+send you in a glass of grog to help 'ee on your way.'
+
+The captain then left Bob to himself, and when he had drunk the grog that
+was brought in he started homeward, with a heart not exactly light, but
+large with a patriotic cheerfulness, which had not diminished when, after
+walking so fast in his excitement as to be beaded with perspiration, he
+entered his father's door.
+
+They were all sitting up for him, and at his approach anxiously raised
+their sleepy eyes, for it was nearly eleven o'clock.
+
+'There; I knew he'd not be much longer!' cried Anne, jumping up and
+laughing, in her relief.  'They have been thinking you were very strange
+and silent to-day, Bob; you were not, were you?'
+
+'What's the matter, Bob?' said the miller; for Bob's countenance was
+sublimed by his recent interview, like that of a priest just come from
+the penetralia of the temple.
+
+'He's in his mate's clothes, just as when he came home!' observed Mrs.
+Loveday.
+
+They all saw now that he had something to tell.  'I am going away,' he
+said when he had sat down.  'I am going to enter on board a man-of-war,
+and perhaps it will be the Victory.'
+
+'Going?' said Anne faintly.
+
+'Now, don't you mind it, there's a dear,' he went on solemnly, taking her
+hand in his own.  'And you, father, don't you begin to take it to heart'
+(the miller was looking grave).  'The press-gang has been here, and
+though I showed them that I was a free man, I am going to show everybody
+that I can do my duty.'
+
+Neither of the other three answered, Anne and the miller having their
+eyes bent upon the ground, and the former trying to repress her tears.
+
+'Now don't you grieve, either of you,' he continued; 'nor vex yourselves
+that this has happened.  Please not to be angry with me, father, for
+deserting you and the mill, where you want me, for I _must go_.  For
+these three years we and the rest of the country have been in fear of the
+enemy; trade has been hindered; poor folk made hungry; and many rich folk
+made poor.  There must be a deliverance, and it must be done by sea.  I
+have seen Captain Hardy, and I shall serve under him if so be I can.'
+
+'Captain Hardy?'
+
+'Yes.  I have been to his house at Pos'ham, where he's staying with his
+sisters; walked there and back, and I wouldn't have missed it for fifty
+guineas.  I hardly thought he would see me; but he did see me.  And he
+hasn't forgot you.'
+
+Bob then opened his tale in order, relating graphically the conversation
+to which he had been a party, and they listened with breathless
+attention.
+
+'Well, if you must go, you must,' said the miller with emotion; 'but I
+think it somewhat hard that, of my two sons, neither one of 'em can be
+got to stay and help me in my business as I get old.'
+
+'Don't trouble and vex about it,' said Mrs. Loveday soothingly.  'They
+are both instruments in the hands of Providence, chosen to chastise that
+Corsican ogre, and do what they can for the country in these trying
+years.'
+
+'That's just the shape of it, Mrs. Loveday,' said Bob.
+
+'And he'll come back soon,' she continued, turning to Anne.  'And then
+he'll tell us all he has seen, and the glory that he's won, and how he
+has helped to sweep that scourge Buonaparty off the earth.'
+
+'When be you going, Bob?' his father inquired.
+
+'To-morrow, if I can.  I shall call at the barracks and tell John as I go
+by.  When I get to Portsmouth--'
+
+A burst of sobs in quick succession interrupted his words; they came from
+Anne, who till that moment had been sitting as before with her hand in
+that of Bob, and apparently quite calm.  Mrs. Loveday jumped up, but
+before she could say anything to soothe the agitated girl she had calmed
+herself with the same singular suddenness that had marked her giving way.
+'I don't mind Bob's going,' she said.  'I think he ought to go.  Don't
+suppose, Bob, that I want you to stay!'
+
+After this she left the apartment, and went into the little side room
+where she and her mother usually worked.  In a few moments Bob followed
+her.  When he came back he was in a very sad and emotional mood.  Anybody
+could see that there had been a parting of profound anguish to both.
+
+'She is not coming back to-night,' he said.
+
+'You will see her to-morrow before you go?' said her mother.
+
+'I may or I may not,' he replied.  'Father and Mrs. Loveday, do you go to
+bed now.  I have got to look over my things and get ready; and it will
+take me some little time.  If you should hear noises you will know it is
+only myself moving about.'
+
+When Bob was left alone he suddenly became brisk, and set himself to
+overhaul his clothes and other possessions in a business-like manner.  By
+the time that his chest was packed, such things as he meant to leave at
+home folded into cupboards, and what was useless destroyed, it was past
+two o'clock.  Then he went to bed, so softly that only the creak of one
+weak stair revealed his passage upward.  At the moment that he passed
+Anne's chamber-door her mother was bending over her as she lay in bed,
+and saying to her, 'Won't you see him in the morning?'
+
+'No, no,' said Anne.  'I would rather not see him!  I have said that I
+may.  But I shall not.  I cannot see him again!'
+
+When the family got up next day Bob had vanished.  It was his way to
+disappear like this, to avoid affecting scenes at parting.  By the time
+that they had sat down to a gloomy breakfast, Bob was in the boat of a
+Budmouth waterman, who pulled him alongside the guardship in the roads,
+where he laid hold of the man-rope, mounted, and disappeared from
+external view.  In the course of the day the ship moved off, set her
+royals, and made sail for Portsmouth, with five hundred new hands for the
+service on board, consisting partly of pressed men and partly of
+volunteers, among the latter being Robert Loveday.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV.  A SPECK ON THE SEA
+
+
+In parting from John, who accompanied him to the quay, Bob had said:
+'Now, Jack, these be my last words to you: I give her up.  I go away on
+purpose, and I shall be away a long time.  If in that time she should
+list over towards ye ever so little, mind you take her.  You have more
+right to her than I.  You chose her when my mind was elsewhere, and you
+best deserve her; for I have never known you forget one woman, while I've
+forgot a dozen.  Take her then, if she will come, and God bless both of
+ye.'
+
+Another person besides John saw Bob go.  That was Derriman, who was
+standing by a bollard a little further up the quay.  He did not repress
+his satisfaction at the sight.  John looked towards him with an open gaze
+of contempt; for the cuffs administered to the yeoman at the inn had not,
+so far as the trumpet-major was aware, produced any desire to avenge that
+insult, John being, of course, quite ignorant that Festus had erroneously
+retaliated upon Bob, in his peculiar though scarcely soldierly way.
+Finding that he did not even now approach him, John went on his way, and
+thought over his intention of preserving intact the love between Anne and
+his brother.
+
+He was surprised when he next went to the mill to find how glad they all
+were to see him.  From the moment of Bob's return to the bosom of the
+deep Anne had had no existence on land; people might have looked at her
+human body and said she had flitted thence.  The sea and all that
+belonged to the sea was her daily thought and her nightly dream.  She had
+the whole two-and-thirty winds under her eye, each passing gale that
+ushered in returning autumn being mentally registered; and she acquired a
+precise knowledge of the direction in which Portsmouth, Brest, Ferrol,
+Cadiz, and other such likely places lay.  Instead of saying her own
+familiar prayers at night she substituted, with some confusion of
+thought, the Forms of Prayer to be used at sea.  John at once noticed her
+lorn, abstracted looks, pitied her,--how much he pitied her!--and asked
+when they were alone if there was anything he could do.
+
+'There are two things,' she said, with almost childish eagerness in her
+tired eyes.
+
+'They shall be done.'
+
+'The first is to find out if Captain Hardy has gone back to his ship; and
+the other is--O if you will do it, John!--to get me newspapers whenever
+possible.'
+
+After this duologue John was absent for a space of three hours, and they
+thought he had gone back to barracks.  He entered, however, at the end of
+that time, took off his forage-cap, and wiped his forehead.
+
+'You look tired, John,' said his father.
+
+'O no.'  He went through the house till he had found Anne Garland.
+
+'I have only done one of those things,' he said to her.
+
+'What, already!  I didn't hope for or mean to-day.'
+
+'Captain Hardy is gone from Pos'ham.  He left some days ago.  We shall
+soon hear that the fleet has sailed.'
+
+'You have been all the way to Pos'ham on purpose?  How good of you!'
+
+'Well, I was anxious to know myself when Bob is likely to leave.  I
+expect now that we shall soon hear from him.'
+
+Two days later he came again.  He brought a newspaper, and what was
+better, a letter for Anne, franked by the first lieutenant of the
+Victory.
+
+'Then he's aboard her,' said Anne, as she eagerly took the letter.
+
+It was short, but as much as she could expect in the circumstances, and
+informed them that the captain had been as good as his word, and had
+gratified Bob's earnest wish to serve under him.  The ship, with Admiral
+Lord Nelson on board, and accompanied by the frigate Euryalus, was to
+sail in two days for Plymouth, where they would be joined by others, and
+thence proceed to the coast of Spain.
+
+Anne lay awake that night thinking of the Victory, and of those who
+floated in her.  To the best of Anne's calculation that ship of war
+would, during the next twenty-four hours, pass within a few miles of
+where she herself then lay.  Next to seeing Bob, the thing that would
+give her more pleasure than any other in the world was to see the vessel
+that contained him--his floating city, his sole dependence in battle and
+storm--upon whose safety from winds and enemies hung all her hope.
+
+The morrow was market-day at the seaport, and in this she saw her
+opportunity.  A carrier went from Overcombe at six o'clock thither, and
+having to do a little shopping for herself she gave it as a reason for
+her intended day's absence, and took a place in the van.  When she
+reached the town it was still early morning, but the borough was already
+in the zenith of its daily bustle and show.  The King was always out-of-
+doors by six o'clock, and such cock-crow hours at Gloucester Lodge
+produced an equally forward stir among the population.  She alighted, and
+passed down the esplanade, as fully thronged by persons of fashion at
+this time of mist and level sunlight as a watering-place in the present
+day is at four in the afternoon.  Dashing bucks and beaux in cocked hats,
+black feathers, ruffles, and frills, stared at her as she hurried along;
+the beach was swarming with bathing women, wearing waistbands that bore
+the national refrain, 'God save the King,' in gilt letters; the shops
+were all open, and Sergeant Stanner, with his sword-stuck bank-notes and
+heroic gaze, was beating up at two guineas and a crown, the crown to
+drink his Majesty's health.
+
+She soon finished her shopping, and then, crossing over into the old
+town, pursued her way along the coast-road to Portland.  At the end of an
+hour she had been rowed across the Fleet (which then lacked the
+convenience of a bridge), and reached the base of Portland Hill.  The
+steep incline before her was dotted with houses, showing the pleasant
+peculiarity of one man's doorstep being behind his neighbour's chimney,
+and slabs of stone as the common material for walls, roof, floor, pig-
+sty, stable-manger, door-scraper, and garden-stile.  Anne gained the
+summit, and followed along the central track over the huge lump of
+freestone which forms the peninsula, the wide sea prospect extending as
+she went on.  Weary with her journey, she approached the extreme
+southerly peak of rock, and gazed from the cliff at Portland Bill, or
+Beal, as it was in those days more correctly called.
+
+The wild, herbless, weather-worn promontory was quite a solitude, and,
+saving the one old lighthouse about fifty yards up the slope, scarce a
+mark was visible to show that humanity had ever been near the spot.  Anne
+found herself a seat on a stone, and swept with her eyes the tremulous
+expanse of water around her that seemed to utter a ceaseless
+unintelligible incantation.  Out of the three hundred and sixty degrees
+of her complete horizon two hundred and fifty were covered by waves, the
+coup d'oeil including the area of troubled waters known as the Race,
+where two seas met to effect the destruction of such vessels as could not
+be mastered by one.  She counted the craft within her view: there were
+five; no, there were only four; no, there were seven, some of the specks
+having resolved themselves into two.  They were all small coasters, and
+kept well within sight of land.
+
+Anne sank into a reverie.  Then she heard a slight noise on her left
+hand, and turning beheld an old sailor, who had approached with a glass.
+He was levelling it over the sea in a direction to the south-east, and
+somewhat removed from that in which her own eyes had been wandering.  Anne
+moved a few steps thitherward, so as to unclose to her view a deeper
+sweep on that side, and by this discovered a ship of far larger size than
+any which had yet dotted the main before her.  Its sails were for the
+most part new and clean, and in comparison with its rapid progress before
+the wind the small brigs and ketches seemed standing still.  Upon this
+striking object the old man's glass was bent.
+
+'What do you see, sailor?' she asked.
+
+'Almost nothing,' he answered.  'My sight is so gone off lately that
+things, one and all, be but a November mist to me.  And yet I fain would
+see to-day.  I am looking for the Victory.'
+
+'Why,' she said quickly.
+
+'I have a son aboard her.  He's one of three from these parts.  There's
+the captain, there's my son Ned, and there's young Loveday of
+Overcombe--he that lately joined.'
+
+'Shall I look for you?' said Anne, after a pause.
+
+'Certainly, mis'ess, if so be you please.'
+
+Anne took the glass, and he supported it by his arm.  'It is a large
+ship,' she said, 'with three masts, three rows of guns along the side,
+and all her sails set.'
+
+'I guessed as much.'
+
+'There is a little flag in front--over her bowsprit.'
+
+'The jack.'
+
+'And there's a large one flying at her stern.'
+
+'The ensign.'
+
+'And a white one on her fore-topmast.'
+
+'That's the admiral's flag, the flag of my Lord Nelson.  What is her
+figure-head, my dear?'
+
+'A coat-of-arms, supported on this side by a sailor.'
+
+Her companion nodded with satisfaction.  'On the other side of that
+figure-head is a marine.'
+
+'She is twisting round in a curious way, and her sails sink in like old
+cheeks, and she shivers like a leaf upon a tree.'
+
+'She is in stays, for the larboard tack.  I can see what she's been
+doing.  She's been re'ching close in to avoid the flood tide, as the wind
+is to the sou'-west, and she's bound down; but as soon as the ebb made,
+d'ye see, they made sail to the west'ard.  Captain Hardy may be depended
+upon for that; he knows every current about here, being a native.'
+
+'And now I can see the other side; it is a soldier where a sailor was
+before.  You are _sure_ it is the Victory?'
+
+'I am sure.'
+
+After this a frigate came into view--the Euryalus--sailing in the same
+direction.  Anne sat down, and her eyes never left the ships.  'Tell me
+more about the Victory,' she said.
+
+'She is the best sailer in the service, and she carries a hundred guns.
+The heaviest be on the lower deck, the next size on the middle deck, the
+next on the main and upper decks.  My son Ned's place is on the lower
+deck, because he's short, and they put the short men below.'
