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diff --git a/2864-h/2864-h.htm b/2864-h/2864-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76f8eb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/2864-h/2864-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13163 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Trumpet-Major</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.headingsummary { margin-left: 5%;} + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Trumpet-Major, by Thomas Hardy</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Trumpet-Major, by Thomas Hardy + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Trumpet-Major + + +Author: Thomas Hardy + + + +Release Date: October 18, 2007 [eBook #2864] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUMPET-MAJOR*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>This etext was prepared by Les Bowler.</p> +<h1>THE TRUMPET-MAJOR<br /> +JOHN LOVEDAY</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">a soldier in +the war with buonaparte</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">and</span><br /> +ROBERT HIS BROTHER<br /> +<span class="smcap">first mate in the merchant service</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">A TALE</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +THOMAS HARDY</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">with a map of +wessex</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">macmillan and +co.</span>, <span class="smcap">limited</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">st. martin’s street</span>, <span +class="smcap">london</span><br /> +1920</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">copyright</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>First Edition</i> (3 +<i>vols.</i>) 1880. <i>New Edition</i> (1 <i>vol.</i>) +<i>and reprints</i> 1881-1893<br /> +<i>New Edition and reprints</i> 1896-1900<br /> +<i>First published by Macmillan and Co.</i>, <i>Crown</i> +8<i>vo</i>, 1903. <i>Reprinted</i> 1906, 1910, 1914<br /> +<i>Pocket Edition</i> 1907. <i>Reprinted</i> 1909, 1912, +1915, 1917, 1919, 1920</p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">T. H.</p> +<p><i>October</i> 1895.</p> +<h2>I. WHAT WAS SEEN FROM THE WINDOW OVERLOOKING THE +DOWN</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘It cannot be he,’ said Anne. ‘Ah! +there’s Simon Burden, the man who watches at the +beacon. He’ll know!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘And then they will—’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’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.’</p> +<p>‘Here are more and different ones,’ said Mrs. +Garland.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I don’t know which I like best,’ said +Anne. ‘These, I think, after all.’</p> +<p>Simon, who had been looking hard at the latter, now said that +they were the --th Dragoons.</p> +<p>‘All Englishmen they,’ said the old man. +‘They lay at Budmouth barracks a few years ago.’</p> +<p>‘They did. I remember it,’ said Mrs. +Garland.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<h2>II. SOMEBODY KNOCKS AND COMES IN</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘O! It is only Loveday.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>This Derriman was a squireen living near, who was chiefly +distinguished in the present warlike time by having a nephew in +the yeomanry.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘And what rank does he hold now?’ said the +widow.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Loveday in a less buoyant tone. +‘Robert, you see, must needs go to sea.’</p> +<p>‘He is much younger than his brother?’ said Mrs. +Garland.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘A sailor-miller!’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘You should have a woman to attend to the house, +Loveday,’ said the widow.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>III. THE MILL BECOMES AN IMPORTANT CENTRE OF +OPERATIONS</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>When she came downstairs her mother said, ‘I have been +thinking what I ought to wear to Miller Loveday’s +to-night.’</p> +<p>‘To Miller Loveday’s?’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Do you think we ought to go, mother?’ said Anne +slowly, and looking at the smaller features of the +window-flowers.</p> +<p>‘Why not?’ said Mrs. Garland.</p> +<p>‘He will only have men there except ourselves, will +he? And shall we be right to go alone among +’em?’</p> +<p>Anne had not recovered from the ardent gaze of the gallant +York Hussars, whose voices reached her even now in converse with +Loveday.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘That’s true,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Why do you sigh, mother?’</p> +<p>‘You are so prim and stiff about everything.’</p> +<p>‘Very well—we’ll go.’</p> +<p>‘O no—I am not sure that we ought. I did not +promise, and there will be no trouble in keeping away.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Or do without it altogether.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Mother, you are quite a girl,’ said Anne in +slightly superior accents. ‘Go in and join them by +all means.’</p> +<p>‘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.”’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Widow Garland and Anne looked yes at each other after this +appeal.</p> +<p>‘We’ll follow you in a few minutes,’ said +the elder, smiling; and she rose with Anne to go upstairs.</p> +<p>‘No, I’ll wait for ye,’ said the miller +doggedly; ‘or perhaps you’ll alter your mind +again.’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘Certainly; I shall be down in a minute,’ screamed +Anne’s mother in a slanting voice towards the +staircase.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>Mrs. Garland said Anne was quite well. ‘She is +grown-up now. She will be down in a moment.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘More friends?’ said Mrs. Garland.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>IV. WHO WERE PRESENT AT THE MILLER’S LITTLE +ENTERTAINMENT</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘Certainly, Miller Loveday,’ said the widow.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Quite worth while, miller,’ said she.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Hey?’ said the corporal.</p> +<p>‘Your arm hurt too?’ cried Anne.</p> +<p>‘Knocked to a pummy at the same time as my head,’ +said Tullidge dispassionately.</p> +<p>‘Rattle yer arm, corpel, and show her,’ said +Cripplestraw.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘How very shocking!’ said Anne, painfully anxious +for him to leave off.</p> +<p>‘O, it don’t hurt him, bless ye. Do it, +corpel?’ said Cripplestraw.</p> +<p>‘Not a bit,’ said the corporal, still working his +arm with great energy.</p> +<p>‘There’s no life in the bones at all. No +life in ’em, I tell her, corpel!’</p> +<p>‘None at all.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘O no, no, please not! I quite understand,’ +said the young woman.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>Anne explained that she did not on any account; and managed to +escape from the corner.</p> +<h2>V. THE SONG AND THE STRANGER</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Lord ha’ mercy upon us!’ said William +Tremlett.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘When d’ye think ’twill be?’ said +Volunteer Comfort, the blacksmith.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘He’s not coming this summer. He’ll +never come at all,’ said a tall sergeant-major +decisively.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Anne looked conscious, and listened attentively; but Loveday +did not go on.</p> +<p>‘Much?’ she asked.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘He will tell, of course?’ said Anne, in the +remote tone of a person with whose sex such matters had no +connexion whatever.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>When law’-yers strive’ to heal’ +a breach’,<br /> +And par-sons prac’-tise what’ they preach’;<br +/> +Then lit’-tle Bo-ney he’ll pounce down’,<br /> +And march’ his men’ on Lon’-don +town’!</p> +<p>Chorus.—Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lo’-rum,<br /> + Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lay.</p> +<p>When jus’-ti-ces’ hold e’qual +scales’,<br /> +And rogues’ are on’-ly found’ in +jails’;<br /> +Then lit’tle Bo’-ney he’ll pounce +down’,<br /> +And march’ his men’ on Lon’-don +town’!</p> +<p>Chorus.—Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lo’-rum,<br /> + Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lay.</p> +<p>When rich’ men find’ their wealth’ a +curse’,<br /> +And fill’ there-with’ the poor’ man’s +purse’;<br /> +Then lit’-tle Bo’-ney he’ll pounce +down’,<br /> +And march’ his men’ on Lon’-don +town’!</p> +<p>Chorus.—Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lo’-rum,<br /> + Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lay.