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+Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Trumpet-Major, by Thomas Hardy
+#10 in our series by Thomas Hardy
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+Title:  The Trumpet-Major
+
+Author:  Thomas Hardy
+
+Release Date:  October, 2001  [Etext #2864]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
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+Edition:  10
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+Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Trumpet-Major, by Thomas Hardy
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+This etext was prepared by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUMPET-MAJOR
+being a tale of the Trumpet-Major, John Loveday, a soldier in the
+war with Buonaparte, and Robert, his brother, first mate in the
+Merchant Service.
+
+by Thomas Hardy
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I.        WHAT WAS SEEN FROM THE WINDOW OVERLOOKING THE DOWN
+II.       SOMEBODY KNOCKS AND COMES IN
+III.      THE MILL BECOMES AN IMPORTANT CENTRE OF OPERATIONS
+IV.       WHO WERE PRESENT AT THE MILLER'S LITTLE ENTERTAINMENT
+V.        THE SONG AND THE STRANGER
+VI.       OLD MR. DERRIMAN OF OXWELL HALL
+VII.      HOW THEY TALKED IN THE PASTURES
+VIII.     ANNE MAKES A CIRCUIT OF THE CAMP
+IX.       ANNE IS KINDLY FETCHED BY THE TRUMPET MAJOR
+X.        THE MATCH-MAKING VIRTUES OF A DOUBLE GARDEN
+XI.       OUR PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED BY THE PRESENCE OF ROYALTY
+XII.      HOW EVERYBODY, GREAT AND SMALL, CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE
+DOWNS
+XIII.     THE CONVERSATION IN THE CROWD
+XIV.      LATER IN THE EVENING OF THE SAME DAY
+XV.       'CAPTAIN' BOB LOVEDAY, OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE
+XVI.      THEY MAKE READY FOR THE ILLUSTRIOUS STRANGER
+XVII.     TWO FAINTING FITS AND A BEWILDERMENT
+XVIII.    THE NIGHT AFTER THE ARRIVAL
+XIX.      MISS JOHNSON'S BEHAVIOUR CAUSES NO LITTLE SURPRISE
+XX.       HOW THEY LESSENED THE EFFECT OF THE CALAMITY
+XXI.      'UPON THE HILL HE TURNED'
+XXII.     THE TWO HOUSEHOLDS UNITED
+XXIII.    MILITARY PREPARATIONS ON AN EXTENDED SCALE
+XXIV.     A LETTER, A VISITOR, AND A TIN BOX
+XXV.      FESTUS SHOWS HIS LOVE
+XXVI.     THE ALARM
+XXVII.    DANGER TO ANNE
+XXVIII.   ANNIE DOES WONDERS
+XXIX.     A DISSEMBLER
+XXX.      AT THE THEATRE ROYAL
+XXXI.     MIDNIGHT VISITORS
+XXXII.    DELIVERANCE
+XXXIII.   A DISCOVERY TURNS THE SCALE
+XXXIV.    A SPECK ON THE SEA
+XXXV.     A SAILOR ENTERS
+XXXVI.    DERRIMAN SEES CHANCES
+XXXVII.   REACTION
+XXXVIII.  A DELICATE SITUATION
+XXXIX.    BOB LOVEDAY STRUTS UP AND DOWN
+XL.       A CALL ON BUSINESS
+XLI.      JOHN MARCHES INTO THE NIGHT
+
+
+
+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 he 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 tonight; 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 today.  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. *
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+----
+
+* Vide Preface.
+
+
+'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.' *
+
+* Vide Preface
+
+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. *
+
+* Vide Preface.
+
+'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 !' *
+
+* Vide Preface.
+
+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. *
+
+* Vide Preface.
+
+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 today, 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, tomorrow 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Trumpet-Major, by Thomas Hardy
+
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