+
+Bob, though not tall, was not likely to be specially selected for
+shortness.  She pictured him on the upper deck, in his snow-white
+trousers and jacket of navy blue, looking perhaps towards the very point
+of land where she then was.
+
+The great silent ship, with her population of blue-jackets, marines,
+officers, captain, and the admiral who was not to return alive, passed
+like a phantom the meridian of the Bill.  Sometimes her aspect was that
+of a large white bat, sometimes that of a grey one.  In the course of
+time the watching girl saw that the ship had passed her nearest point;
+the breadth of her sails diminished by foreshortening, till she assumed
+the form of an egg on end.  After this something seemed to twinkle, and
+Anne, who had previously withdrawn from the old sailor, went back to him,
+and looked again through the glass.  The twinkling was the light falling
+upon the cabin windows of the ship's stern.  She explained it to the old
+man.
+
+'Then we see now what the enemy have seen but once.  That was in seventy-
+nine, when she sighted the French and Spanish fleet off Scilly, and she
+retreated because she feared a landing.  Well, 'tis a brave ship and she
+carries brave men!'
+
+Anne's tender bosom heaved, but she said nothing, and again became
+absorbed in contemplation.
+
+The Victory was fast dropping away.  She was on the horizon, and soon
+appeared hull down.  That seemed to be like the beginning of a greater
+end than her present vanishing.  Anne Garland could not stay by the
+sailor any longer, and went about a stone's-throw off, where she was
+hidden by the inequality of the cliff from his view.  The vessel was now
+exactly end on, and stood out in the direction of the Start, her width
+having contracted to the proportion of a feather.  She sat down again,
+and mechanically took out some biscuits that she had brought, foreseeing
+that her waiting might be long.  But she could not eat one of them;
+eating seemed to jar with the mental tenseness of the moment; and her
+undeviating gaze continued to follow the lessened ship with the fidelity
+of a balanced needle to a magnetic stone, all else in her being
+motionless.
+
+The courses of the Victory were absorbed into the main, then her topsails
+went, and then her top-gallants.  She was now no more than a dead fly's
+wing on a sheet of spider's web; and even this fragment diminished.  Anne
+could hardly bear to see the end, and yet she resolved not to flinch.  The
+admiral's flag sank behind the watery line, and in a minute the very
+truck of the last topmast stole away.  The Victory was gone.
+
+Anne's lip quivered as she murmured, without removing her wet eyes from
+the vacant and solemn horizon, '"They that go down to the sea in ships,
+that do business in great waters--"'
+
+'"These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep,"' was
+returned by a man's voice from behind her.
+
+Looking round quickly, she saw a soldier standing there; and the grave
+eyes of John Loveday bent on her.
+
+''Tis what I was thinking,' she said, trying to be composed.
+
+'You were saying it,' he answered gently.
+
+'Was I?--I did not know it. . . .  How came you here?' she presently
+added.
+
+'I have been behind you a good while; but you never turned round.'
+
+'I was deeply occupied,' she said in an undertone.
+
+'Yes--I too came to see him pass.  I heard this morning that Lord Nelson
+had embarked, and I knew at once that they would sail immediately.  The
+Victory and Euryalus are to join the rest of the fleet at Plymouth.  There
+was a great crowd of people assembled to see the admiral off; they
+cheered him and the ship as she dropped down.  He took his coffin on
+board with him, they say.'
+
+'His coffin!' said Anne, turning deadly pale.  'Something terrible, then,
+is meant by that!  O, why _would_ Bob go in that ship? doomed to
+destruction from the very beginning like this!'
+
+'It was his determination to sail under Captain Hardy, and under no one
+else,' said John.  'There may be hot work; but we must hope for the
+best.'  And observing how wretched she looked, he added, 'But won't you
+let me help you back?  If you can walk as far as Hope Cove it will be
+enough.  A lerret is going from there across the bay homeward to the
+harbour in the course of an hour; it belongs to a man I know, and they
+can take one passenger, I am sure.'
+
+She turned her back upon the Channel, and by his help soon reached the
+place indicated.  The boat was lying there as he had said.  She found it
+to belong to the old man who had been with her at the Bill, and was in
+charge of his two younger sons.  The trumpet-major helped her into it
+over the slippery blocks of stone, one of the young men spread his jacket
+for her to sit on, and as soon as they pulled from shore John climbed up
+the blue-grey cliff, and disappeared over the top, to return to the
+mainland by road.
+
+Anne was in the town by three o'clock.  The trip in the stern of the
+lerret had quite refreshed her, with the help of the biscuits, which she
+had at last been able to eat.  The van from the port to Overcombe did not
+start till four o'clock, and feeling no further interest in the gaieties
+of the place, she strolled on past the King's house to the outskirts, her
+mind settling down again upon the possibly sad fate of the Victory when
+she found herself alone.  She did not hurry on; and finding that even now
+there wanted another half-hour to the carrier's time, she turned into a
+little lane to escape the inspection of the numerous passers-by.  Here
+all was quite lonely and still, and she sat down under a willow-tree,
+absently regarding the landscape, which had begun to put on the rich
+tones of declining summer, but which to her was as hollow and faded as a
+theatre by day.  She could hold out no longer; burying her face in her
+hands, she wept without restraint.
+
+Some yards behind her was a little spring of water, having a stone margin
+round it to prevent the cattle from treading in the sides and filling it
+up with dirt.  While she wept, two elderly gentlemen entered unperceived
+upon the scene, and walked on to the spring's brink.  Here they paused
+and looked in, afterwards moving round it, and then stooping as if to
+smell or taste its waters.  The spring was, in fact, a sulphurous one,
+then recently discovered by a physician who lived in the neighbourhood;
+and it was beginning to attract some attention, having by common report
+contributed to effect such wonderful cures as almost passed belief.  After
+a considerable discussion, apparently on how the pool might be improved
+for better use, one of the two elderly gentlemen turned away, leaving the
+other still probing the spring with his cane.  The first stranger, who
+wore a blue coat with gilt buttons, came on in the direction of Anne
+Garland, and seeing her sad posture went quickly up to her, and said
+abruptly, 'What is the matter?'
+
+Anne, who in her grief had observed nothing of the gentlemen's presence,
+withdrew her handkerchief from her eyes and started to her feet.  She
+instantly recognised her interrogator as the King.
+
+'What, what, crying?' his Majesty inquired kindly.  'How is this!'
+
+'I--have seen a dear friend go away, sir,' she faltered, with downcast
+eyes.
+
+'Ah--partings are sad--very sad--for us all.  You must hope your friend
+will return soon.  Where is he or she gone?'
+
+'I don't know, your Majesty.'
+
+'Don't know--how is that?'
+
+'He is a sailor on board the Victory.'
+
+'Then he has reason to be proud,' said the King with interest.  'He is
+your brother?'
+
+Anne tried to explain what he was, but could not, and blushed with
+painful heat.
+
+'Well, well, well; what is his name?'
+
+In spite of Anne's confusion and low spirits, her womanly shrewdness told
+her at once that no harm could be done by revealing Bob's name; and she
+answered, 'His name is Robert Loveday, sir.'
+
+'Loveday--a good name.  I shall not forget it.  Now dry your cheeks, and
+don't cry any more.  Loveday--Robert Loveday.'
+
+Anne curtseyed, the King smiled good-humouredly, and turned to rejoin his
+companion, who was afterwards heard to be Dr. ---, the physician in
+attendance at Gloucester Lodge.  This gentleman had in the meantime
+filled a small phial with the medicinal water, which he carefully placed
+in his pocket; and on the King coming up they retired together and
+disappeared.  Thereupon Anne, now thoroughly aroused, followed the same
+way with a gingerly tread, just in time to see them get into a carriage
+which was in waiting at the turning of the lane.
+
+She quite forgot the carrier, and everything else in connexion with
+riding home.  Flying along the road rapidly and unconsciously, when she
+awoke to a sense of her whereabouts she was so near to Overcombe as to
+make the carrier not worth waiting for.  She had been borne up in this
+hasty spurt at the end of a weary day by visions of Bob promoted to the
+rank of admiral, or something equally wonderful, by the King's special
+command, the chief result of the promotion being, in her arrangement of
+the piece, that he would stay at home and go to sea no more.  But she was
+not a girl who indulged in extravagant fancies long, and before she
+reached home she thought that the King had probably forgotten her by that
+time, and her troubles, and her lover's name.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.  A SAILOR ENTERS
+
+
+The remaining fortnight of the month of September passed away, with a
+general decline from the summer's excitements.  The royal family left the
+watering-place the first week in October, the German Legion with their
+artillery about the same time.  The dragoons still remained at the
+barracks just out of the town, and John Loveday brought to Anne every
+newspaper that he could lay hands on, especially such as contained any
+fragment of shipping news.  This threw them much together; and at these
+times John was often awkward and confused, on account of the unwonted
+stress of concealing his great love for her.
+
+Her interests had grandly developed from the limits of Overcombe and the
+town life hard by, to an extensiveness truly European.  During the whole
+month of October, however, not a single grain of information reached her,
+or anybody else, concerning Nelson and his blockading squadron off Cadiz.
+There were the customary bad jokes about Buonaparte, especially when it
+was found that the whole French army had turned its back upon Boulogne
+and set out for the Rhine.  Then came accounts of his march through
+Germany and into Austria; but not a word about the Victory.
+
+At the beginning of autumn John brought news which fearfully depressed
+her.  The Austrian General Mack had capitulated with his whole army.  Then
+were revived the old misgivings as to invasion.  'Instead of having to
+cope with him weary with waiting, we shall have to encounter This Man
+fresh from the fields of victory,' ran the newspaper article.
+
+But the week which had led off with such a dreary piping was to end in
+another key.  On the very day when Mack's army was piling arms at the
+feet of its conqueror, a blow had been struck by Bob Loveday and his
+comrades which eternally shattered the enemy's force by sea.  Four days
+after the receipt of the Austrian news Corporal Tullidge ran into the
+miller's house to inform him that on the previous Monday, at eleven in
+the morning, the Pickle schooner, Lieutenant Lapenotiere, had arrived at
+Falmouth with despatches from the fleet; that the stage-coaches on the
+highway through Wessex to London were chalked with the words 'Great
+Victory!' 'Glorious Triumph!' and so on; and that all the country people
+were wild to know particulars.
+
+On Friday afternoon John arrived with authentic news of the battle off
+Cape Trafalgar, and the death of Nelson.  Captain Hardy was alive, though
+his escape had been narrow enough, his shoe-buckle having been carried
+away by a shot.  It was feared that the Victory had been the scene of the
+heaviest slaughter among all the ships engaged, but as yet no returns of
+killed and wounded had been issued, beyond a rough list of the numbers in
+some of the ships.
+
+The suspense of the little household in Overcombe Mill was great in the
+extreme.  John came thither daily for more than a week; but no further
+particulars reached England till the end of that time, and then only the
+meagre intelligence that there had been a gale immediately after the
+battle, and that many of the prizes had been lost.  Anne said little to
+all these things, and preserved a superstratum of calmness on her
+countenance; but some inner voice seemed to whisper to her that Bob was
+no more.  Miller Loveday drove to Pos'ham several times to learn if the
+Captain's sisters had received any more definite tidings than these
+flying reports; but that family had heard nothing which could in any way
+relieve the miller's anxiety.  When at last, at the end of November,
+there appeared a final and revised list of killed and wounded as issued
+by Admiral Collingwood, it was a useless sheet to the Lovedays.  To their
+great pain it contained no names but those of officers, the friends of
+ordinary seamen and marines being in those good old days left to discover
+their losses as best they might.
+
+Anne's conviction of her loss increased with the darkening of the early
+winter time.  Bob was not a cautious man who would avoid needless
+exposure, and a hundred and fifty of the Victory's crew had been disabled
+or slain.  Anybody who had looked into her room at this time would have
+seen that her favourite reading was the office for the Burial of the Dead
+at Sea, beginning 'We therefore commit his body to the deep.'  In these
+first days of December several of the victorious fleet came into port;
+but not the Victory.  Many supposed that that noble ship, disabled by the
+battle, had gone to the bottom in the subsequent tempestuous weather; and
+the belief was persevered in till it was told in the town and port that
+she had been seen passing up the Channel.  Two days later the Victory
+arrived at Portsmouth.
+
+Then letters from survivors began to appear in the public prints which
+John so regularly brought to Anne; but though he watched the mails with
+unceasing vigilance there was never a letter from Bob.  It sometimes
+crossed John's mind that his brother might still be alive and well, and
+that in his wish to abide by his expressed intention of giving up Anne
+and home life he was deliberately lax in writing.  If so, Bob was
+carrying out the idea too thoughtlessly by half, as could be seen by
+watching the effects of suspense upon the fair face of the victim, and
+the anxiety of the rest of the family.
+
+It was a clear day in December.  The first slight snow of the season had
+been sifted over the earth, and one side of the apple-tree branches in
+the miller's garden was touched with white, though a few leaves were
+still lingering on the tops of the younger trees.  A short sailor of the
+Royal Navy, who was not Bob, nor anything like him, crossed the mill
+court and came to the door.  The miller hastened out and brought him into
+the room, where John, Mrs. Loveday, and Anne Garland were all present.
+
+'I'm from aboard the Victory,' said the sailor.  'My name's Jim Cornick.
+And your lad is alive and well.'
+
+They breathed rather than spoke their thankfulness and relief, the
+miller's eyes being moist as he turned aside to calm himself; while Anne,
+having first jumped up wildly from her seat, sank back again under the
+almost insupportable joy that trembled through her limbs to her utmost
+finger.
+
+'I've come from Spithead to Pos'ham,' the sailor continued, 'and now I am
+going on to father at Budmouth.'
+
+'Ah!--I know your father,' cried the trumpet-major, 'old James Cornick.'
+
+It was the man who had brought Anne in his lerret from Portland Bill.
+
+'And Bob hasn't got a scratch?' said the miller.
+
+'Not a scratch,' said Cornick.
+
+Loveday then bustled off to draw the visitor something to drink.  Anne
+Garland, with a glowing blush on her face, had gone to the back part of
+the room, where she was the very embodiment of sweet content as she
+slightly swayed herself without speaking.  A little tide of happiness
+seemed to ebb and flow through her in listening to the sailor's words,
+moving her figure with it.  The seaman and John went on conversing.