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<blockquote><p>Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lo’-rum,<br /> +Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, tol’-lol-lay.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’Tis young Squire Derriman, old Mr. +Derriman’s nephew,’ murmured voices in the +background.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>When hus’-bands with’ their +wives’ agree’.<br /> +And maids’ won’t wed’ from +mod’-es-ty’,<br /> +Then lit’-tle Bo’-ney he’ll pounce +down’,<br /> +And march’ his men’ on Lon’-don +town’!</p> +<p>Chorus.—Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lo’-rum,<br /> + Rol’-li-cum ro’-rum, +tol’-lol-lay.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was a verse which had been omitted by the gallant Stanner, +out of respect to the ladies.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>‘Staying with your uncle at the farm for a day or two, +Mr. Derriman?’</p> +<p>‘No, no; as I told you, six mile off. Billeted at +Casterbridge. But I have to call and see the old, +old—’</p> +<p>‘Gentleman?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Quite right, Master Derriman. Another +drop?’</p> +<p>‘No, no. I’ll take no more than is good for +me—no man should; so don’t tempt me.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>The trumpet-major replied civilly, though not without +grimness, for he seemed hardly to like Derriman’s motion +towards Anne.</p> +<p>‘Widow Garland’s daughter!—yes, ’tis! +surely. You remember me? I have been here +before. Festus Derriman, Yeomanry Cavalry.’</p> +<p>Anne gave a little curtsey. ‘I know your name is +Festus—that’s all.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘La! and are they?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Sir, please be quiet,’ said Anne, distressed.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I didn’t want to provoke the +chap—’twasn’t worth while. He came in +friendly enough,’ said the gentle miller without looking +up.</p> +<p>‘I don’t think he was overmuch friendly,’ +said John.</p> +<p>‘’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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>VI. OLD MR. DERRIMAN OF OXWELL HALL</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Please I have come for the paper,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>She would read if he wished, she said; she was in no +hurry. And sitting herself down she unfolded the paper.</p> +<p>‘“Dinner at Carlton House”?’</p> +<p>‘No, faith. ’Tis nothing to I.’</p> +<p>‘“Defence of the country”?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What do you see out there?’ said the farmer with +a start, as she paused and slowly blushed.</p> +<p>‘A soldier—one of the yeomanry,’ said Anne, +not quite at her ease.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Before she had read far the visitor straddled over the +door-hurdle into the passage and entered the room.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Ah, poor soul!’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I am not much more than a skeleton, and +can’t bear rough usage.’</p> +<p>‘Sorry to hear that; but I’ll bear your affliction +in mind. Why, you are all in a tremble, Uncle +Benjy!’</p> +<p>‘’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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I am glad to see ye. You are not going to stay +long, perhaps?’</p> +<p>‘Quite the contrary. I am going to stay ever so +long!’</p> +<p>‘O I see! I am so glad, dear Festus. Ever so +long, did ye say?’</p> +<p>‘Yes, <i>ever</i> 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.’</p> +<p>‘Ah! How you do please me!’ said the farmer, +with a horrified smile, and grasping the arms of his chair to +sustain himself.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘You always was kind that way!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O, not always? That’s a pity!’ +exclaimed the farmer with a cheerful eye.</p> +<p>‘I knew you’d say so. And I shan’t be +able to sleep here at night sometimes, for the same +reason.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Th-thank ye, that will be very nice!’ said Uncle +Benjy.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Not at all, if you <i>couldn’t</i>. I never +shall think it unkind if you really <i>can’t</i> 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.’</p> +<p>‘Poor old man—I know you have. Shall I lend +you a seven-shilling piece, Uncle Benjy?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Who says so?’ asked the florid son of Mars, +losing a little redness.</p> +<p>‘The newspaper-man.’</p> +<p>‘O, there’s nothing in that,’ said Festus +bravely. ‘The gover’ment thought it possible at +one time; but they don’t know.’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I hope you will, I am sure, for my own good,’ +said he, letting his eyes linger on the round of her cheek.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Shall you want any more reading, Mr. Derriman?’ +said she, interrupting the younger man in his remarks. +‘If not, I’ll go homeward.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t let me hinder you longer,’ said +Festus. ‘I’m off in a minute or two, when your +man has cleaned my boots.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Not to two,’ she said.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Well, Cripplestraw, how is it to-day?’ said +Festus, with socially-superior heartiness.</p> +<p>‘Middlin’, considering, Maister Derriman. +And how’s yerself?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, Maister Derriman, I will. No, ’tis not +fit, Maister Derriman.’</p> +<p>‘What stock has uncle lost this year, +Cripplestraw?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘H’m, not a large quantity of cattle. The +old rascal!’</p> +<p>‘No, ’tis not a large quantity. Old what did +you say, sir?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘He’s close-fisted.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Hope he will. Do people talk about me here, +Cripplestraw?’ asked the yeoman, as the other continued +busy with his boots.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘And they say that when you fall this summer, +you’ll die like a man.’</p> +<p>‘When I fall?’</p> +<p>‘Yes, sure, Maister Derriman. Poor soul o’ +thee! I shan’t forget ’ee as you lie mouldering +in yer soldier’s grave.’</p> +<p>‘Hey?’ said the warrior uneasily. +‘What makes ’em think I am going to fall?’</p> +<p>‘Well, sir, by all accounts the yeomanry will be put in +front.’</p> +<p>‘Front! That’s what my uncle has been +saying.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, and by all accounts ’tis true. And +naterelly they’ll be mowed down like grass; and you among +’em, poor young galliant officer!’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O! cuss you! you needn’t pray about +it.’</p> +<p>‘No, Maister Derriman, I won’t.’</p> +<p>‘Of course my sword will do its duty. That’s +enough. And now be off with ye.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘’Tis, Festus; and I am thinking of +moving.’</p> +<p>‘Ah, where to?’ said Festus, with surprise and +interest.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘’Tis not moving far.’</p> +<p>‘’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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘From my mother’s side, perhaps.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<h2>VII. HOW THEY TALKED IN THE PASTURES</h2> +<p>‘You often come this way?’ said Festus to Anne +rather before he had overtaken her.</p> +<p>‘I come for the newspaper and other things,’ she +said, perplexed by a doubt whether he were there by accident or +design.</p> +<p>They moved on in silence, Festus beating the grass with his +switch in a masterful way. ‘Did you speak, +Mis’ess Anne?’ he asked.</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘I think it is very lively, and a great change,’ +she said with demure seriousness.</p> +<p>‘Perhaps you don’t like us warriors as a +body?’</p> +<p>Anne smiled without replying.</p> +<p>‘Why, you are laughing!’ said the yeoman, looking +searchingly at her and blushing like a little fire. +‘What do you see to laugh at?’</p> +<p>‘Did I laugh?’ said Anne, a little scared at his +sudden mortification.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Would you help to beat them off?’ said she.</p> +<p>‘Can you ask such a question? What are we +for? But you don’t think anything of +soldiers.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘It was only a tiny little one,’ she murmured.</p> +<p>‘Ah—I knew you did!’ thundered he. +‘Now what was it you laughed at?’</p> +<p>‘I only—thought that you were—merely in the +yeomanry,’ she murmured slily.</p> +<p>‘And what of that?’</p> +<p>‘And the yeomanry only seem farmers that have lost their +senses.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘But that would be taking care of yourself—not +hitting at him.’</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘Then there is plenty of time to give such words of +command in the heat of battle?’ said Anne innocently.</p> +<p>‘No!’ said the yeoman, his face again in +flames. ‘Why, of course I am only telling you what +<i>would</i> be the word of command <i>if</i>—there now! +you la—’</p> +<p>‘I didn’t; ’pon my word I +didn’t!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘He has not said a word,’ replied Anne; +‘though I have heard of you, of course.’</p> +<p>‘What have you heard? Nothing good, I dare +say. It makes my blood boil within me!’</p> +<p>‘O, nothing bad,’ said she assuringly. +‘Just a word now and then.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>Anne was embarrassed, and her smile was uncomfortable. +‘I shall not tell you,’ she said at last.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘I tell you ’twas nothing against you,’ +repeated Anne.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘It was.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Only at a bird that I saw fly out of that tree,’ +said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘I have nothing to say, sir. Stay where you are +till I am out of this field.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Then Sunday?’ he said.</p> +<p>‘Not Sunday,’ said she.</p> +<p>‘Then Monday—Tuesday—Wednesday, +surely?’ he went on experimentally.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>VIII. ANNE MAKES A CIRCUIT OF THE CAMP</h2> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘What have you seen, Granny Seamore?’ said +Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Surely this is your way?’ said Festus.</p> +<p>‘I was thinking of going round by the road,’ she +said.</p> +<p>‘Why is that?’</p> +<p>She paused, as if she were not inclined to say. ‘I +go that way when the grass is wet,’ she returned at +last.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>Anne, supposing him really indifferent, took the same way, +upon which he turned his head and waited for her with a proud +smile.</p> +<p>‘I cannot go with you,’ she said decisively.</p> +<p>‘Nonsense, you foolish girl! I must walk along +with you down to the corner.’</p> +<p>‘No, please, Mr. Derriman; we might be seen.’</p> +<p>‘Now, now—that’s shyness!’ he said +jocosely.</p> +<p>‘No; you know I cannot let you.’</p> +<p>‘But I must.’</p> +<p>‘But I do not allow it.’</p> +<p>‘Allow it or not, I will.’</p> +<p>‘Then you are unkind, and I must submit,’ she +said, her eyes brimming with tears.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>As he did not go Anne stood still and said nothing.</p> +<p>‘I see you have a deal more caution and a deal less +good-nature than I ever thought you had,’ he continued +emphatically.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Indeed, I didn’t know you were thought so bad of +as that,’ said she simply.</p> +<p>‘What! don’t my uncle complain to you of me? +You are a favourite of that handsome, nice old gaffer’s, I +know.’</p> +<p>‘Never.’</p> +<p>‘Well, what do we think of our nice trumpet-major, +hey?’</p> +<p>Anne closed her mouth up tight, built it up, in fact, to show +that no answer was coming to that question.</p> +<p>‘O now, come, seriously, Loveday is a good fellow, and +so is his father.’</p> +<p>‘I don’t know.’</p> +<p>‘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?”’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Go on, do ye, maidy Anne,’ said Uncle Benjy, +keeping down his tremblings by a great effort to half their +natural extent.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Do ye want to say anything to me, nephew?’ he +quaked.</p> +<p>‘No, uncle, thank ye,’ said Festus heartily. +‘I like to stay here, thinking of you and looking at your +back hair.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘My dear Anne, what a time you have been gone!’ +said her mother.</p> +<p>‘Yes, I have been round by another road.’</p> +<p>‘Why did you do that?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘What’s that?’ said the astonished Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Then you didn’t want the paper—and it was +only for that!’</p> +<p>‘He’s a very fine young fellow; he looks a +thorough woman’s protector.’</p> +<p>‘He may look it,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<h2>IX. ANNE IS KINDLY FETCHED BY THE TRUMPET-MAJOR</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Is Miss Garland here?’ the visitor inquired, at +which Anne suspended her breath.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ said Anne’s entertainer, warily.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Yes, I did, Mr. Loveday,’ said she, coming +forward; ‘but it rained, and I thought my mother would +guess where I was.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘And she asked you to come for me?’ Anne +inquired.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘And you taught them how to do it?’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I taught them.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Of course you were.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘What, did you know my father?’ she asked with new +interest.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘We may as well go by the nearest road,’ said +Anne.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What was that?’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘I don’t know,’ said her companion. +‘I’ll go and see.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘No; I can’t do it,’ he said. +‘’Tis underhand. Let things take their +chance.’</p> +<p>He moved away, and then perceived that Anne, tired of waiting, +had crossed the stream, and almost come up with him.</p> +<p>‘What is the noise about?’ she said.</p> +<p>‘There’s company in the house,’ said +Loveday.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Silence again. ‘Derriman is sober as a +judge,’ said Loveday, as they turned to go. ‘It +was only the others who were noisy.’</p> +<p>‘Whether he is sober or not is nothing whatever to +me,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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—</p> +<p>‘Mr. Loveday, let us wait here a minute till they have +passed.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’Tis old Mr. Derriman come home!’ said +Anne. ‘He has hired that horse from the +bathing-machine to bring him. Only fancy!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘And you have torn yourself away from King +George’s Esplanade so soon, Farmer Derriman?’ said +she.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>It was a shout from within the walls of the building, and +Loveday said—</p> +<p>‘Your nephew is here, and has company.’</p> +<p>‘My nephew <i>here</i>?’ 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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’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!’</p> +<p>‘You didn’t know he was here, then?’ said +Loveday.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.)</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘Let’s go on,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I’ll stand by you for half-an-hour, sir,’ +said Loveday. ‘After that I must bolt to +camp.’</p> +<p>‘Very well; bide back there under the trees,’ said +Uncle Benjy. ‘I don’t want to spite +’em?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘I want to get home,’ said Anne anxiously.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘’Tis our duty to help folks in distress,’ +said Festus. ‘Man a-lost, where are you?’</p> +<p>‘’Twas across there,’ said one of his +friends.</p> +<p>‘No! ’twas here,’ said another.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Here’s succour at hand, friends,’ said +Festus. ‘We are all king’s men; do not fear +us.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘’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.’</p> +<p>‘She’s in my hands,’ said Loveday civilly, +though not without firmness, ‘so it is not required, thank +you.’</p> +<p>‘Man, had I but my sword—’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>They agreed to the terms, and the other yeomen arriving at +this time said they would go also as rearguard.</p> +<p>‘Very well,’ said Anne. ‘Now go and +get your hats, and don’t be long.’</p> +<p>‘Ah, yes; our hats,’ said the yeomanry, whose +heads were so hot that they had forgotten their nakedness till +then.</p> +<p>‘You’ll wait till we’ve got +’em—we won’t be a moment,’ said Festus +eagerly.</p> +<p>Anne and Loveday said yes, and Festus ran back to the house, +followed by all his band.</p> +<p>‘Now let’s run and leave ’em,’ said +Anne, when they were out of hearing.</p> +<p>‘But we’ve promised to wait!’ said the +trumpet-major in surprise.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Upon my soul ’tis I,’ said Festus.</p> +<p>‘Not to-night, my man; not to-night! Anthony, +bring my blunderbuss,’ said the farmer, turning and +addressing nobody inside the room.</p> +<p>‘Let’s break in the window-shutters,’ said +one of the others.</p> +<p>‘My wig, and we will!’ said Festus. +‘What a trick of the old man!’