+
+'Bob had a good deal to do with barricading the hawse-holes afore we were
+in action, and the Adm'l and Cap'n both were very much pleased at how
+'twas done.  When the Adm'l went up the quarter-deck ladder, Cap'n Hardy
+said a word or two to Bob, but what it was I don't know, for I was
+quartered at a gun some ways off.  However, Bob saw the Adm'l stagger
+when 'a was wownded, and was one of the men who carried him to the
+cockpit.  After that he and some other lads jumped aboard the French
+ship, and I believe they was in her when she struck her flag.  What 'a
+did next I can't say, for the wind had dropped, and the smoke was like a
+cloud.  But 'a got a good deal talked about; and they say there's
+promotion in store for'n.'
+
+At this point in the story Jim Cornick stopped to drink, and a low
+unconscious humming came from Anne in her distant corner; the faint
+melody continued more or less when the conversation between the sailor
+and the Lovedays was renewed.
+
+'We heard afore that the Victory was near knocked to pieces,' said the
+miller.
+
+'Knocked to pieces?  You'd say so if so be you could see her!  Gad, her
+sides be battered like an old penny piece; the shot be still sticking in
+her wales, and her sails be like so many clap-nets: we have run all the
+way home under jury topmasts; and as for her decks, you may swab wi' hot
+water, and you may swab wi' cold, but there's the blood-stains, and there
+they'll bide. . . .  The Cap'n had a narrow escape, like many o' the
+rest--a shot shaved his ankle like a razor.  You should have seen that
+man's face in the het o' battle, his features were as if they'd been cast
+in steel.'
+
+'We rather expected a letter from Bob before this.'
+
+'Well,' said Jim Cornick, with a smile of toleration, 'you must make
+allowances.  The truth o't is, he's engaged just now at Portsmouth, like
+a good many of the rest from our ship. . . .  'Tis a very nice young
+woman that he's a courting of, and I make no doubt that she'll be an
+excellent wife for him.'
+
+'Ah!' said Mrs. Loveday, in a warning tone.
+
+'Courting--wife?' said the miller.
+
+They instinctively looked towards Anne.  Anne had started as if shaken by
+an invisible hand, and a thick mist of doubt seemed to obscure the
+intelligence of her eyes.  This was but for two or three moments.  Very
+pale, she arose and went right up to the seaman.  John gently tried to
+intercept her, but she passed him by.
+
+'Do you speak of Robert Loveday as courting a wife?' she asked, without
+the least betrayal of emotion.
+
+'I didn't see you, miss,' replied Cornick, turning.  'Yes, your brother
+hev' his eye on a wife, and he deserves one.  I hope you don't mind?'
+
+'Not in the least,' she said, with a stage laugh.  'I am interested,
+naturally.  And what is she?'
+
+'A very nice young master-baker's daughter, honey.  A very wise choice of
+the young man's.'
+
+'Is she fair or dark?'
+
+'Her hair is rather light.'
+
+'I like light hair; and her name?'
+
+'Her name is Caroline.  But can it be that my story hurts ye?  If so--'
+
+'Yes, yes,' said John, interposing anxiously.  'We don't care for more
+just at this moment.'
+
+'We _do_ care for more!' said Anne vehemently.  'Tell it all, sailor.
+That is a very pretty name, Caroline.  When are they going to be
+married?'
+
+'I don't know as how the day is settled,' answered Jim, even now scarcely
+conscious of the devastation he was causing in one fair breast.  'But
+from the rate the courting is scudding along at, I should say it won't be
+long first.'
+
+'If you see him when you go back, give him my best wishes,' she lightly
+said, as she moved away.  'And,' she added, with solemn bitterness, 'say
+that I am glad to hear he is making such good use of the first days of
+his escape from the Valley of the Shadow of Death!'  She went away,
+expressing indifference by audibly singing in the distance--
+
+   'Shall we go dance the round, the round, the round,
+      Shall we go dance the round?'
+
+'Your sister is lively at the news,' observed Jim Cornick.
+
+'Yes,' murmured John gloomily, as he gnawed his lower lip and kept his
+eyes fixed on the fire.
+
+'Well,' continued the man from the Victory, 'I won't say that your
+brother's intended ha'n't got some ballast, which is very lucky for'n, as
+he might have picked up with a girl without a single copper nail.  To be
+sure there was a time we had when we got into port!  It was open house
+for us all!'  And after mentally regarding the scene for a few seconds
+Jim emptied his cup and rose to go.
+
+The miller was saying some last words to him outside the house, Anne's
+voice had hardly ceased singing upstairs, John was standing by the
+fireplace, and Mrs. Loveday was crossing the room to join her daughter,
+whose manner had given her some uneasiness, when a noise came from above
+the ceiling, as of some heavy body falling.  Mrs. Loveday rushed to the
+staircase, saying, 'Ah, I feared something!' and she was followed by
+John.
+
+When they entered Anne's room, which they both did almost at one moment,
+they found her lying insensible upon the floor.  The trumpet-major, his
+lips tightly closed, lifted her in his arms, and laid her upon the bed;
+after which he went back to the door to give room to her mother, who was
+bending over the girl with some hartshorn.
+
+Presently Mrs. Loveday looked up and said to him, 'She is only in a
+faint, John, and her colour is coming back.  Now leave her to me; I will
+be downstairs in a few minutes, and tell you how she is.'
+
+John left the room.  When he gained the lower apartment his father was
+standing by the chimney-piece, the sailor having gone.  The trumpet-major
+went up to the fire, and, grasping the edge of the high chimney-shelf,
+stood silent.
+
+'Did I hear a noise when I went out?' asked the elder, in a tone of
+misgiving.
+
+'Yes, you did,' said John.  'It was she, but her mother says she is
+better now.  Father,' he added impetuously, 'Bob is a worthless
+blockhead!  If there had been any good in him he would have been drowned
+years ago!'
+
+'John, John--not too fast,' said the miller.  'That's a hard thing to say
+of your brother, and you ought to be ashamed of it.'
+
+'Well, he tries me more than I can bear.  Good God! what can a man be
+made of to go on as he does?  Why didn't he come home; or if he couldn't
+get leave why didn't he write?  'Tis scandalous of him to serve a woman
+like that!'
+
+'Gently, gently.  The chap hev done his duty as a sailor; and though
+there might have been something between him and Anne, her mother, in
+talking it over with me, has said many times that she couldn't think of
+their marrying till Bob had settled down in business with me.  Folks that
+gain victories must have a little liberty allowed 'em.  Look at the
+Admiral himself, for that matter.'
+
+John continued looking at the red coals, till hearing Mrs. Loveday's foot
+on the staircase, he went to meet her.
+
+'She is better,' said Mrs. Loveday; 'but she won't come down again to-
+day.'
+
+Could John have heard what the poor girl was moaning to herself at that
+moment as she lay writhing on the bed, he would have doubted her mother's
+assurance.  'If he had been dead I could have borne it, but this I cannot
+bear!'
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.  DERRIMAN SEES CHANCES
+
+
+Meanwhile Sailor Cornick had gone on his way as far as the forking roads,
+where he met Festus Derriman on foot.  The latter, attracted by the
+seaman's dress, and by seeing him come from the mill, at once accosted
+him.  Jim, with the greatest readiness, fell into conversation, and told
+the same story as that he had related at the mill.
+
+'Bob Loveday going to be married?' repeated Festus.
+
+'You all seem struck of a heap wi' that.'
+
+'No; I never heard news that pleased me more.'
+
+When Cornick was gone, Festus, instead of passing straight on, halted on
+the little bridge and meditated.  Bob, being now interested elsewhere,
+would probably not resent the siege of Anne's heart by another; there
+could, at any rate, be no further possibility of that looming duel which
+had troubled the yeoman's mind ever since his horse-play on Anne at the
+house on the down.  To march into the mill and propose to Mrs. Loveday
+for Anne before John's interest could revive in her was, to this hero's
+thinking, excellent discretion.
+
+The day had already begun to darken when he entered, and the cheerful
+fire shone red upon the floor and walls.  Mrs. Loveday received him
+alone, and asked him to take a seat by the chimney-corner, a little of
+the old hankering for him as a son-in-law having permanently remained
+with her.
+
+'Your servant, Mrs. Loveday,' he said, 'and I will tell you at once what
+I come for.  You will say that I take time by the forelock when I inform
+you that it is to push on my long-wished-for alliance wi' your daughter,
+as I believe she is now a free woman again.'
+
+'Thank you, Mr. Derriman,' said the mother placably.  'But she is ill at
+present.  I'll mention it to her when she is better.'
+
+'Ask her to alter her cruel, cruel resolves against me, on the score
+of--of my consuming passion for her.  In short,' continued Festus,
+dropping his parlour language in his warmth, 'I'll tell thee what, Dame
+Loveday, I want the maid, and must have her.'
+
+Mrs. Loveday replied that that was very plain speaking.
+
+'Well, 'tis.  But Bob has given her up.  He never meant to marry her.
+I'll tell you, Mrs. Loveday, what I have never told a soul before.  I was
+standing upon Budmouth Quay on that very day in last September that Bob
+set sail, and I heard him say to his brother John that he gave your
+daughter up.'
+
+'Then it was very unmannerly of him to trifle with her so,' said Mrs.
+Loveday warmly.  'Who did he give her up to?'
+
+Festus replied with hesitation, 'He gave her up to John.'
+
+'To John?  How could he give her up to a man already over head and ears
+in love with that actress woman?'
+
+'O?  You surprise me.  Which actress is it?'
+
+'That Miss Johnson.  Anne tells me that he loves her hopelessly.'
+
+Festus arose.  Miss Johnson seemed suddenly to acquire high value as a
+sweetheart at this announcement.  He had himself felt a nameless
+attractiveness in her, and John had done likewise.  John crossed his path
+in all possible ways.
+
+Before the yeoman had replied somebody opened the door, and the firelight
+shone upon the uniform of the person they discussed.  Festus nodded on
+recognizing him, wished Mrs. Loveday good evening, and went out
+precipitately.
+
+'So Bob told you he meant to break off with my Anne when he went away?'
+Mrs. Loveday remarked to the trumpet-major.  'I wish I had known of it
+before.'
+
+John appeared disturbed at the sudden charge.  He murmured that he could
+not deny it, and then hastily turned from her and followed Derriman, whom
+he saw before him on the bridge.
+
+'Derriman!' he shouted.
+
+Festus started and looked round.  'Well, trumpet-major,' he said blandly.
+
+'When will you have sense enough to mind your own business, and not come
+here telling things you have heard by sneaking behind people's backs?'
+demanded John hotly.  'If you can't learn in any other way, I shall have
+to pull your ears again, as I did the other day!'
+
+'_You_ pull my ears?  How can you tell that lie, when you know 'twas
+somebody else pulled 'em?'
+
+'O no, no.  I pulled your ears, and thrashed you in a mild way.'
+
+'You'll swear to it?  Surely 'twas another man?'
+
+'It was in the parlour at the public-house; you were almost in the dark.'
+And John added a few details as to the particular blows, which amounted
+to proof itself.
+
+'Then I heartily ask your pardon for saying 'twas a lie!' cried Festus,
+advancing with extended hand and a genial smile.  'Sure, if I had known
+_'twas_ you, I wouldn't have insulted you by denying it.'
+
+'That was why you didn't challenge me, then?'
+
+'That was it!  I wouldn't for the world have hurt your nice sense of
+honour by letting 'ee go unchallenged, if I had known!  And now, you see,
+unfortunately I can't mend the mistake.  So long a time has passed since
+it happened that the heat of my temper is gone off.  I couldn't oblige
+'ee, try how I might, for I am not a man, trumpet-major, that can butcher
+in cold blood--no, not I, nor you neither, from what I know of 'ee.  So,
+willy-nilly, we must fain let it pass, eh?'
+
+'We must, I suppose,' said John, smiling grimly.  'Who did you think I
+was, then, that night when I boxed you all round?'
+
+'No, don't press me,' replied the yeoman.  'I can't reveal; it would be
+disgracing myself to show how very wide of the truth the mockery of wine
+was able to lead my senses.  We will let it be buried in eternal mixens
+of forgetfulness.'
+
+'As you wish,' said the trumpet-major loftily.  'But if you ever _should_
+think you knew it was me, why, you know where to find me?'  And Loveday
+walked away.
+
+The instant that he was gone Festus shook his fist at the evening star,
+which happened to lie in the same direction as that taken by the dragoon.
+
+'Now for my revenge!  Duels?  Lifelong disgrace to me if ever I fight
+with a man of blood below my own!  There are other remedies for upper-
+class souls!. . .  Matilda--that's my way.'
+
+Festus strode along till he reached the Hall, where Cripplestraw appeared
+gazing at him from under the arch of the porter's lodge.  Derriman dashed
+open the entrance-hurdle with such violence that the whole row of them
+fell flat in the mud.
+
+'Mercy, Maister Festus!' said Cripplestraw.  '"Surely," I says to myself
+when I see ye a-coming, "surely Maister Festus is fuming like that
+because there's no chance of the enemy coming this year after all."'
+
+'Cr-r-ripplestraw!  I have been wounded to the heart,' replied Derriman,
+with a lurid brow.
+
+'And the man yet lives, and you wants yer horse-pistols instantly?
+Certainly, Maister F---'
+
+'No, Cripplestraw, not my pistols, but my new-cut clothes, my heavy gold
+seals, my silver-topped cane, and my buckles that cost more money than he
+ever saw!  Yes, I must tell somebody, and I'll tell you, because there's
+no other fool near.  He loves her heart and soul.  He's poor; she's tip-
+top genteel, and not rich.  I am rich, by comparison.  I'll court the
+pretty play-actress, and win her before his eyes.'
+
+'Play-actress, Maister Derriman?'
+
+'Yes.  I saw her this very day, met her by accident, and spoke to her.
+She's still in the town--perhaps because of him.  I can meet her at any
+hour of the day--  But I don't mean to marry her; not I.  I will court
+her for my pastime, and to annoy him.  It will be all the more death to
+him that I don't want her.  Then perhaps he will say to me, "You have
+taken my one ewe lamb"--meaning that I am the king, and he's the poor
+man, as in the church verse; and he'll beg for mercy when 'tis too
+late--unless, meanwhile, I shall have tired of my new toy.  Saddle the
+horse, Cripplestraw, to-morrow at ten.'
+
+Full of this resolve to scourge John Loveday to the quick through his
+passion for Miss Johnson, Festus came out booted and spurred at the time
+appointed, and set off on his morning ride.
+
+Miss Johnson's theatrical engagement having long ago terminated, she
+would have left the Royal watering-place with the rest of the visitors
+had not matrimonial hopes detained her there.  These had nothing whatever
+to do with John Loveday, as may be imagined, but with a stout, staid boat-
+builder in Cove Row by the quay, who had shown much interest in her
+impersonations.  Unfortunately this substantial man had not been quite so
+attentive since the end of the season as his previous manner led her to
+expect; and it was a great pleasure to the lady to see Mr. Derriman
+leaning over the harbour bridge with his eyes fixed upon her as she came
+towards it after a stroll past her elderly wooer's house.
+
+'Od take it, ma'am, you didn't tell me when I saw you last that the
+tooting man with the blue jacket and lace was yours devoted?' began
+Festus.
+
+'Who do you mean?'  In Matilda's ever-changing emotional interests, John
+Loveday was a stale and unprofitable personality.
+
+'Why, that trumpet-major man.'
+
+'O!  What of him?'
+
+'Come; he loves you, and you know it, ma'am.'
+
+She knew, at any rate, how to take the current when it served.  So she
+glanced at Festus, folded her lips meaningly, and nodded.
+
+'I've come to cut him out.'
+
+She shook her head, it being unsafe to speak till she knew a little more
+of the subject.
+
+'What!' said Festus, reddening, 'do you mean to say that you think of him
+seriously--you, who might look so much higher?'
+
+'Constant dropping will wear away a stone; and you should only hear his
+pleading!  His handsome face is impressive, and his manners are--O, so
+genteel!  I am not rich; I am, in short, a poor lady of decayed family,
+who has nothing to boast of but my blood and ancestors, and they won't
+find a body in food and clothing!--I hold the world but as the world,
+Derrimanio--a stage where every man must play a part, and mine a sad
+one!'  She dropped her eyes thoughtfully and sighed.
+
+'We will talk of this,' said Festus, much affected.  'Let us walk to the
+Look-out.'
+
+She made no objection, and said, as they turned that way, 'Mr. Derriman,
+a long time ago I found something belonging to you; but I have never yet
+remembered to return it.'  And she drew from her bosom the paper which
+Anne had dropped in the meadow when eluding the grasp of Festus on that
+summer day.
+
+'Zounds, I smell fresh meat!' cried Festus when he had looked it over.
+''Tis in my uncle's writing, and 'tis what I heard him singing on the day
+the French didn't come, and afterwards saw him marking in the road.  'Tis
+something he's got hid away.  Give me the paper, there's a dear; 'tis
+worth sterling gold!'
+
+'Halves, then?' said Matilda tenderly.
+
+'Gad, yes--anything!' replied Festus, blazing into a smile, for she had
+looked up in her best new manner at the possibility that he might be
+worth the winning.  They went up the steps to the summit of the cliff,
+and dwindled over it against the sky.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.  REACTION
+
+
+There was no letter from Bob, though December had passed, and the new
+year was two weeks old.  His movements were, however, pretty accurately
+registered in the papers, which John still brought, but which Anne no
+longer read.  During the second week in December the Victory sailed for
+Sheerness, and on the 9th of the following January the public funeral of
+Lord Nelson took place in St. Paul's.
+
+Then there came a meagre line addressed to the family in general.  Bob's
+new Portsmouth attachment was not mentioned, but he told them he had been
+one of the eight-and-forty seamen who walked two-and-two in the funeral
+procession, and that Captain Hardy had borne the banner of emblems on the
+same occasion.  The crew was soon to be paid off at Chatham, when he
+thought of returning to Portsmouth for a few days to see a valued friend.
+After that he should come home.
+
+But the spring advanced without bringing him, and John watched Anne
+Garland's desolation with augmenting desire to do something towards
+consoling her.  The old feelings, so religiously held in check, were
+stimulated to rebelliousness, though they did not show themselves in any
+direct manner as yet.
+
+The miller, in the meantime, who seldom interfered in such matters, was
+observed to look meaningly at Anne and the trumpet-major from day to day;
+and by-and-by he spoke privately to John.
+
+His words were short and to the point: Anne was very melancholy; she had
+thought too much of Bob.  Now 'twas plain that they had lost him for many
+years to come.  Well; he had always felt that of the two he would rather
+John married her.  Now John might settle down there, and succeed where
+Bob had failed.  'So if you could get her, my sonny, to think less of him
+and more of thyself, it would be a good thing for all.'
+
+An inward excitement had risen in John; but he suppressed it and said
+firmly--
+
+'Fairness to Bob before everything!'
+
+'He hev forgot her, and there's an end on't.'
+
+'She's not forgot him.'
+
+'Well, well; think it over.'
+
+This discourse was the cause of his penning a letter to his brother.  He
+begged for a distinct statement whether, as John at first supposed, Bob's
+verbal renunciation of Anne on the quay had been only a momentary
+ebullition of friendship, which it would be cruel to take literally; or
+whether, as seemed now, it had passed from a hasty resolve to a standing
+purpose, persevered in for his own pleasure, with not a care for the
+result on poor Anne.
+
+John waited anxiously for the answer, but no answer came; and the silence
+seemed even more significant than a letter of assurance could have been
+of his absolution from further support to a claim which Bob himself had
+so clearly renounced.  Thus it happened that paternal pressure, brotherly
+indifference, and his own released impulse operated in one delightful
+direction, and the trumpet-major once more approached Anne as in the old
+time.
+
+But it was not till she had been left to herself for a full five months,
+and the blue-bells and ragged-robins of the following year were again
+making themselves common to the rambling eye, that he directly addressed
+her.  She was tying up a group of tall flowering plants in the garden:
+she knew that he was behind her, but she did not turn.  She had subsided
+into a placid dignity which enabled her when watched to perform any
+little action with seeming composure--very different from the flutter of
+her inexperienced days.
+
+'Are you never going to turn round?' he at length asked good-humouredly.
+
+She then did turn, and looked at him for a moment without speaking; a
+certain suspicion looming in her eyes, as if suggested by his perceptible
+want of ease.
+
+'How like summer it is getting to feel, is it not?' she said.
+
+John admitted that it was getting to feel like summer: and, bending his
+gaze upon her with an earnestness which no longer left any doubt of his
+subject, went on to ask--
+
+'Have you ever in these last weeks thought of how it used to be between
+us?'
+
+She replied quickly, 'O, John, you shouldn't begin that again.  I am
+almost another woman now!'
+
+'Well, that's all the more reason why I should, isn't it?'
+
+Anne looked thoughtfully to the other end of the garden, faintly shaking
+her head; 'I don't quite see it like that,' she returned.
+
+'You feel yourself quite free, don't you?'
+
+'_Quite_ free!' she said instantly, and with proud distinctness; her eyes
+fell, and she repeated more slowly, 'Quite free.'  Then her thoughts
+seemed to fly from herself to him.  'But you are not?'
+
+'I am not?'
+
+'Miss Johnson!'
+
+'O--that woman!  You know as well as I that was all make-up, and that I
+never for a moment thought of her.'
+
+'I had an idea you were acting; but I wasn't sure.'
+
+'Well, that's nothing now.  Anne, I want to relieve your life; to cheer
+you in some way; to make some amends for my brother's bad conduct.  If
+you cannot love me, liking will be well enough.  I have thought over
+every side of it so many times--for months have I been thinking it
+over--and I am at last sure that I do right to put it to you in this way.
+That I don't wrong Bob I am quite convinced.  As far as he is concerned
+we be both free.  Had I not been sure of that I would never have spoken.
+Father wants me to take on the mill, and it will please him if you can
+give me one little hope; it will make the house go on altogether better
+if you can think o' me.'
+
+'You are generous and good, John,' she said, as a big round tear bowled
+helter-skelter down her face and hat-strings.
+
+'I am not that; I fear I am quite the opposite,' he said, without looking
+at her.  'It would be all gain to me--  But you have not answered my
+question.'
+
+She lifted her eyes.  'John, I cannot!' she said, with a cheerless smile.
+'Positively I cannot.  Will you make me a promise?'
+
+'What is it?'
+
+'I want you to promise first--  Yes, it is dreadfully unreasonable,' she
+added, in a mild distress.  'But do promise!'
+
+John by this time seemed to have a feeling that it was all up with him
+for the present.  'I promise,' he said listlessly.
+
+'It is that you won't speak to me about this for _ever_ so long,' she
+returned, with emphatic kindliness.
+
+'Very good,' he replied; 'very good.  Dear Anne, you don't think I have
+been unmanly or unfair in starting this anew?'
+
+Anne looked into his face without a smile.  'You have been perfectly
+natural,' she murmured.  'And so I think have I.'
+
+John, mournfully: 'You will not avoid me for this, or be afraid of me?  I
+will not break my word.  I will not worry you any more.'
+
+'Thank you, John.  You need not have said worry; it isn't that.'
+
+'Well, I am very blind and stupid.  I have been hurting your heart all
+the time without knowing it.  It is my fate, I suppose.  Men who love
+women the very best always blunder and give more pain than those who love
+them less.'
+
+Anne laid one of her hands on the other as she softly replied, looking
+down at them, 'No one loves me as well as you, John; nobody in the world
+is so worthy to be loved; and yet I cannot anyhow love you rightly.'  And
+lifting her eyes, 'But I do so feel for you that I will try as hard as I
+can to think about you.'
+
+'Well, that is something,' he said, smiling.  'You say I must not speak
+about it again for ever so long; how long?'
+
+'Now that's not fair,' Anne retorted, going down the garden, and leaving
+him alone.
+
+About a week passed.  Then one afternoon the miller walked up to Anne
+indoors, a weighty topic being expressed in his tread.
+
+'I was so glad, my honey,' he began, with a knowing smile, 'to see that
+from the mill-window last week.'  He flung a nod in the direction of the
+garden.
+
+Anne innocently inquired what it could be.
+
+'Jack and you in the garden together,' he continued laying his hand
+gently on her shoulder and stroking it.  'It would so please me, my dear
+little girl, if you could get to like him better than that weathercock,
+Master Bob.'
+
+Anne shook her head; not in forcible negation, but to imply a kind of
+neutrality.
+
+'Can't you?  Come now,' said the miller.
+
+She threw back her head with a little laugh of grievance.  'How you all
+beset me!' she expostulated.  'It makes me feel very wicked in not
+obeying you, and being faithful--faithful to--'  But she could not trust
+that side of the subject to words.  'Why would it please you so much?'
+she asked.
+
+'John is as steady and staunch a fellow as ever blowed a trumpet.  I've
+always thought you might do better with him than with Bob.  Now I've a
+plan for taking him into the mill, and letting him have a comfortable
+time o't after his long knocking about; but so much depends upon you that
+I must bide a bit till I see what your pleasure is about the poor fellow.
+Mind, my dear, I don't want to force ye; I only just ask ye.'
+
+Anne meditatively regarded the miller from under her shady eyelids, the
+fingers of one hand playing a silent tattoo on her bosom.  'I don't know
+what to say to you,' she answered brusquely, and went away.
+
+But these discourses were not without their effect upon the extremely
+conscientious mind of Anne.  They were, moreover, much helped by an
+incident which took place one evening in the autumn of this year, when
+John came to tea.  Anne was sitting on a low stool in front of the fire,
+her hands clasped across her knee.  John Loveday had just seated himself
+on a chair close behind her, and Mrs. Loveday was in the act of filling
+the teapot from the kettle which hung in the chimney exactly above Anne.
+The kettle slipped forward suddenly, whereupon John jumped from the chair
+and put his own two hands over Anne's just in time to shield them, and
+the precious knee she clasped, from the jet of scalding water which had
+directed itself upon that point.  The accidental overflow was instantly
+checked by Mrs. Loveday; but what had come was received by the devoted
+trumpet-major on the back of his hands.
+
+Anne, who had hardly been aware that he was behind her, started up like a
+person awakened from a trance.  'What have you done to yourself, poor
+John, to keep it off me!' she cried, looking at his hands.
+
+John reddened emotionally at her words, 'It is a bit of a scald, that's
+all,' he replied, drawing a finger across the back of one hand, and
+bringing off the skin by the touch.
+
+'You are scalded painfully, and I not at all!'  She gazed into his kind
+face as she had never gazed there before, and when Mrs. Loveday came back
+with oil and other liniments for the wound Anne would let nobody dress it
+but herself.  It seemed as if her coyness had all gone, and when she had
+done all that lay in her power she still sat by him.  At his departure
+she said what she had never said to him in her life before: 'Come again
+soon!'
+
+In short, that impulsive act of devotion, the last of a series of the
+same tenor, had been the added drop which finally turned the wheel.
+John's character deeply impressed her.  His determined steadfastness to
+his lode star won her admiration, the more especially as that star was
+herself.  She began to wonder more and more how she could have so
+persistently held out against his advances before Bob came home to renew
+girlish memories which had by that time got considerably weakened.  Could
+she not, after all, please the miller, and try to listen to John?  By so
+doing she would make a worthy man happy, the only sacrifice being at
+worst that of her unworthy self, whose future was no longer valuable.  'As
+for Bob, the woman is to be pitied who loves him,' she reflected
+indignantly, and persuaded herself that, whoever the woman might be, she
+was not Anne Garland.
+
+After this there was something of recklessness and something of
+pleasantry in the young girl's manner of making herself an example of the
+triumph of pride and common sense over memory and sentiment.  Her
+attitude had been epitomized in her defiant singing at the time she
+learnt that Bob was not leal and true.  John, as was inevitable, came
+again almost immediately, drawn thither by the sun of her first smile on
+him, and the words which had accompanied it.  And now instead of going
+off to her little pursuits upstairs, downstairs, across the room, in the
+corner, or to any place except where he happened to be, as had been her
+custom hitherto, she remained seated near him, returning interesting
+answers to his general remarks, and at every opportunity letting him know
+that at last he had found favour in her eyes.
+
+The day was fine, and they went out of doors, where Anne endeavoured to
+seat herself on the sloping stone of the window-sill.
+
+'How good you have become lately,' said John, standing over her and
+smiling in the sunlight which blazed against the wall.  'I fancy you have
+stayed at home this afternoon on my account.'
+
+'Perhaps I have,' she said gaily--
+
+   '"Do whatever we may for him, dame, we cannot do too much!
+      For he's one that has guarded our land."
+
+'And he has done more than that: he has saved me from a dreadful
+scalding.  The back of your hand will not be well for a long time, John,
+will it?'
+
+He held out his hand to regard its condition, and the next natural thing
+was to take hers.  There was a glow upon his face when he did it: his
+star was at last on a fair way towards the zenith after its long and
+weary declination.  The least penetrating eye could have perceived that
+Anne had resolved to let him woo, possibly in her temerity to let him
+win.  Whatever silent sorrow might be locked up in her, it was by this
+time thrust a long way down from the light.
+
+'I want you to go somewhere with me if you will,' he said, still holding
+her hand.