</p> +<p>‘Get some big stones,’ said the yeomen, searching +under the wall.</p> +<p>‘No; forbear, forbear,’ said Festus, beginning to +be frightened at the spirit he had raised. ‘I forget; +we should drive him into fits, for he’s subject to +’em, and then perhaps ’twould be manslaughter. +Comrades, we must march! No, we’ll lie in the +barn. I’ll see into this, take my word for +‘t. Our honour is at stake. Now let’s +back to see my beauty home.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘She’s gone. I saw her flee across park +while we were knocking at the door,’ said another of the +yeomanry.</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘Yes?’ said the trumpet-major, coming up behind +him.</p> +<p>‘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!”’</p> +<p>‘A good speech. And I will, too,’ said +Loveday heartily.</p> +<p>‘And now for shelter,’ said Festus to his +companions.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>X. THE MATCH-MAKING VIRTUES OF A DOUBLE GARDEN</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Where are you going?’ said Mrs. Garland.</p> +<p>‘To see the folks, because I am so gloomy!’</p> +<p>‘Certainly not at present, Anne.’</p> +<p>‘Why not, mother?’ said Anne, blushing with an +indefinite sense of being very wicked.</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘Don’t mention him, mother, +don’t!’</p> +<p>‘Well then, dear, walk in the garden.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Are you offended with me?’ he said to her in a +low voice of repressed resentment.</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘When are you coming to the hall again?’</p> +<p>‘Never, perhaps.’</p> +<p>‘Nonsense, Anne,’ said Mrs. Garland, who had come +near, and smiled pleasantly on Festus. ‘You can go at +any time, as usual.’</p> +<p>‘Let her come with me now, Mrs. Garland; I should be +pleased to walk along with her. My man can lead home the +horse.’</p> +<p>‘Thank you, but I shall not come,’ said Miss Anne +coldly.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>Anne moved on with her mother, young Loveday silently +following, and they began to descend the hill.</p> +<p>‘Well, where’s Mr. Loveday?’ asked Mrs. +Garland.</p> +<p>‘Father’s behind,’ said John.</p> +<p>Mrs. Garland looked behind her solicitously; and the miller, +who had been waiting for the event, beckoned to her.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘What’s all right?’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘What a weathercock you are, mother! Why should +you say that just now?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘But,’ said Anne, ‘what has made you change +all of a sudden from what you have said before?’</p> +<p>‘My feelings and my reason, which I am thankful +for!’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>Anne did not know at all.</p> +<p>‘Why, he has asked me to marry him.’</p> +<h2>XI. OUR PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED BY THE PRESENCE OF +ROYALTY</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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—</p> +<p>‘You have heard the news, Miss Garland?’</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Anne, without looking up from a book +she was reading.</p> +<p>‘The King is coming to-morrow.’</p> +<p>‘The King?’ She looked up then.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>Miller Loveday came round the corner of the house.</p> +<p>‘Have ye heard about the King coming, Miss Maidy +Anne?’ he said.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘And you will go with your regiment to meet ‘en, I +suppose?’ said old Loveday.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>The miller looked disappointed as well as John.</p> +<p>‘Your mother might like to?’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I am going indoors, and I’ll ask her if you +wish me to,’ said she.</p> +<p>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—</p> +<p>‘Anne, I have not seen the King or the King’s +horses for these many years; and I am going.’</p> +<p>‘Ah, it is well to be you, mother,’ said Anne, in +an elderly tone.</p> +<p>‘Then you won’t come with us?’ said Mrs. +Garland, rather rebuffed.</p> +<p>‘I have very different things to think of,’ said +her daughter with virtuous emphasis, ‘than going to see +sights at that time of night.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>A knock came to the door.</p> +<p>Anne’s instinct was at once to be silent, that the comer +might think the family had retired.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I want to take her out to see the King,’ said +Festus.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What! you have altered your mind after all?’ said +the widow. ‘How came you to do that, my +dear?’</p> +<p>‘I thought I might as well come,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘To be sure you did,’ said the miller +heartily. ‘A good deal better than biding at home +there.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘By your leave, ma’am, I’ll speak to you on +something that concerns my mind very much indeed?’</p> +<p>‘Certainly.’</p> +<p>‘It is my wish to be allowed to pay my addresses to your +daughter.’</p> +<p>‘I thought you meant that,’ said Mrs. Garland +simply.</p> +<p>‘And you’ll not object?’</p> +<p>‘I shall leave it to her. I don’t think she +will agree, even if I do.’</p> +<p>The soldier sighed, and seemed helpless. ‘Well, I +can but ask her,’ he said.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘That clock strikes in G sharp,’ he said.</p> +<p>‘Indeed—G sharp?’ said Anne civilly.</p> +<p>‘Yes. ’Tis a fine-toned bell. I used +to notice that note when I was a boy.’</p> +<p>‘Did you—the very same?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘It is not a deep note for a clock.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘I do. I think a trumpet-major a very respectable +man.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Indeed! Then I am, by chance, more loyal than I +thought for.’</p> +<p>‘I get a good deal a year extra to the trumpeters, +because of my position.’</p> +<p>‘That’s very nice.’</p> +<p>‘And I am not supposed ever to drink with the trumpeters +who serve beneath me.’</p> +<p>‘Naturally.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘It is really a dignified post,’ she said, with, +however, a reserve of enthusiasm which was not altogether +encouraging.</p> +<p>‘And of course some day I shall,’ stammered the +dragoon—‘shall be in rather a better position than I +am at present.’</p> +<p>‘I am glad to hear it, Mr. Loveday.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘This is most awkward,’ said Anne, evidently with +pain. ‘I cannot possibly agree; believe me, Mr. +Loveday, I cannot.’</p> +<p>‘But there’s more than this. You would be +surprised to see what snug rooms the married trumpet- and +sergeant-majors have in quarters.’</p> +<p>‘Barracks are not all; consider camp and war.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘My mother would be sure to object,’ expostulated +Anne.</p> +<p>‘No; she leaves it all to you.’</p> +<p>‘What! you have asked her?’ said Anne, with +surprise.</p> +<p>‘Yes. I thought it would not be honourable to act +otherwise.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You are not angry, Miss Garland?’ said he, +finding that she did not speak.</p> +<p>‘O no. Don’t let us say anything more about +this now.’ And she moved on.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Thank God, I have seen my King!’ said Mrs. +Garland, when they had all gone by.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XII. HOW EVERYBODY GREAT AND SMALL CLIMBED TO THE TOP +OF THE DOWNS</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.)</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘That’s John!’ he cried to the widow. +‘His trumpet-sling is of two colours, d’ye see; and +the others be plain.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘So he is, miller,’ said she.</p> +<p>‘They could no more do without Jack and his men than +they could without generals.’</p> +<p>‘Indeed they could not,’ said Mrs. Garland again, +in a tone of pleasant agreement with any one in Great Britain or +Ireland.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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 <i>was</i> a letter in the candle +three days ago this very night—a large red one; but +foolish-like I thought nothing o’t. Who <i>can</i> +that letter be from?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In the afternoon John Loveday, lightened of his trumpet and +trappings, appeared at the old mill-house door, and beheld Anne +standing at hers.</p> +<p>‘I saw you, Miss Garland,’ said the soldier +gaily.</p> +<p>‘Where was I?’ said she, smiling.</p> +<p>‘On the top of the big mound—to the right of the +King.’</p> +<p>‘And I saw you; lots of times,’ she rejoined.</p> +<p>Loveday seemed pleased. ‘Did you really take the +trouble to find me? That was very good of you.’</p> +<p>‘Her eyes followed you everywhere,’ said Mrs. +Garland from an upper window.