+
+'Yes?  Where is it?'
+
+He pointed to a distant hill-side which, hitherto green, had within the
+last few days begun to show scratches of white on its face.  'Up there,'
+he said.
+
+'I see little figures of men moving about.  What are they doing?'
+
+'Cutting out a huge picture of the king on horseback in the earth of the
+hill.  The king's head is to be as big as our mill-pond and his body as
+big as this garden; he and the horse will cover more than an acre.  When
+shall we go?'
+
+'Whenever you please,' said she.
+
+'John!' cried Mrs. Loveday from the front door.  'Here's a friend come
+for you.'
+
+John went round, and found his trusty lieutenant, Trumpeter Buck, waiting
+for him.  A letter had come to the barracks for John in his absence, and
+the trumpeter, who was going for a walk, had brought it along with him.
+Buck then entered the mill to discuss, if possible, a mug of last year's
+mead with the miller; and John proceeded to read his letter, Anne being
+still round the corner where he had left her.  When he had read a few
+words he turned as pale as a sheet, but he did not move, and perused the
+writing to the end.
+
+Afterwards he laid his elbow against the wall, and put his palm to his
+head, thinking with painful intentness.  Then he took himself vigorously
+in hand, as it were, and gradually became natural again.  When he parted
+from Anne to go home with Buck she noticed nothing different in him.
+
+In barracks that evening he read the letter again.  It was from Bob; and
+the agitating contents were these:--
+
+   'DEAR JOHN,--I have drifted off from writing till the present time
+   because I have not been clear about my feelings; but I have discovered
+   them at last, and can say beyond doubt that I mean to be faithful to
+   my dearest Anne after all.  The fact is, John, I've got into a bit of
+   a scrape, and I've a secret to tell you about it (which must go no
+   further on any account).  On landing last autumn I fell in with a
+   young woman, and we got rather warm as folks do; in short, we liked
+   one another well enough for a while.  But I have got into shoal water
+   with her, and have found her to be a terrible take-in.  Nothing in her
+   at all--no sense, no niceness, all tantrums and empty noise, John,
+   though she seemed monstrous clever at first.  So my heart comes back
+   to its old anchorage.  I hope my return to faithfulness will make no
+   difference to you.  But as you showed by your looks at our parting
+   that you should not accept my offer to give her up--made in too much
+   haste, as I have since found--I feel that you won't mind that I have
+   returned to the path of honour.  I dare not write to Anne as yet, and
+   please do not let her know a word about the other young woman, or
+   there will be the devil to pay.  I shall come home and make all things
+   right, please God.  In the meantime I should take it as a kindness,
+   John, if you would keep a brotherly eye upon Anne, and guide her mind
+   back to me.  I shall die of sorrow if anybody sets her against me, for
+   my hopes are getting bound up in her again quite strong.  Hoping you
+   are jovial, as times go, I am,--Your affectionate brother,
+
+   ROBERT.'
+
+When the cold daylight fell upon John's face, as he dressed himself next
+morning, the incipient yesterday's wrinkle in his forehead had become
+permanently graven there.  He had resolved, for the sake of that only
+brother whom he had nursed as a baby, instructed as a child, and
+protected and loved always, to pause in his procedure for the present,
+and at least do nothing to hinder Bob's restoration to favour, if a
+genuine, even though temporarily smothered, love for Anne should still
+hold possession of him.  But having arranged to take her to see the
+excavated figure of the king, he started for Overcombe during the day, as
+if nothing had occurred to check the smooth course of his love.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.  A DELICATE SITUATION
+
+
+'I am ready to go,' said Anne, as soon as he arrived.
+
+He paused as if taken aback by her readiness, and replied with much
+uncertainty, 'Would it--wouldn't it be better to put it off till there is
+less sun?'
+
+The very slightest symptom of surprise arose in her as she rejoined, 'But
+the weather may change; or had we better not go at all?'
+
+'O no!--it was only a thought.  We will start at once.'
+
+And along the vale they went, John keeping himself about a yard from her
+right hand.  When the third field had been crossed they came upon half-a-
+dozen little boys at play.
+
+'Why don't he clasp her to his side, like a man?' said the biggest and
+rudest boy.
+
+'Why don't he clasp her to his side, like a man?' echoed all the rude
+smaller boys in a chorus.
+
+The trumpet-major turned, and, after some running, succeeded in smacking
+two of them with his switch, returning to Anne breathless.  'I am ashamed
+they should have insulted you so,' he said, blushing for her.
+
+'They said no harm, poor boys,' she replied reproachfully.
+
+Poor John was dumb with perception.  The gentle hint upon which he would
+have eagerly spoken only one short day ago was now like fire to his
+wound.
+
+They presently came to some stepping-stones across a brook.  John crossed
+first without turning his head, and Anne, just lifting the skirt of her
+dress, crossed behind him.  When they had reached the other side a
+village girl and a young shepherd approached the brink to cross.  Anne
+stopped and watched them.  The shepherd took a hand of the young girl in
+each of his own, and walked backward over the stones, facing her, and
+keeping her upright by his grasp, both of them laughing as they went.
+
+'What are you staying for, Miss Garland?' asked John.
+
+'I was only thinking how happy they are,' she said quietly; and
+withdrawing her eyes from the tender pair, she turned and followed him,
+not knowing that the seeming sound of a passing bumble-bee was a
+suppressed groan from John.
+
+When they reached the hill they found forty navvies at work removing the
+dark sod so as to lay bare the chalk beneath.  The equestrian figure that
+their shovels were forming was scarcely intelligible to John and Anne now
+they were close, and after pacing from the horse's head down his breast
+to his hoof, back by way of the king's bridle-arm, past the bridge of his
+nose, and into his cocked-hat, Anne said that she had had enough of it,
+and stepped out of the chalk clearing upon the grass.  The trumpet-major
+had remained all the time in a melancholy attitude within the rowel of
+his Majesty's right spur.
+
+'My shoes are caked with chalk,' she said as they walked downwards again;
+and she drew back her dress to look at them.  'How can I get some of it
+cleared off?'
+
+'If you was to wipe them in the long grass there,' said John, pointing to
+a spot where the blades were rank and dense, 'some of it would come off.'
+Having said this, he walked on with religious firmness.
+
+Anne raked her little feet on the right side, on the left side, over the
+toe, and behind the heel; but the tenacious chalk held its own.  Panting
+with her exertion, she gave it up, and at length overtook him.
+
+'I hope it is right now?' he said, looking gingerly over his shoulder.
+
+'No, indeed!' said she.  'I wanted some assistance--some one to steady
+me.  It is so hard to stand on one foot and wipe the other without
+support.  I was in danger of toppling over, and so gave it up.'
+
+'Merciful stars, what an opportunity!' thought the poor fellow while she
+waited for him to offer help. But his lips remained closed, and she went
+on with a pouting smile--
+
+'You seem in such a hurry!  Why are you in such a hurry?  After all the
+fine things you have said about--about caring so much for me, and all
+that, you won't stop for anything!'
+
+It was too much for John.  'Upon my heart and life, my dea--' he began.
+Here Bob's letter crackled warningly in his waistcoat pocket as he laid
+his hand asseveratingly upon his breast, and he became suddenly scaled up
+to dumbness and gloom as before.
+
+When they reached home Anne sank upon a stool outside the door, fatigued
+with her excursion.  Her first act was to try to pull off her shoe--it
+was a difficult matter; but John stood beating with his switch the leaves
+of the creeper on the wall.
+
+'Mother--David--Molly, or somebody--do come and help me pull off these
+dirty shoes!' she cried aloud at last.  'Nobody helps me in anything!'
+
+'I am very sorry,' said John, coming towards her with incredible slowness
+and an air of unutterable depression.
+
+'O, I can do without _you_.  David is best,' she returned, as the old man
+approached and removed the obnoxious shoes in a trice.
+
+Anne was amazed at this sudden change from devotion to crass
+indifference.  On entering her room she flew to the glass, almost
+expecting to learn that some extraordinary change had come over her
+pretty countenance, rendering her intolerable for evermore.  But it was,
+if anything, fresher than usual, on account of the exercise.  'Well!' she
+said retrospectively.  For the first time since their acqaintance she had
+this week encouraged him; and for the first time he had shown that
+encouragement was useless.  'But perhaps he does not clearly understand,'
+she added serenely.
+
+When he next came it was, to her surprise, to bring her newspapers, now
+for some time discontinued.  As soon as she saw them she said, 'I do not
+care for newspapers.'
+
+'The shipping news is very full and long to-day, though the print is
+rather small.'
+
+'I take no further interest in the shipping news,' she replied with cold
+dignity.
+
+She was sitting by the window, inside the table, and hence when, in spite
+of her negations, he deliberately unfolded the paper and began to read
+about the Royal Navy she could hardly rise and go away.  With a stoical
+mien he read on to the end of the report, bringing out the name of Bob's
+ship with tremendous force.
+
+'No,' she said at last, 'I'll hear no more!  Let me read to you.'
+
+The trumpet-major sat down.  Anne turned to the military news, delivering
+every detail with much apparent enthusiasm.  'That's the subject _I_
+like!' she said fervently.
+
+'But--but Bob is in the navy now, and will most likely rise to be an
+officer.  And then--'
+
+'What is there like the army?' she interrupted.  'There is no smartness
+about sailors.  They waddle like ducks, and they only fight stupid
+battles that no one can form any idea of.  There is no science nor
+stratagem in sea-fights--nothing more than what you see when two rams run
+their heads together in a field to knock each other down.  But in
+military battles there is such art, and such splendour, and the men are
+so smart, particularly the horse-soldiers.  O, I shall never forget what
+gallant men you all seemed when you came and pitched your tents on the
+downs!  I like the cavalry better than anything I know; and the dragoons
+the best of the cavalry--and the trumpeters the best of the dragoons!'
+
+'O, if it had but come a little sooner!' moaned John within him.  He
+replied as soon as he could regain self-command, 'I am glad Bob is in the
+navy at last--he is so much more fitted for that than the
+merchant-service--so brave by nature, ready for any daring deed.  I have
+heard ever so much more about his doings on board the Victory.  Captain
+Hardy took special notice that when he--'
+
+'I don't want to know anything more about it,' said Anne impatiently; 'of
+course sailors fight; there's nothing else to do in a ship, since you
+can't run away!  You may as well fight and be killed as be killed not
+fighting.'
+
+'Still it is his character to be careless of himself where the honour of
+his country is concerned,' John pleaded.  'If you had only known him as a
+boy you would own it.  He would always risk his own life to save anybody
+else's.  Once when a cottage was afire up the lane he rushed in for a
+baby, although he was only a boy himself, and he had the narrowest
+escape.  We have got his hat now with the hole burnt in it.  Shall I get
+it and show it to you?'
+
+'No--I don't wish it.  It has nothing to do with me.'  But as he
+persisted in his course towards the door, she added, 'Ah! you are leaving
+because I am in your way.  You want to be alone while you read the
+paper--I will go at once.  I did not see that I was interrupting you.'
+And she rose as if to retreat.
+
+'No, no!  I would rather be interrupted by _you_ than--O, Miss Garland,
+excuse me!  I'll just speak to father in the mill, now I am here.'
+
+It is scarcely necessary to state that Anne (whose unquestionable
+gentility amid somewhat homely surroundings has been many times insisted
+on in the course of this history) was usually the reverse of a woman with
+a coming-on disposition; but, whether from pique at his manner, or from
+wilful adherence to a course rashly resolved on, or from coquettish
+maliciousness in reaction from long depression, or from any other
+thing,--so it was that she would not let him go.
+
+'Trumpet-major,' she said, recalling him.
+
+'Yes?' he replied timidly.
+
+'The bow of my cap-ribbon has come untied, has it not?'  She turned and
+fixed her bewitching glance upon him.
+
+The bow was just over her forehead, or, more precisely, at the point
+where the organ of comparison merges in that of benevolence, according to
+the phrenological theory of Gall.  John, thus brought to, endeavoured to
+look at the bow in a skimming, duck-and-drake fashion, so as to avoid
+dipping his own glance as far as to the plane of his interrogator's eyes.
+'It is untied,' he said, drawing back a little.
+
+She came nearer, and asked, 'Will you tie it for me, please?'
+
+As there was no help for it, he nerved himself and assented.  As her head
+only reached to his fourth button she necessarily looked up for his
+convenience, and John began fumbling at the bow.  Try as he would it was
+impossible to touch the ribbon without getting his finger tips mixed with
+the curls of her forehead.
+
+'Your hand shakes--ah! you have been walking fast,' she said.
+
+'Yes--yes.'
+
+'Have you almost done it?'  She inquiringly directed her gaze upward
+through his fingers.
+
+'No--not yet,' he faltered in a warm sweat of emotion, his heart going
+like a flail.
+
+'Then be quick, please.'
+
+'Yes, I will, Miss Garland!  B-B-Bob is a very good fel--'
+
+'Not that man's name to me!' she interrupted.
+
+John was silent instantly, and nothing was to be heard but the rustling
+of the ribbon; till his hands once more blundered among the curls, and
+then touched her forehead.
+
+'O good God!' ejaculated the trumpet-major in a whisper, turning away
+hastily to the corner-cupboard, and resting his face upon his hand.
+
+'What's the matter, John?' said she.
+
+'I can't do it!'
+
+'What?'
+
+'Tie your cap-ribbon.'
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'Because you are so--Because I am clumsy, and never could tie a bow.'
+
+'You are clumsy indeed,' answered Anne, and went away.
+
+After this she felt injured, for it seemed to show that he rated her
+happiness as of meaner value than Bob's; since he had persisted in his
+idea of giving Bob another chance when she had implied that it was her
+wish to do otherwise.  Could Miss Johnson have anything to do with his
+firmness?  An opportunity of testing him in this direction occurred some
+days later.  She had been up the village, and met John at the mill-door.
+
+'Have you heard the news?  Matilda Johnson is going to be married to
+young Derriman.'
+
+Anne stood with her back to the sun, and as he faced her, his features
+were searchingly exhibited.  There was no change whatever in them, unless
+it were that a certain light of interest kindled by her question turned
+to complete and blank indifference.  'Well, as times go, it is not a bad
+match for her,' he said, with a phlegm which was hardly that of a lover.
+
+John on his part was beginning to find these temptations almost more than
+he could bear.  But being quartered so near to his father's house it was
+unnatural not to visit him, especially when at any moment the regiment
+might be ordered abroad, and a separation of years ensue; and as long as
+he went there he could not help seeing her.
+
+The year changed from green to gold, and from gold to grey, but little
+change came over the house of Loveday.  During the last twelve months Bob
+had been occasionally heard of as upholding his country's honour in
+Denmark, the West Indies, Gibraltar, Malta, and other places about the
+globe, till the family received a short letter stating that he had
+arrived again at Portsmouth.  At Portsmouth Bob seemed disposed to
+remain, for though some time elapsed without further intelligence, the
+gallant seaman never appeared at Overcombe.  Then on a sudden John learnt
+that Bob's long-talked-of promotion for signal services rendered was to
+be an accomplished fact.  The trumpet-major at once walked off to
+Overcombe, and reached the village in the early afternoon.  Not one of
+the family was in the house at the moment, and John strolled onwards over
+the hill towards Casterbridge, without much thought of direction till,
+lifting his eyes, he beheld Anne Garland wandering about with a little
+basket upon her arm.
+
+At first John blushed with delight at the sweet vision; but, recalled by
+his conscience, the blush of delight was at once mangled and slain.  He
+looked for a means of retreat.  But the field was open, and a soldier was
+a conspicuous object: there was no escaping her.
+
+'It was kind of you to come,' she said, with an inviting smile.
+
+'It was quite by accident,' he answered, with an indifferent laugh.  'I
+thought you was at home.'
+
+Anne blushed and said nothing, and they rambled on together.  In the
+middle of the field rose a fragment of stone wall in the form of a gable,
+known as Faringdon Ruin; and when they had reached it John paused and
+politely asked her if she were not a little tired with walking so far.  No
+particular reply was returned by the young lady, but they both stopped,
+and Anne seated herself on a stone, which had fallen from the ruin to the
+ground.
+
+'A church once stood here,' observed John in a matter-of-fact tone.
+
+'Yes, I have often shaped it out in my mind,' she returned.  'Here where
+I sit must have been the altar.'
+
+'True; this standing bit of wall was the chancel end.'
+
+Anne had been adding up her little studies of the trumpet-major's
+character, and was surprised to find how the brightness of that character
+increased in her eyes with each examination.  A kindly and gentle
+sensation was again aroused in her.  Here was a neglected heroic man,
+who, loving her to distraction, deliberately doomed himself to pensive
+shade to avoid even the appearance of standing in a brother's way.
+
+'If the altar stood here, hundreds of people have been made man and wife
+just there, in past times,' she said, with calm deliberateness, throwing
+a little stone on a spot about a yard westward.
+
+John annihilated another tender burst and replied, 'Yes, this field used
+to be a village.  My grandfather could call to mind when there were
+houses here.  But the squire pulled 'em down, because poor folk were an
+eyesore to him.'
+
+'Do you know, John, what you once asked me to do?' she continued, not
+accepting the digression, and turning her eyes upon him.
+
+'In what sort of way?'
+
+'In the matter of my future life, and yours.'
+
+'I am afraid I don't.'
+
+'John Loveday!'
+
+He turned his back upon her for a moment, that she might not see his
+face.  'Ah--I do remember,' he said at last, in a dry, small, repressed
+voice.
+
+'Well--need I say more?  Isn't it sufficient?'
+
+'It would be sufficient,' answered the unhappy man.  'But--'
+
+She looked up with a reproachful smile, and shook her head.  'That
+summer,' she went on, 'you asked me ten times if you asked me once.  I am
+older now; much more of a woman, you know; and my opinion is changed
+about some people; especially about one.'
+
+'O Anne, Anne!' he burst out as, racked between honour and desire, he
+snatched up her hand.  The next moment it fell heavily to her lap.  He
+had absolutely relinquished it half-way to his lips.
+
+'I have been thinking lately,' he said, with preternaturally sudden
+calmness, 'that men of the military profession ought not to m--ought to
+be like St. Paul, I mean.'
+
+'Fie, John; pretending religion!' she said sternly.  'It isn't that at
+all.  _It's Bob_!'
+
+'Yes!' cried the miserable trumpet-major.  'I have had a letter from him
+to-day.' He pulled out a sheet of paper from his breast.  'That's it!
+He's promoted--he's a lieutenant, and appointed to a sloop that only
+cruises on our own coast, so that he'll be at home on leave half his
+time--he'll be a gentleman some day, and worthy of you!'
+
+He threw the letter into her lap, and drew back to the other side of the
+gable-wall.  Anne jumped up from her seat, flung away the letter without
+looking at it, and went hastily on.  John did not attempt to overtake
+her.  Picking up the letter, he followed in her wake at a distance of a
+hundred yards.
+
+But, though Anne had withdrawn from his presence thus precipitately, she
+never thought more highly of him in her life than she did five minutes
+afterwards, when the excitement of the moment had passed.  She saw it all
+quite clearly; and his self-sacrifice impressed her so much that the
+effect was just the reverse of what he had been aiming to produce.  The
+more he pleaded for Bob, the more her perverse generosity pleaded for
+John.  To-day the crisis had come--with what results she had not
+foreseen.
+
+As soon as the trumpet-major reached the nearest pen-and-ink he flung
+himself into a seat and wrote wildly to Bob:--
+
+   'DEAR ROBERT,--I write these few lines to let you know that if you
+   want Anne Garland you must come at once--you must come instantly, and
+   post-haste--_or she will be gone_!  Somebody else wants her, and she
+   wants him!  It is your last chance, in the opinion of--
+
+   'Your faithful brother and well-wisher,
+   'JOHN.
+
+   'P.S.--Glad to hear of your promotion.  Tell me the day and I'll meet
+   the coach.'
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX.  BOB LOVEDAY STRUTS UP AND DOWN
+
+
+One night, about a week later, two men were walking in the dark along the
+turnpike road towards Overcombe, one of them with a bag in his hand.
+
+'Now,' said the taller of the two, the squareness of whose shoulders
+signified that he wore epaulettes, 'now you must do the best you can for
+yourself, Bob.  I have done all I can; but th'hast thy work cut out, I
+can tell thee.'
+
+'I wouldn't have run such a risk for the world,' said the other, in a
+tone of ingenuous contrition.  'But thou'st see, Jack, I didn't think
+there was any danger, knowing you was taking care of her, and keeping my
+place warm for me.  I didn't hurry myself, that's true; but, thinks I, if
+I get this promotion I am promised I shall naturally have leave, and then
+I'll go and see 'em all.  Gad, I shouldn't have been here now but for
+your letter!'
+
+'You little think what risks you've run,' said his brother.  'However,
+try to make up for lost time.'
+
+'All right.  And whatever you do, Jack, don't say a word about this other
+girl.  Hang the girl!--I was a great fool, I know; still, it is over now,
+and I am come to my senses.  I suppose Anne never caught a capful of wind
+from that quarter?'
+
+'She knows all about it,' said John seriously.
+
+'Knows?  By George, then, I'm ruined!' said Bob, standing stock-still in
+the road as if he meant to remain there all night.
+
+'That's what I meant by saying it would be a hard battle for 'ee,'
+returned John, with the same quietness as before.
+
+Bob sighed and moved on.  'I don't deserve that woman!' he cried
+passionately, thumping his three upper ribs with his fist.
+
+'I've thought as much myself,' observed John, with a dryness which was
+almost bitter.  'But it depends on how thou'st behave in future.'
+
+'John,' said Bob, taking his brother's hand, 'I'll be a new man.  I
+solemnly swear by that eternal milestone staring at me there that I'll
+never look at another woman with the thought of marrying her whilst that
+darling is free--no, not if she be a mermaiden of light!  It's a lucky
+thing that I'm slipped in on the quarterdeck! it may help me with
+her--hey?'
+
+'It may with her mother; I don't think it will make much difference with
+Anne.  Still, it is a good thing; and I hope that some day you'll command
+a big ship.'
+
+Bob shook his head.  'Officers are scarce; but I'm afraid my luck won't
+carry me so far as that.'
+
+'Did she ever tell you that she mentioned your name to the King?'
+
+The seaman stood still again.  'Never!' he said.  'How did such a thing
+as that happen, in Heaven's name?'
+
+John described in detail, and they walked on, lost in conjecture.
+
+As soon as they entered the house the returned officer of the navy was
+welcomed with acclamation by his father and David, with mild approval by
+Mrs. Loveday, and by Anne not at all--that discreet maiden having
+carefully retired to her own room some time earlier in the evening.  Bob
+did not dare to ask for her in any positive manner; he just inquired
+about her health, and that was all.
+
+'Why, what's the matter with thy face, my son?' said the miller, staring.
+'David, show a light here.'  And a candle was thrust against Bob's cheek,
+where there appeared a jagged streak like the geological remains of a
+lobster.
+
+'O--that's where that rascally Frenchman's grenade busted and hit me from
+the Redoubtable, you know, as I told 'ee in my letter.'
+
+'Not a word!'
+
+'What, didn't I tell 'ee?  Ah, no; I meant to, but I forgot it.'
+
+'And here's a sort of dint in yer forehead too; what do that mean, my
+dear boy?' said the miller, putting his finger in a chasm in Bob's skull.
+
+'That was done in the Indies.  Yes, that was rather a troublesome chop--a
+cutlass did it.  I should have told 'ee, but I found 'twould make my
+letter so long that I put it off, and put it off; and at last thought it
+wasn't worth while.'
+
+John soon rose to take his departure.
+
+'It's all up with me and her, you see,' said Bob to him outside the door.
+'She's not even going to see me.'
+
+'Wait a little,' said the trumpet-major.  It was easy enough on the night
+of the arrival, in the midst of excitement, when blood was warm, for Anne
+to be resolute in her avoidance of Bob Loveday.  But in the morning
+determination is apt to grow invertebrate; rules of pugnacity are less
+easily acted up to, and a feeling of live and let live takes possession
+of the gentle soul.  Anne had not meant even to sit down to the same
+breakfast-table with Bob; but when the rest were assembled, and had got
+some way through the substantial repast which was served at this hour in
+the miller's house, Anne entered.  She came silently as a phantom, her
+eyes cast down, her cheeks pale.  It was a good long walk from the door
+to the table, and Bob made a full inspection of her as she came up to a
+chair at the remotest corner, in the direct rays of the morning light,
+where she dumbly sat herself down.
+
+It was altogether different from how she had expected.  Here was she, who
+had done nothing, feeling all the embarrassment; and Bob, who had done
+the wrong, feeling apparently quite at ease.
+
+'You'll speak to Bob, won't you, honey?' said the miller after a silence.
+To meet Bob like this after an absence seemed irregular in his eyes.
+
+'If he wish me to,' she replied, so addressing the miller that no part,
+scrap, or outlying beam whatever of her glance passed near the subject of
+her remark.
+
+'He's a lieutenant, you know, dear,' said her mother on the same side;
+'and he's been dreadfully wounded.'
+
+'Oh?' said Anne, turning a little towards the false one; at which Bob
+felt it to be time for him to put in a spoke for himself.
+
+'I am glad to see you,' he said contritely; 'and how do you do?'
+
+'Very well, thank you.'
+
+He extended his hand.  She allowed him to take hers, but only to the
+extent of a niggardly inch or so.  At the same moment she glanced up at
+him, when their eyes met, and hers were again withdrawn.
+
+The hitch between the two younger members of the household tended to make
+the breakfast a dull one.  Bob was so depressed by her unforgiving manner
+that he could not throw that sparkle into his stories which their
+substance naturally required; and when the meal was over, and they went
+about their different businesses, the pair resembled the two Dromios in
+seldom or never being, thanks to Anne's subtle contrivances, both in the
+same room at the same time.
+
+This kind of performance repeated itself during several days.  At last,
+after dogging her hither and thither, leaning with a wrinkled forehead
+against doorposts, taking an oblique view into the room where she
+happened to be, picking up worsted balls and getting no thanks, placing a
+splinter from the Victory, several bullets from the Redoubtable, a strip
+of the flag, and other interesting relics, carefully labelled, upon her
+table, and hearing no more about them than if they had been pebbles from
+the nearest brook, he hit upon a new plan.  To avoid him she frequently
+sat upstairs in a window overlooking the garden.  Lieutenant Loveday
+carefully dressed himself in a new uniform, which he had caused to be
+sent some days before, to dazzle admiring friends, but which he had never
+as yet put on in public or mentioned to a soul.  When arrayed he entered
+the sunny garden, and there walked slowly up and down as he had seen
+Nelson and Captain Hardy do on the quarter-deck; but keeping his right
+shoulder, on which his one epaulette was fixed, as much towards Anne's
+window as possible.
+
+But she made no sign, though there was not the least question that she
+saw him.  At the end of half-an-hour he went in, took off his clothes,
+and gave himself up to doubt and the best tobacco.
+
+He repeated the programme on the next afternoon, and on the next, never
+saying a word within doors about his doings or his notice.
+
+Meanwhile the results in Anne's chamber were not uninteresting.  She had
+been looking out on the first day, and was duly amazed to see a naval
+officer in full uniform promenading in the path.  Finding it to be Bob,
+she left the window with a sense that the scene was not for her; then,
+from mere curiosity, peeped out from behind the curtain.  Well, he was a
+pretty spectacle, she admitted, relieved as his figure was by a dense
+mass of sunny, close-trimmed hedge, over which nasturtiums climbed in
+wild luxuriance; and if she could care for him one bit, which she
+couldn't, his form would have been a delightful study, surpassing in
+interest even its splendour on the memorable day of their visit to the
+town theatre.  She called her mother; Mrs. Loveday came promptly.
+
+'O, it is nothing,' said Anne indifferently; 'only that Bob has got his
+uniform.'
+
+Mrs. Loveday peeped out, and raised her hands with delight.  'And he has
+not said a word to us about it!  What a lovely epaulette!  I must call
+his father.'
+
+'No, indeed.  As I take no interest in him I shall not let people come
+into my room to admire him.'
+
+'Well, you called me,' said her mother.
+
+'It was because I thought you liked fine clothes.  It is what I don't
+care for.'
+
+Notwithstanding this assertion she again looked out at Bob the next
+afternoon when his footsteps rustled on the gravel, and studied his
+appearance under all the varying angles of the sunlight, as if fine
+clothes and uniforms were not altogether a matter of indifference.  He
+certainly was a splendid, gentlemanly, and gallant sailor from end to end
+of him; but then, what were a dashing presentment, a naval rank, and
+telling scars, if a man was fickle-hearted?  However, she peeped on till
+the fourth day, and then she did not peep.  The window was open, she
+looked right out, and Bob knew that he had got a rise to his bait at
+last.  He touched his hat to her, keeping his right shoulder forwards,
+and said, 'Good-day, Miss Garland,' with a smile.