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>He spoke pleadingly, but Anne was not won to assent.</p> +<p>‘You can drive in the gig; ’twill do Blossom +good,’ said the miller.</p> +<p>‘Let David drive Miss Garland,’ said the +trumpet-major, not wishing to coerce her; ‘I would just as +soon walk.’</p> +<p>Anne joyfully welcomed this arrangement, and a time was fixed +for the start.</p> +<h2>XIII. THE CONVERSATION IN THE CROWD</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Trumpet-major, I didn’t see you,’ said Anne +demurely. ‘How is it that your regiment is not +marching past?’</p> +<p>‘We take it by turns, and it is not our turn,’ +said Loveday.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What a good, brave King!’ said Anne.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>Anne passively assented. ‘David, wait here for +me,’ she said; ‘I shall be back again in a few +minutes.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘And that other thing I asked you?’ he ventured to +say at last.</p> +<p>‘We won’t speak of it.’</p> +<p>‘You don’t dislike me?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘But I am not worthy of the daughter of a genteel +professional man—that’s what you mean?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘Something more?’</p> +<p>‘Well, since you will make me speak, I mean the woman +ought to love the man.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘How can I say, when I don’t know? What a +pretty chip hat the elder princess wears?’</p> +<p>Her companion’s general disappointment extended over him +almost to his lace and his plume. ‘Your mother said, +you know, Miss Anne—’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>When they reached the place where they had left him David was +gone.</p> +<p>Anne was now positively vexed. ‘What <i>shall</i> +I do?’ she said.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Will you go and find him?’ said she, with intense +propriety in her looks and tone.</p> +<p>‘I will,’ said Loveday reluctantly; and he +went.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I can’t find David anywhere,’ he said; and +his heart was not sorry as he said it.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>His face brightened with pleasure as he took it. +‘Thank you, indeed,’ he said.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>Festus, seeing this, enlarged himself wrathfully, got hot in +the face, rose to his feet, and glared down upon them like a +turnip-lantern.</p> +<p>‘Let us go away,’ said Anne timorously.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘He is coming home <i>to be married</i>,’ said the +trumpet-major, without looking up.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘As far as I can understand he will be here +Saturday,’ he said.</p> +<p>‘Indeed!’ said Anne quite calmly. ‘And +who is he going to marry?’</p> +<p>‘That I don’t know,’ said John, turning the +letter about. ‘The woman is a stranger.’</p> +<p>At this moment the miller entered the office hastily.</p> +<p>‘Come, John,’ he cried, ‘I have been waiting +and waiting for that there letter till I was nigh +crazy!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XIV. LATER IN THE EVENING OF THE SAME DAY</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘We heard you had got a letter, Maister Loveday,’ +they said.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’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.’</p> +<p>‘He haven’t knowed her such a very long +time,’ said Job Mitchell dubiously.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘He says in three days,’ said Mrs. Garland. +‘The date of the letter will fix it.’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Is he in there with ye?’ whispered the farmer +with misgiving.</p> +<p>‘Who?’</p> +<p>‘My nephew, after that maid that he’s so mighty +smit with?’</p> +<p>‘O no; he never calls here.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>Loveday did not say nay.</p> +<p>‘Neighbour Loveday, I know ye to be an honest +man,’ repeated the old squireen. ‘Can I speak +to ye alone?’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>Loveday nodded.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘We’ll go and meet him,’ said the +miller. ‘’Tis still light out of +doors.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XV. ‘CAPTAIN’ BOB LOVEDAY OF THE MERCHANT +SERVICE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Glad to welcome ye home, father,’ said Bob. +‘And supper is just ready.’</p> +<p>‘Lard, lard—why, Captain Bob’s here!’ +said Mrs. Garland.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘I drove over; and so was forced to come by the +road,’ said Bob.</p> +<p>‘And we went across the fields, thinking you’d +walk,’ said his father.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What be you rolling back the tablecloth for, +David?’ said the miller.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘Faith, ’twas the first thing that came to +hand,’ said Robert. ‘It seemed a tablecloth to +me.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘They were here but a minute ago,’ said +David. ‘Depend upon it they have slinked off +‘cause they be shy.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘She must have married young to make you that, +David.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes—I’m years older than she. +’Tis only my common way of speaking.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘This must be seen to,’ said the miller, rising +promptly. ‘David, light the middle-sized +lantern. I’ll go and search the garden.’</p> +<p>‘And I’ll go too,’ said his son, taking up a +cudgel. ‘Lucky I’ve come home just in +time!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Bless my heart!’ said Bob, striking his head as +though it were some enemy’s: ‘why, ’tis my +luggage. I’d quite forgot it!’</p> +<p>‘What!’ asked his father.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Parrots?’ said the miller. ‘Well, +I’m glad ’tis no worse. But how couldst forget +so, Bob?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘He is by far the prettiest,’ said the +widow. ‘I would rather have it than the other, if you +don’t mind.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘How dreadful!’ said Mrs. Garland.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>The sailor now untied a small wooden box about a foot square, +perforated with holes. ‘Here are two +marmosets,’ he continued. ‘You can’t see +them to-night; but they are beauties—the tufted +sort.’</p> +<p>‘What’s a marmoset?’ said the miller.</p> +<p>‘O, a little kind of monkey. They bite strangers +rather hard, but you’ll soon get used to +’em.’</p> +<p>‘They are wrapped up in something, I declare,’ +said Mrs. Garland, peeping in through a chink.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What a lovely shawl!’ exclaimed Widow Garland, in +her interest forestalling the regular exhibition by looking into +the box at what was coming.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, we know all about it,’ said the widow.</p> +<p>‘Well, I shall give one of these shawls to +her—because, of course, I ought to.’</p> +<p>‘Of course,’ said she.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Thank you,’ said Anne calmly, but much +distressed; ‘but really I don’t want it, and +couldn’t take it.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘It was somebody else,’ said Anne quickly.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>Anne drew back and shook her head, for she would not trust her +voice.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘Yes, do,’ said Mrs. Garland.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I think you had better keep them for your bride if you +have promised them to her,’ said Mrs. Garland mildly.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What would Tilly say if she knew!’ said the +miller slily.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘I’ll take them for her,’ said Mrs. Garland, +quickly picking up the parcel.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘What’s this?’ said Mrs. Garland, touching +with her foot a large package that had been laid down by Bob +unseen.</p> +<p>‘That’s a bit of baccy for myself,’ said +Robert meekly.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>It is to be hoped that somebody’s sins were forgiven her +that night before she went to bed.</p> +<p>When Bob and his father were left alone, the miller said, +‘Well, Robert, about this young woman of +thine—Matilda what’s her name?’</p> +<p>‘Yes, father—Matilda Johnson. I was just +going to tell ye about her.’</p> +<p>The miller nodded, and sipped his mug.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘A fortnight.’</p> +<p>‘Not <i>very</i> long.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘What of her?’ said his father, slightly shifting +in his chair.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>The mate’s thoughts were elsewhere by this time.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘How many did you choose her out from?’ inquired +his father.