+
+Anne replied, 'Good-day,' with funereal seriousness; and the acquaintance
+thus revived led to the interchange of a few words at supper-time, at
+which Mrs. Loveday nodded with satisfaction.  But Anne took especial care
+that he should never meet her alone, and to insure this her ingenuity was
+in constant exercise.  There were so many nooks and windings on the
+miller's rambling premises that she could never be sure he would not turn
+up within a foot of her, particularly as his thin shoes were almost
+noiseless.
+
+One fine afternoon she accompanied Molly in search of elderberries for
+making the family wine which was drunk by Mrs. Loveday, Anne, and anybody
+who could not stand the rougher and stronger liquors provided by the
+miller.  After walking rather a long distance over the down they came to
+a grassy hollow, where elder-bushes in knots of twos and threes rose from
+an uneven bank and hung their heads towards the south, black and heavy
+with bunches of fruit.  The charm of fruit-gathering to girls is enhanced
+in the case of elderberries by the inoffensive softness of the leaves,
+boughs, and bark, which makes getting into the branches easy and pleasant
+to the most indifferent climbers.  Anne and Molly had soon gathered a
+basketful, and sending the servant home with it, Anne remained in the
+bush picking and throwing down bunch by bunch upon the grass.  She was so
+absorbed in her occupation of pulling the twigs towards her, and the
+rustling of their leaves so filled her ears, that it was a great surprise
+when, on turning her head, she perceived a similar movement to her own
+among the boughs of the adjoining bush.
+
+At first she thought they were disturbed by being partly in contact with
+the boughs of her bush; but in a moment Robert Loveday's face peered from
+them, at a distance of about a yard from her own.  Anne uttered a little
+indignant 'Well!' recovered herself, and went on plucking.  Bob thereupon
+went on plucking likewise.
+
+'I am picking elderberries for your mother,' said the lieutenant at last,
+humbly.
+
+'So I see.'
+
+'And I happen to have come to the next bush to yours.'
+
+'So I see; but not the reason why.'
+
+Anne was now in the westernmost branches of the bush, and Bob had leant
+across into the eastern branches of his.  In gathering he swayed towards
+her, back again, forward again.
+
+'I beg pardon,' he said, when a further swing than usual had taken him
+almost in contact with her.
+
+'Then why do you do it?'
+
+'The wind rocks the bough, and the bough rocks me.'  She expressed by a
+look her opinion of this statement in the face of the gentlest breeze;
+and Bob pursued: 'I am afraid the berries will stain your pretty hands.'
+
+'I wear gloves.'
+
+'Ah, that's a plan I should never have thought of.  Can I help you?'
+
+'Not at all.'
+
+'You are offended: that's what that means.'
+
+'No,' she said.
+
+'Then will you shake hands?'
+
+Anne hesitated; then slowly stretched out her hand, which he took at
+once.  'That will do,' she said, finding that he did not relinquish it
+immediately.  But as he still held it, she pulled, the effect of which
+was to draw Bob's swaying person, bough and all, towards her, and herself
+towards him.
+
+'I am afraid to let go your hand,' said that officer, 'for if I do your
+spar will fly back, and you will be thrown upon the deck with great
+violence.'
+
+'I wish you to let me go!'
+
+He accordingly did, and she flew back, but did not by any means fall.
+
+'It reminds me of the times when I used to be aloft clinging to a yard
+not much bigger than this tree-stem, in the mid-Atlantic, and thinking
+about you.  I could see you in my fancy as plain as I see you now.'
+
+'Me, or some other woman!' retorted Anne haughtily.
+
+'No!' declared Bob, shaking the bush for emphasis, 'I'll protest that I
+did not think of anybody but you all the time we were dropping down
+channel, all the time we were off Cadiz, all the time through battles and
+bombardments.  I seemed to see you in the smoke, and, thinks I, if I go
+to Davy's locker, what will she do?'
+
+'You didn't think that when you landed after Trafalgar.'
+
+'Well, now,' said the lieutenant in a reasoning tone; 'that was a curious
+thing.  You'll hardly believe it, maybe; but when a man is away from the
+woman he loves best in the port--world, I mean--he can have a sort of
+temporary feeling for another without disturbing the old one, which flows
+along under the same as ever.'
+
+'I can't believe it, and won't,' said Anne firmly.
+
+Molly now appeared with the empty basket, and when it had been filled
+from the heap on the grass, Anne went home with her, bidding Loveday a
+frigid adieu.
+
+The same evening, when Bob was absent, the miller proposed that they
+should all three go to an upper window of the house, to get a distant
+view of some rockets and illuminations which were to be exhibited in the
+town and harbour in honour of the King, who had returned this year as
+usual.  They accordingly went upstairs to an empty attic, placed chairs
+against the window, and put out the light; Anne sitting in the middle,
+her mother close by, and the miller behind, smoking.  No sign of any
+pyrotechnic display was visible over the port as yet, and Mrs. Loveday
+passed the time by talking to the miller, who replied in monosyllables.
+While this was going on Anne fancied that she heard some one approach,
+and presently felt sure that Bob was drawing near her in the surrounding
+darkness; but as the other two had noticed nothing she said not a word.
+
+All at once the swarthy expanse of southward sky was broken by the blaze
+of several rockets simultaneously ascending from different ships in the
+roads.  At the very same moment a warm mysterious hand slipped round her
+own, and gave it a gentle squeeze.
+
+'O dear!' said Anne, with a sudden start away.
+
+'How nervous you are, child, to be startled by fireworks so far off,'
+said Mrs. Loveday.
+
+'I never saw rockets before,' murmured Anne, recovering from her
+surprise.
+
+Mrs. Loveday presently spoke again.  'I wonder what has become of Bob?'
+
+Anne did not reply, being much exercised in trying to get her hand away
+from the one that imprisoned it; and whatever the miller thought he kept
+to himself, because it disturbed his smoking to speak.
+
+Another batch of rockets went up.  'O I never!' said Anne, in a
+half-suppressed tone, springing in her chair.  A second hand had with the
+rise of the rockets leapt round her waist.
+
+'Poor girl, you certainly must have change of scene at this rate,' said
+Mrs. Loveday.
+
+'I suppose I must,' murmured the dutiful daughter.
+
+For some minutes nothing further occurred to disturb Anne's serenity.
+Then a slow, quiet 'a-hem' came from the obscurity of the apartment.
+
+'What, Bob?  How long have you been there?' inquired Mrs. Loveday.
+
+'Not long,' said the lieutenant coolly.  'I heard you were all here, and
+crept up quietly, not to disturb ye.'
+
+'Why don't you wear heels to your shoes like Christian people, and not
+creep about so like a cat?'
+
+'Well, it keeps your floors clean to go slip-shod.'
+
+'That's true.'
+
+Meanwhile Anne was gently but firmly trying to pull Bob's arm from her
+waist, her distressful difficulty being that in freeing her waist she
+enslaved her hand, and in getting her hand free she enslaved her waist.
+Finding the struggle a futile one, owing to the invisibility of her
+antagonist, and her wish to keep its nature secret from the other two,
+she arose, and saying that she did not care to see any more, felt her way
+downstairs.  Bob followed, leaving Loveday and his wife to themselves.
+
+'Dear Anne,' he began, when he had got down, and saw her in the candle-
+light of the large room.  But she adroitly passed out at the other door,
+at which he took a candle and followed her to the small room.  'Dear
+Anne, do let me speak,' he repeated, as soon as the rays revealed her
+figure.  But she passed into the bakehouse before he could say more;
+whereupon he perseveringly did the same.  Looking round for her here he
+perceived her at the end of the room, where there were no means of exit
+whatever.
+
+'Dear Anne,' he began again, setting down the candle, 'you must try to
+forgive me; really you must.  I love you the best of anybody in the wide,
+wide world.  Try to forgive me; come!'  And he imploringly took her hand.
+
+Anne's bosom began to surge and fall like a small tide, her eyes
+remaining fixed upon the floor; till, when Loveday ventured to draw her
+slightly towards him, she burst out crying.  'I don't like you, Bob; I
+don't!' she suddenly exclaimed between her sobs.  'I did once, but I
+don't now--I can't, I can't; you have been very cruel to me!'  She
+violently turned away, weeping.
+
+'I have, I have been terribly bad, I know,' answered Bob,
+conscience-stricken by her grief.  'But--if you could only forgive me--I
+promise that I'll never do anything to grieve 'ee again.  Do you forgive
+me, Anne?'
+
+Anne's only reply was crying and shaking her head.
+
+'Let's make it up.  Come, say we have made it up, dear.'
+
+She withdrew her hand, and still keeping her eyes buried in her
+handkerchief, said 'No.'
+
+'Very well, then!' exclaimed Bob, with sudden determination.  'Now I know
+my doom!  And whatever you hear of as happening to me, mind this, you
+cruel girl, that it is all your causing!'  Saying this he strode with a
+hasty tread across the room into the passage and out at the door,
+slamming it loudly behind him.
+
+Anne suddenly looked up from her handkerchief, and stared with round wet
+eyes and parted lips at the door by which he had gone.  Having remained
+with suspended breath in this attitude for a few seconds she turned
+round, bent her head upon the table, and burst out weeping anew with
+thrice the violence of the former time.  It really seemed now as if her
+grief would overwhelm her, all the emotions which had been suppressed,
+bottled up, and concealed since Bob's return having made themselves a
+sluice at last.
+
+But such things have their end; and left to herself in the large, vacant,
+old apartment, she grew quieter, and at last calm.  At length she took
+the candle and ascended to her bedroom, where she bathed her eyes and
+looked in the glass to see if she had made herself a dreadful object.  It
+was not so bad as she had expected, and she went downstairs again.
+
+Nobody was there, and, sitting down, she wondered what Bob had really
+meant by his words.  It was too dreadful to think that he intended to go
+straight away to sea without seeing her again, and frightened at what she
+had done she waited anxiously for his return.
+
+
+
+
+XL.  A CALL ON BUSINESS
+
+
+Her suspense was interrupted by a very gentle tapping at the door, and
+then the rustle of a hand over its surface, as if searching for the latch
+in the dark.  The door opened a few inches, and the alabaster face of
+Uncle Benjy appeared in the slit.
+
+'O, Squire Derriman, you frighten me!'
+
+'All alone?' he asked in a whisper.
+
+'My mother and Mr. Loveday are somewhere about the house.'
+
+'That will do,' he said, coming forward.  'I be wherrited out of my life,
+and I have thought of you again--you yourself, dear Anne, and not the
+miller.  If you will only take this and lock it up for a few days till I
+can find another good place for it--if you only would!'  And he
+breathlessly deposited the tin box on the table.
+
+'What, obliged to dig it up from the cellar?'
+
+'Ay; my nephew hath a scent of the place--how, I don't know! but he and a
+young woman he's met with are searching everywhere.  I worked like a wire-
+drawer to get it up and away while they were scraping in the next cellar.
+Now where could ye put it, dear?  'Tis only a few documents, and my will,
+and such like, you know.  Poor soul o' me, I'm worn out with running and
+fright!'
+
+'I'll put it here till I can think of a better place,' said Anne, lifting
+the box.  'Dear me, how heavy it is!'
+
+'Yes, yes,' said Uncle Benjy hastily; 'the box is iron, you see.  However,
+take care of it, because I am going to make it worth your while.  Ah, you
+are a good girl, Anne.  I wish you was mine!'
+
+Anne looked at Uncle Benjy.  She had known for some time that she
+possessed all the affection he had to bestow.
+
+'Why do you wish that?' she said simply.
+
+'Now don't ye argue with me.  Where d'ye put the coffer?'
+
+'Here,' said Anne, going to the window-seat, which rose as a flap,
+disclosing a boxed receptacle beneath, as in many old houses.
+
+''Tis very well for the present,' he said dubiously, and they dropped the
+coffer in, Anne locking down the seat, and giving him the key.  'Now I
+don't want ye to be on my side for nothing,' he went on.  'I never did
+now, did I?  This is for you.'  He handed her a little packet of paper,
+which Anne turned over and looked at curiously.  'I always meant to do
+it,' continued Uncle Benjy, gazing at the packet as it lay in her hand,
+and sighing.  'Come, open it, my dear; I always meant to do it!'
+
+She opened it and found twenty new guineas snugly packed within.
+
+'Yes, they are for you.  I always meant to do it!' he said, sighing
+again.
+
+'But you owe me nothing!' returned Anne, holding them out.
+
+'Don't say it!' cried Uncle Benjy, covering his eyes.  'Put 'em away. . . .
+Well, if you _don't_ want 'em--But put 'em away, dear Anne; they are
+for you, because you have kept my counsel.  Good-night t'ye.  Yes, they
+are for you.'
+
+He went a few steps, and turning back added anxiously, 'You won't spend
+'em in clothes, or waste 'em in fairings, or ornaments of any kind, my
+dear girl?'
+
+'I will not,' said Anne.  'I wish you would have them.'
+
+'No, no,' said Uncle Benjy, rushing off to escape their shine.  But he
+had got no further than the passage when he returned again.
+
+'And you won't lend 'em to anybody, or put 'em into the bank--for no bank
+is safe in these troublous times?. . .  If I was you I'd keep them
+_exactly_ as they be, and not spend 'em on any account.  Shall I lock
+them into my box for ye?'
+
+'Certainly,' said she; and the farmer rapidly unlocked the window-bench,
+opened the box, and locked them in.
+
+''Tis much the best plan,' he said with great satisfaction as he returned
+the keys to his pocket.  'There they will always be safe, you see, and
+you won't be exposed to temptation.'
+
+When the old man had been gone a few minutes, the miller and his wife
+came in, quite unconscious of all that had passed.  Anne's anxiety about
+Bob was again uppermost now, and she spoke but meagrely of old Derriman's
+visit, and nothing of what he had left.  She would fain have asked them
+if they knew where Bob was, but that she did not wish to inform them of
+the rupture.  She was forced to admit to herself that she had somewhat
+tried his patience, and that impulsive men had been known to do dark
+things with themselves at such times.
+
+They sat down to supper, the clock ticked rapidly on, and at length the
+miller said, 'Bob is later than usual.  Where can he be?'
+
+As they both looked at her, she could no longer keep the secret.
+
+'It is my fault,' she cried; 'I have driven him away!  What shall I do?'
+
+The nature of the quarrel was at once guessed, and her two elders said no
+more.  Anne rose and went to the front door, where she listened for every
+sound with a palpitating heart.  Then she went in; then she went out: and
+on one occasion she heard the miller say, 'I wonder what hath passed
+between Bob and Anne.  I hope the chap will come home.'