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Her father is in business near the docks, I +suppose?’</p> +<p>‘Well, no. In short, I didn’t see her +father.’</p> +<p>‘Her mother?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes, of course,’ said the miller, trying to +feel quite satisfied. ‘And she will soon be +here?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Of course you can, Bob, or anything else. And +I’ll do all I can to give you a good wedding +feast.’</p> +<h2>XVI. THEY MAKE READY FOR THE ILLUSTRIOUS STRANGER</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘O—that’s all!’ said Captain Loveday, +surprised.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Is your watering-place a large city?’ she +inquired when they mounted the hill where the Overcombe folk had +waited for the King.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>At the words ‘actors and actresses,’ the innocent +young thing pricked up her ears.</p> +<p>‘Does Elliston pay as good salaries this summer as +in—?’</p> +<p>‘O, you know about it then? I +thought—’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘O, an amazing treat!’ said Miss Johnson, with an +ecstasy in which a close observer might have discovered a tinge +of ghastliness.</p> +<p>‘You’ve never been into one perhaps, +dear?’</p> +<p>‘N—never,’ said Matilda flatly. +‘Whatever do I see yonder—a row of white things on +the down?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>He pointed to a wing of the camp that had become +visible. Matilda was much interested.</p> +<p>‘It will make it very lively for us,’ he added, +‘especially as John is there.’</p> +<p>She thought so too, and thus they chatted on.</p> +<h2>XVII. TWO FAINTING FITS AND A BEWILDERMENT</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘O, what a horrid bull!—it did frighten me +so. I hope I shan’t faint,’ said Matilda.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘O, Captain Loveday!’ said Anne, ‘the water +is running over her green silk handkerchief, and into her pretty +reticule!’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘I am not,’ replied the sufferer. ‘All +is so strange about here!’</p> +<p>Suddenly there spread into the firmament, from the direction +of the down:—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Ra, ta, ta! Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! Ra, +ta, ta!’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘O dear, dear! more hideous country sounds, I +suppose?’ she inquired, with another start.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O yes; you mean Captain Loveday’s brother. +Dear Bob has mentioned him.’</p> +<p>‘If you come round to Widow Garland’s side of the +house, you can see the camp,’ said the miller.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You get the sea-breezes here, no doubt?’</p> +<p>‘O yes, dear; when the wind is that way.’</p> +<p>‘Do you like windy weather?’</p> +<p>‘Yes; though not now, for it blows down the young +apples.’</p> +<p>‘Apples are plentiful, it seems. You country-folk +call St. Swithin’s their christening day, if it +rains?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I hear that King George is still staying at the town +here. I <i>hope</i> he’ll stay till I have seen +him!’</p> +<p>‘He’ll wait till the corn turns yellow; he always +does.’</p> +<p>‘How <i>very</i> fashionable yellow is getting for +gloves just now!’</p> +<p>‘Yes. Some persons wear them to the elbow, I +hear.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Your humble servant, ma’am,’ said the +trumpet-major gallantly.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I don’t feel well,’ she said, suddenly +rising by an effort. ‘This warm day has quite upset +me!’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Come, sit down and have a dish of tea, anyhow,’ +said his father at last. ‘She’ll soon be right +again, no doubt.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘O, is it you?’ said the mate.</p> +<p>‘Yes. I am—taking a little air.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>John took his brother Bob’s hand. Bob rather +wondered why.</p> +<p>‘All right, old boy,’ he said. ‘Going +into the village? You’ll be back again, I suppose, +before it gets very late?’</p> +<p>‘O yes,’ said Captain Bob cheerfully, and passed +out of the garden.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XVIII. THE NIGHT AFTER THE ARRIVAL</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I must speak to you,’ said the trumpet-major.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘But you do now?’</p> +<p>‘As Bob’s brother.’</p> +<p>‘You have not seen me before?’</p> +<p>‘I have not,’ she answered, with a face as +impassible as Talleyrand’s.</p> +<p>‘Good God!’</p> +<p>‘I have not!’ she repeated.</p> +<p>‘Nor any of the --th Dragoons? Captain Jolly, for +instance?’</p> +<p>‘No.’</p> +<p>‘You mistake. I’ll remind you of +particulars,’ he said drily. And he did remind her at +some length.</p> +<p>‘Never!’ she said desperately.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Thieves! thieves!—my tin box!—thieves! +thieves!’</p> +<p>Matilda vanished into the house, and John Loveday hastened to +the hedge. ‘For heaven’s sake, hold your +tongue, Mr. Derriman!’ he exclaimed.</p> +<p>‘My tin box!’ said Uncle Benjy. ‘O, +only the trumpet-major!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘I am sorry for that,’ said Uncle Benjy. +‘But step back; I’ll put it all right +again.’</p> +<p>‘What, for heaven’s sake, is the matter?’ +said the miller, his tasselled nightcap appearing in the +opening.</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>Here a lump of earth from the trumpet-major’s hand +struck Uncle Benjy in the back as a reminder.</p> +<p>‘To be—the bough of a cherry-tree a-waving in the +wind. Good-night.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Very well,’ said the miller good-humouredly.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘I won’t trouble ye to dress,’ said Derriman +considerately; ‘let en down by anything you have at +hand.’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>The miller replied and closed the window, and the light went +out.</p> +<p>‘There, now I hope you are satisfied, sir?’ said +the trumpet-major.</p> +<p>‘Quite, quite!’ said Derriman; and, leaning on his +walking-stick, he pursued his lonely way.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XIX. MISS JOHNSON’S BEHAVIOUR CAUSES NO LITTLE +SURPRISE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Is Miss Johnson downstairs?’ said the miller; and +Bob listened for the answer, looking at a blue sentinel aloft on +the down.</p> +<p>‘Not yet, maister,’ said the excellent David.</p> +<p>‘We’ll wait till she’s down,’ said +Loveday. ‘When she is, let us know.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘The lady is not down yet,’ said his man in +reply.</p> +<p>‘No hurry, no hurry,’ said the miller, with +cheerful emptiness. ‘Bob, to pass the time +we’ll look into the garden.’</p> +<p>‘She’ll get up sooner than this, you know, when +she’s signed articles and got a berth here,’ Bob +observed apologetically.</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes,’ said Loveday; and they descended into +the garden.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’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?’</p> +<p>‘Where shall we search?’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Now, didn’t you think highly of her, Miss +Garland?’ he inquired, as the search began to languish.</p> +<p>‘O yes,’ said Anne, ‘very highly.’</p> +<p>‘She was really beautiful; no nonsense about her looks, +was there?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>She gave him her hand and sprang down. Before he +relinquished his hold, Captain Bob raised her fingers to his lips +and kissed them.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘And so am I,’ said Robert promptly.</p> +<p>‘No, no; go on looking for her, of course—all the +afternoon, and all night. I am sure you will, if you love +her.’</p> +<p>‘O yes; I mean to. Still, I ought to convoy you +home first?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’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!’</p> +<p>His father and David had returned with no news.</p> +<p>‘Yes, ’tis as I’ve been thinking, +father,’ Bob said. ‘We weren’t good +enough for her, and she went away in scorn!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘You was always very homely, you know, +father.’</p> +<p>‘Yes; so I was,’ said the miller meekly.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘You could do no more than that, certainly,’ said +Bob gently.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You know our great trouble, John?’ said Robert, +gazing stoically into his brother’s eyes.</p> +<p>‘Come and sit down, and tell me all about it,’ +answered the trumpet-major, showing no surprise.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘But do you know what it is?’ said Robert. +‘Has anybody told ye?’