+
+Just about this time light footsteps were heard without, and Bob bounced
+into the passage.  Anne, who stood back in the dark while he passed,
+followed him into the room, where her mother and the miller were on the
+point of retiring to bed, candle in hand.
+
+'I have kept ye up, I fear,' began Bob cheerily, and apparently without
+the faintest recollection of his tragic exit from the house.  'But the
+truth on't is, I met with Fess Derriman at the "Duke of York" as I went
+from here, and there we have been playing Put ever since, not noticing
+how the time was going.  I haven't had a good chat with the fellow for
+years and years, and really he is an out and out good comrade--a regular
+hearty!  Poor fellow, he's been very badly used.  I never heard the
+rights of the story till now; but it seems that old uncle of his treats
+him shamefully.  He has been hiding away his money, so that poor Fess
+might not have a farthing, till at last the young man has turned, like
+any other worm, and is now determined to ferret out what he has done with
+it.  The poor young chap hadn't a farthing of ready money till I lent him
+a couple of guineas--a thing I never did more willingly in my life.  But
+the man was very honourable.  "No; no," says he, "don't let me deprive
+ye."  He's going to marry, and what may you think he is going to do it
+for?'
+
+'For love, I hope,' said Anne's mother.
+
+'For money, I suppose, since he's so short,' said the miller.
+
+'No,' said Bob, 'for _spite_.  He has been badly served--deuced badly
+served--by a woman.  I never heard of a more heartless case in my life.
+The poor chap wouldn't mention names, but it seems this young woman has
+trifled with him in all manner of cruel ways--pushed him into the river,
+tried to steal his horse when he was called out to defend his country--in
+short, served him rascally.  So I gave him the two guineas and said, "Now
+let's drink to the hussy's downfall!"'
+
+'O!' said Anne, having approached behind him.
+
+Bob turned and saw her, and at the same moment Mr. and Mrs. Loveday
+discreetly retired by the other door.
+
+'Is it peace?' he asked tenderly.
+
+'O yes,' she anxiously replied.  'I--didn't mean to make you think I had
+no heart.'  At this Bob inclined his countenance towards hers.  'No,' she
+said, smiling through two incipient tears as she drew back.  'You are to
+show good behaviour for six months, and you must promise not to frighten
+me again by running off when I--show you how badly you have served me.'
+
+'I am yours obedient--in anything,' cried Bob.  'But am I pardoned?'
+
+Youth is foolish; and does a woman often let her reasoning in favour of
+the worthier stand in the way of her perverse desire for the less worthy
+at such times as these?  She murmured some soft words, ending with 'Do
+you repent?'
+
+It would be superfluous to transcribe Bob's answer.
+
+Footsteps were heard without.
+
+'O begad; I forgot!' said Bob.  'He's waiting out there for a light.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'My friend Derriman.'
+
+'But, Bob, I have to explain.'
+
+But Festus had by this time entered the lobby, and Anne, with a hasty
+'Get rid of him at once!' vanished upstairs.
+
+Here she waited and waited, but Festus did not seem inclined to depart;
+and at last, foreboding some collision of interests from Bob's new
+friendship for this man, she crept into a storeroom which was over the
+apartment into which Loveday and Festus had gone.  By looking through a
+knot-hole in the floor it was easy to command a view of the room beneath,
+this being unceiled, with moulded beams and rafters.
+
+Festus had sat down on the hollow window-bench, and was continuing the
+statement of his wrongs.  'If he only knew what he was sitting upon,' she
+thought apprehensively, 'how easily he could tear up the flap, lock and
+all, with his strong arm, and seize upon poor Uncle Benjy's possessions!'
+But he did not appear to know, unless he were acting, which was just
+possible.  After a while he rose, and going to the table lifted the
+candle to light his pipe.  At the moment when the flame began diving into
+the bowl the door noiselessly opened and a figure slipped across the room
+to the window-bench, hastily unlocked it, withdrew the box, and beat a
+retreat.  Anne in a moment recognized the ghostly intruder as Festus
+Derriman's uncle.  Before he could get out of the room Festus set down
+the candle and turned.
+
+'What--Uncle Benjy--haw, haw!  Here at this time of night?'
+
+Uncle Benjy's eyes grew paralyzed, and his mouth opened and shut like a
+frog's in a drought, the action producing no sound.
+
+'What have we got here--a tin box--the box of boxes?  Why, I'll carry it
+for 'ee, uncle!--I am going home.'
+
+'N-no-no, thanky, Festus: it is n-n-not heavy at all, thanky,' gasped the
+squireen.
+
+'O but I must,' said Festus, pulling at the box.
+
+'Don't let him have it, Bob!' screamed the excited Anne through the hole
+in the floor.
+
+'No, don't let him!' cried the uncle.  ''Tis a plot--there's a woman at
+the window waiting to help him!'
+
+Anne's eyes flew to the window, and she saw Matilda's face pressed
+against the pane.
+
+Bob, though he did not know whence Anne's command proceeded obeyed with
+alacrity, pulled the box from the two relatives, and placed it on the
+table beside him.
+
+'Now, look here, hearties; what's the meaning o' this?' he said.
+
+'He's trying to rob me of all I possess!' cried the old man.  'My heart-
+strings seem as if they were going crack, crack, crack!'
+
+At this instant the miller in his shirt-sleeves entered the room, having
+got thus far in his undressing when he heard the noise.  Bob and Festus
+turned to him to explain; and when the latter had had his say Bob added,
+'Well, all I know is that this box'--here he stretched out his hand to
+lay it upon the lid for emphasis.  But as nothing but thin air met his
+fingers where the box had been, he turned, and found that the box was
+gone, Uncle Benjy having vanished also.
+
+Festus, with an imprecation, hastened to the door, but though the night
+was not dark Farmer Derriman and his burden were nowhere to be seen.  On
+the bridge Festus joined a shadowy female form, and they went along the
+road together, followed for some distance by Bob, lest they should meet
+with and harm the old man.  But the precaution was unnecessary: nowhere
+on the road was there any sign of Farmer Derriman, or of the box that
+belonged to him.  When Bob re-entered the house Anne and Mrs. Loveday had
+joined the miller downstairs, and then for the first time he learnt who
+had been the heroine of Festus's lamentable story, with many other
+particulars of that yeoman's history which he had never before known.  Bob
+swore that he would not speak to the traitor again, and the family
+retired.
+
+The escape of old Mr. Derriman from the annoyances of his nephew not only
+held good for that night, but for next day, and for ever.  Just after
+dawn on the following morning a labouring man, who was going to his work,
+saw the old farmer and landowner leaning over a rail in a mead near his
+house, apparently engaged in contemplating the water of a brook before
+him.  Drawing near, the man spoke, but Uncle Benjy did not reply.  His
+head was hanging strangely, his body being supported in its erect
+position entirely by the rail that passed under each arm.  On
+after-examination it was found that Uncle Benjy's poor withered heart had
+cracked and stopped its beating from damages inflicted on it by the
+excitements of his life, and of the previous night in particular.  The
+unconscious carcass was little more than a light empty husk, dry and
+fleshless as that of a dead heron found on a moor in January.
+
+But the tin box was not discovered with or near him.  It was searched for
+all the week, and all the month.  The mill-pond was dragged, quarries
+were examined, woods were threaded, rewards were offered; but in vain.
+
+At length one day in the spring, when the mill-house was about to be
+cleaned throughout, the chimney-board of Anne's bedroom, concealing a
+yawning fire-place, had to be taken down.  In the chasm behind it stood
+the missing deed-box of Farmer Derriman.
+
+Many were the conjectures as to how it had got there. Then Anne
+remembered that on going to bed on the night of the collision between
+Festus and his uncle in the room below, she had seen mud on the carpet of
+her room, and the miller remembered that he had seen footprints on the
+back staircase.  The solution of the mystery seemed to be that the late
+Uncle Benjy, instead of running off from the house with his box, had
+doubled on getting out of the front door, entered at the back, deposited
+his box in Anne's chamber where it was found, and then leisurely pursued
+his way home at the heels of Festus, intending to tell Anne of his trick
+the next day--an intention that was for ever frustrated by the stroke of
+death.
+
+Mr. Derriman's solicitor was a Casterbridge man, and Anne placed the box
+in his hands.  Uncle Benjy's will was discovered within; and by this
+testament Anne's queer old friend appointed her sole executrix of his
+said will, and, more than that, gave and bequeathed to the same young
+lady all his real and personal estate, with the solitary exception of
+five small freehold houses in a back street in Budmouth, which were
+devised to his nephew Festus, as a sufficient property to maintain him
+decently, without affording any margin for extravagances.  Oxwell Hall,
+with its muddy quadrangle, archways, mullioned windows, cracked
+battlements, and weed-grown garden, passed with the rest into the hands
+of Anne.
+
+
+
+
+XLI.  JOHN MARCHES INTO THE NIGHT
+
+
+During this exciting time John Loveday seldom or never appeared at the
+mill.  With the recall of Bob, in which he had been sole agent, his
+mission seemed to be complete.
+
+One mid-day, before Anne had made any change in her manner of living on
+account of her unexpected acquisition, Lieutenant Bob came in rather
+suddenly.  He had been to Budmouth, and announced to the arrested senses
+of the family that the --th Dragoons were ordered to join Sir Arthur
+Wellesley in the Peninsula.
+
+These tidings produced a great impression on the household.  John had
+been so long in the neighbourhood, either at camp or in barracks, that
+they had almost forgotten the possibility of his being sent away; and
+they now began to reflect upon the singular infrequency of his calls
+since his brother's return.  There was not much time, however, for
+reflection, if they wished to make the most of John's farewell visit,
+which was to be paid the same evening, the departure of the regiment
+being fixed for next day.  A hurried valedictory supper was prepared
+during the afternoon, and shortly afterwards John arrived.
+
+He seemed to be more thoughtful and a trifle paler than of old, but
+beyond these traces, which might have been due to the natural wear and
+tear of time, he showed no signs of gloom.  On his way through the town
+that morning a curious little incident had occurred to him.  He was
+walking past one of the churches when a wedding-party came forth, the
+bride and bridegroom being Matilda and Festus Derriman.  At sight of the
+trumpet-major the yeoman had glared triumphantly; Matilda, on her part,
+had winked at him slily, as much as to say--.  But what she meant heaven
+knows: the trumpet-major did not trouble himself to think, and passed on
+without returning the mark of confidence with which she had favoured him.
+
+Soon after John's arrival at the mill several of his friends dropped in
+for the same purpose of bidding adieu.  They were mostly the men who had
+been entertained there on the occasion of the regiment's advent on the
+down, when Anne and her mother were coaxed in to grace the party by their
+superior presence; and their well-trained, gallant manners were such as
+to make them interesting visitors now as at all times.  For it was a
+period when romance had not so greatly faded out of military life as it
+has done in these days of short service, heterogeneous mixing, and
+transient campaigns; when the esprit de corps was strong, and long
+experience stamped noteworthy professional characteristics even on rank
+and file; while the miller's visitors had the additional advantage of
+being picked men.
+
+They could not stay so long to-night as on that earlier and more cheerful
+occasion, and the final adieus were spoken at an early hour.  It was no
+mere playing at departure, as when they had gone to Exonbury barracks,
+and there was a warm and prolonged shaking of hands all round.
+
+'You'll wish the poor fellows good-bye?' said Bob to Anne, who had not
+come forward for that purpose like the rest.  'They are going away, and
+would like to have your good word.'
+
+She then shyly advanced, and every man felt that he must make some pretty
+speech as he shook her by the hand.
+
+'Good-bye!  May you remember us as long as it makes ye happy, and forget
+us as soon as it makes ye sad,' said Sergeant Brett.
+
+'Good-night!  Health, wealth, and long life to ye!' said Sergeant-major
+Wills, taking her hand from Brett.
+
+'I trust to meet ye again as the wife of a worthy man,' said Trumpeter
+Buck.
+
+'We'll drink your health throughout the campaign, and so good-bye t'ye,'
+said Saddler-sergeant Jones, raising her hand to his lips.
+
+Three others followed with similar remarks, to each of which Anne
+blushingly replied as well as she could, wishing them a prosperous
+voyage, easy conquest, and a speedy return.
+
+But, alas, for that!  Battles and skirmishes, advances and retreats,
+fevers and fatigues, told hard on Anne's gallant friends in the coming
+time.  Of the seven upon whom these wishes were bestowed, five, including
+the trumpet-major, were dead men within the few following years, and
+their bones left to moulder in the land of their campaigns.
+
+John lingered behind.  When the others were outside, expressing a final
+farewell to his father, Bob, and Mrs. Loveday, he came to Anne, who
+remained within.
+
+'But I thought you were going to look in again before leaving?' she said
+gently.
+
+'No; I find I cannot.  Good-bye!'
+
+'John,' said Anne, holding his right hand in both hers, 'I must tell you
+something.  You were wise in not taking me at my word that day.  I was
+greatly mistaken about myself.  Gratitude is not love, though I wanted to
+make it so for the time.  You don't call me thoughtless for what I did?'
+
+'My dear Anne,' cried John, with more gaiety than truthfulness, 'don't
+let yourself be troubled!  What happens is for the best.  Soldiers love
+here to-day and there to-morrow.  Who knows that you won't hear of my
+attentions to some Spanish maid before a month is gone by?  'Tis the way
+of us, you know; a soldier's heart is not worth a week's purchase--ha,
+ha!  Goodbye, good-bye!'
+
+Anne felt the expediency of his manner, received the affectation as real,
+and smiled her reply, not knowing that the adieu was for evermore.  Then
+with a tear in his eye he went out of the door, where he bade farewell to
+the miller, Mrs. Loveday, and Bob, who said at parting, 'It's all right,
+Jack, my dear fellow.  After a coaxing that would have been enough to win
+three ordinary Englishwomen, five French, and ten Mulotters, she has to-
+day agreed to bestow her hand upon me at the end of six months.  Good-bye,
+Jack, good-bye!'
+
+The candle held by his father shed its waving light upon John's face and
+uniform as with a farewell smile he turned on the doorstone, backed by
+the black night; and in another moment he had plunged into the darkness,
+the ring of his smart step dying away upon the bridge as he joined his
+companions-in-arms, and went off to blow his trumpet till silenced for
+ever upon one of the bloody battle-fields of Spain.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+{207}  _Vide_ Preface.
+
+{211}  _Vide_ Preface.
+
+{225}  _Vide_ Preface.
+
+{272}  _Vide_ Preface.
+
+{303}  _Vide_ Preface.
+
+
+
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