</p> +<p>‘I do know,’ said John. ‘She’s +gone; and I am thankful!’</p> +<p>‘What!’ said Bob, rising to his knees in +amazement.</p> +<p>‘I’m at the bottom of it,’ said the +trumpet-major slowly.</p> +<p>‘You, John?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Bob stared at his brother with a face of pain and +distrust.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘You sent her off?’</p> +<p>‘Well, I did.’</p> +<p>‘John!—Tell me right through—tell +me!’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘And what time was it?’ he asked in a hard, +suppressed voice.</p> +<p>‘It was just before one o’clock.’</p> +<p>‘How could you help her to go away?’</p> +<p>‘I had a pass. I carried her box to the +coach-office. She was to follow at dawn.’</p> +<p>‘But she had no money.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Because she knew it was best to do +otherwise.’</p> +<p>‘Well, I shall go after her,’ said Bob firmly.</p> +<p>‘You can do as you like,’ said John; ‘but I +would advise you strongly to leave matters where they +are.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O, Bob,’ said John; ‘I hardly expected +this!’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘That may be; but I’m off after her. Marry +that girl I will.’</p> +<p>‘You’ll be sorry.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<h2>XX. HOW THEY LESSENED THE EFFECT OF THE CALAMITY</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘What do you want, Mr. Derriman?’ said she.</p> +<p>‘“What do you want, Mr. Derriman?”—now +listen to that! Is that my encouragement?’</p> +<p>Anne bowed superciliously, and moved away.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Indeed he didn’t,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘O, now! He saw Trumpet-major Loveday courting +somebody like you in that garden walk; and when he came you ran +indoors.’</p> +<p>‘It is not true, and I wish to hear no more.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Festus Derriman rode by half-an-hour ago, and talked to +her over the hedge.’</p> +<p>John guessed the rest, and, after standing on the threshold in +silence awhile, walked away towards the camp.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘No, I won’t go, after all,’ he said. +‘I won’t be steered by accidents any more.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘All right—all right again, captain!’, +shouted that retainer. ‘A wedding after all! +Hurrah!’</p> +<p>‘Ah—she’s back again?’ cried Bob, +seizing David, ecstatically, and dancing round with him.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Why is she gone?’ said the astonished miller.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘David has just given me the heads.’</p> +<p>‘And do it hurt your feelings, my son, at such a +time?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Poor Matilda!’ murmured Bob.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Nonsense, Bob!’ said the miller +reproachfully.</p> +<p>‘I couldn’t stand it—I should break +down.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Very well,’ said the afflicted one. +‘On that condition I’ll stay.’</p> +<h2>XXI. ‘UPON THE HILL HE TURNED’</h2> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘Give a dinner to the poor folk,’ she +suggested. ‘We can get everything used up that +way.’</p> +<p>‘That’s true’ said the miller. +‘There’s enough of ’em in these times to carry +off any extras whatsoever.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘How’s this, John? Why didn’t you come +before?’</p> +<p>‘Had to see the captain, and—other duties,’ +said the trumpet-major, in a tone which showed no great zeal for +explanations.</p> +<p>‘Well, come in, however,’ continued the miller, as +his son remained with his hand on the door-post, surveying them +reflectively.</p> +<p>‘I cannot stay long,’ said John, advancing. +‘The Route is come, and we are going away.’</p> +<p>‘Going away! Where to?’</p> +<p>‘To Exonbury.’</p> +<p>‘When?’</p> +<p>‘Friday morning.’</p> +<p>‘All of you?’</p> +<p>‘Yes; some to-morrow and some next day. The King +goes next week.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘I didn’t try to,’ said Bob.</p> +<p>‘And you are not going to?’</p> +<p>‘No; I shall let her drift.’</p> +<p>‘I am glad indeed, Bob; you have been wise,’ said +John heartily.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I hope so,’ said his father and Mrs. Loveday.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>She turned, and Festus Derriman was standing by her.</p> +<p>‘There’s no chance for you,’ she said +indignantly.</p> +<p>‘Why not?’</p> +<p>‘Because there’s another left!’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>Anne went forward to the miller to avoid replying, and Festus +caught her no more.</p> +<p>‘Has anybody been hanging about Overcombe Mill except +Loveday’s son the soldier?’ he asked of a +comrade.</p> +<p>‘His son the sailor,’ was the reply.</p> +<p>‘O—his son the sailor,’ said Festus +slowly. ‘Damn his son the sailor!’</p> +<h2>XXII. THE TWO HOUSEHOLDS UNITED</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What art perusing, Bob, with such a long +face?’</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<p>‘“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.”’</p> +<p>Here Anne sighed, but contrived to keep down her sigh to a +mere nothing.</p> +<p>‘Beautiful language, isn’t it!’ said +Bob. ‘I was never greeted like that afore!’</p> +<p>‘Yes; I have often thought it very excellent language +myself,’ said Mrs. Loveday.</p> +<p>‘Come to that, the old gentleman will greet thee like it +again any day for a couple of guineas,’ said the +miller.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I wouldn’t set my mind so much upon her, if I was +thee,’ said his father at last.</p> +<p>‘Why not?’</p> +<p>‘Well, folk might call thee a fool, and say thy brains +were turning to water.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘Take it careless, my son,’ said the miller, +‘and lay yourself out to enjoy snacks and +cordials.’</p> +<p>‘Ah—that’s a thought!’ said Bob.</p> +<p>‘Baccy is good for’t. So is sperrits. +Though I don’t advise thee to drink neat.’</p> +<p>‘Baccy—I’d almost forgot it!’ said +Captain Loveday.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The miller drew a breath of relief. ‘Why, +Bob,’ he said, ‘I thought the house was +a-fire!’</p> +<p>‘I’m smoking rather fast to drown my reflections, +father. ’Tis no use to chaw.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Indeed, Captain Loveday!’</p> +<p>‘I am pulling down the division on principle, as we are +now one family. But I really thought the door opened into +your passage.’</p> +<p>‘It don’t matter; I can get another +room.’</p> +<p>‘Not at all. Father wouldn’t let me turn you +out. I’ll close it up again.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘It leads to the mill,’ said Bob. +‘Would you like to go in and see it at work? But +perhaps you have already.’</p> +<p>‘Only into the ground floor.’</p> +<p>‘Come all over it. I am practising as grinder, you +know, to help my father.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She looked all over the table; nothing was there save the +ordinary remnants.</p> +<p>‘O I don’t mean that it is here; it is out by the +bridge at the mill-head.’</p> +<p>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 +Æolian 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.</p> +<p>‘I made it on purpose for you, Miss Garland,’ he +said.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘How came you to think of making such a peculiar +thing?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘On second thoughts,’ said Anne, ‘I should +like it to remain a little longer, because it sets me +thinking.’</p> +<p>‘Of me?’ he asked with earnest frankness.</p> +<p>Anne’s colour rose fast.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘It wanted doing, certainly,’ she said, in a +neutral tone.</p> +<p>‘It is just about troublesome.’</p> +<p>‘Yes; you can’t quite reach up. That’s +because you are not very tall; is it not, Captain +Loveday?’</p> +<p>‘You never used to say things like that.’</p> +<p>‘O, I don’t mean that you are much less than +tall! Shall I hold the paint for you, to save your stepping +down?’</p> +<p>‘Thank you, if you would.’</p> +<p>She took the paint-pot, and stood looking at the brush as it +moved up and down in his hand.</p> +<p>‘I hope I shall not sprinkle your fingers,’ he +observed as he dipped.</p> +<p>‘O, that would not matter! You do it very +well.’</p> +<p>‘I am glad to hear that you think so.’</p> +<p>‘But perhaps not quite so much art is demanded to paint +a summer-house as to paint a picture?’</p> +<p>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—</p> +<p>‘You did not use to talk like that to me.’</p> +<p>‘I was perhaps too young then to take any pleasure in +giving pain,’ she observed daringly.</p> +<p>‘Does it give you pleasure?’</p> +<p>Anne nodded.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘I ask your pardon for that.’</p> +<p>‘I didn’t say I meant you—though I did mean +you.’</p> +<p>Bob looked and looked at her side face till he was bewitched +into putting down his brush.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Very pretty!’ she said, laughing. +‘And only six weeks since Miss Johnson left.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Anne retorted quickly—</p> +<p>‘I am willing, off and on, to believe you, Captain +Robert. But I don’t see any good in your making these +solemn declarations.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Not a word of any promise will I repeat.’</p> +<p>‘Well, well, I won’t urge ’ee to-day. +Only let me beg of you to get over the quite wrong notion you +have of me; and it shall be my whole endeavour to fetch your +gracious favour.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I have finished painting the summer-house for +you,’ he said through the door.</p> +<p>‘I cannot come to see it. I shall be engaged till +supper-time.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Bob made his forehead express despair.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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 <i>bad opinion</i> of +you—yes, a <i>bad opinion</i>.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XXIII. MILITARY PREPARATIONS ON AN EXTENDED SCALE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>Mrs. Loveday turned, observed that Anne was gone, and said, +‘What is it?’ as if she did not know.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘But you must treat her politely, sir,’ said Mrs. +Loveday, secretly pleased at these signs of uncontrollable +affection.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘But you will stay till the rain is over, +sir?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘O no,’ said she. ‘I only want to be +allowed to stand here a few minutes.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Bob,’ she said, when she saw him move, +‘remember that you are at work, and have no time to stand +close to me.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘On my honour, ’tis only to ask a question. +Will you walk with me to church next Sunday afternoon?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Then walk behind me not at all close,’ she +said.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ he replied, immediately dropping +behind.</p> +<p>The ludicrous humility of his manner led her to add playfully +over her shoulder, ‘It serves you right, you +know.’</p> +<p>‘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 <i>always</i> +behind?’</p> +<p>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—’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>ADDRESS TO ALL RANKS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF +ENGLISHMEN.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Friends and Countrymen</span>,—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Associated Volunteers bearing Arms</i>, <i>as +Pioneers and Labourers</i>, or as <i>Drivers of Waggons</i>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>As Pioneers or Labourers you will be employed in Breaking up +Roads to hinder the Enemy’s advance.</p> +<p>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. . . +.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Rouse</span>, 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. <a name="citation207"></a><a +href="#footnote207" class="citation">[207]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘I must go and join at once!’ said Bob.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Where we are would be Paradise to me, if you would only +make it so.’</p> +<p>‘It is not right to talk so lightly at such a serious +time,’ she thoughtfully returned, going on towards the +church.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Look at ye now! Why, you are all a crooking +in! Dress, dress!’</p> +<p>They dressed forthwith; but impelled by the same motive they +soon resumed their former figure, and so they were despairingly +permitted to remain.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘So we be, so we be,’ said the line heartily.</p> +<p>‘’Tention, the whole, then. Poise +fawlocks! Very well done!’</p> +<p>‘Please, what must we do that haven’t got no +firelocks!’ said the lower end of the line in a helpless +voice.</p> +<p>‘Now, was ever such a question! Why, you must do +nothing at all, but think <i>how</i> you’d poise ’em +<i>if</i> 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 <i>little</i> too soon, and the rest a +<i>little</i> too late.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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 <i>Prime</i>, 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 <i>Hand your katridge</i>, 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?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Ask yer pardon, sergeant; but what must we infantry of +the awkward squad do if Boney comes afore we get our +firelocks?’</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>Some wheeled to the right and some to the left, and some +obliging men, including Cripplestraw, tried to wheel both +ways.</p> +<p>‘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.’ <a +name="citation211"></a><a href="#footnote211" +class="citation">[211]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘There is the same chance for him as for the +others,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘Yes—yes—the same chance, such as it +is. You have never liked John since that affair of Matilda +Johnson, have you?’</p> +<p>‘Why?’ she quickly asked.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Yes.’</p> +<p>‘That he got her to go away?’</p> +<p>She looked at Bob with surprise. He was not exasperated +with John, and yet he knew so much as this.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ she said; ‘what did it +mean?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Then <i>that’s</i> the meaning of the split +between Miss Nancy and Jack,’ said the miller.</p> +<p>‘What, were they any more than common friends?’ +asked Bob uneasily.</p> +<p>‘Not on her side, perhaps.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<h2>XXIV. A LETTER, A VISITOR, AND A TIN BOX</h2> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘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.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Exonbury Barracks,’ Bob faltered, his countenance +sinking.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I cannot go,’ she said, not liking the risk that +such a visit involved.</p> +<p>An hour later Cripplestraw shambled again into the passage, on +the same errand.</p> +<p>‘Maister’s very poorly, and he hopes that +you’ll come, Mis’ess Anne. He wants to see +’ee very particular about the French.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I believe the old gentleman is in love with you, +Anne,’ said her mother.</p> +<p>‘Why couldn’t he drive down himself to see +me?’ Anne inquired of Cripplestraw.</p> +<p>‘He wants you at the house, please.’</p> +<p>‘Is Mr. Festus with him?’</p> +<p>‘No; he’s away to Budmouth.’</p> +<p>‘I’ll go,’ said she.</p> +<p>‘And I may come and meet you?’ said Bob.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>He said yes and went out, Cripplestraw retreating to the door +till she should be ready.</p> +<p>‘What letter is it?’ said her mother.</p> +<p>‘Only one to John,’ said Anne. ‘I have +asked him to forgive my suspicions. I could do no +less.’</p> +<p>‘Do you want to marry <i>him</i>?’ asked Mrs. +Loveday bluntly.</p> +<p>‘Mother!’</p> +<p>‘Well; he will take that letter as an +encouragement. Can’t you see that he will, you +foolish girl?’</p> +<p>Anne did see instantly. ‘Of course!’ she +said. ‘Tell Robert that he need not go.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘But she is likely to marry Festus Derriman.’</p> +<p>‘I don’t want her to marry anybody but +John,’ said the miller doggedly.</p> +<p>‘Not if she is in love with Bob, and has been for years, +and he with her?’ asked his wife triumphantly.</p> +<p>‘In love with Bob, and he with her?’ repeated +Loveday.</p> +<p>‘Certainly,’ said she, going off and leaving him +to his reflections.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I am not much pleased to come, even now,’ said +she. ‘What can make you so seriously anxious to see +me?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O, such things as those!’ she returned, with +surprise. ‘I don’t understand those things at +all.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>He led her across the hall to a stone staircase of +semi-circular plan, which conducted to the cellars.</p> +<p>‘Down here?’ she said.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘O no!’ murmured the young woman.</p> +<p>‘I wouldn’t expect ye to keep a close tongue after +such a thing as that. But it will not be +necessary.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Is this all, sir?’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘Just a moment longer, honey. Will you come into +the great parlour?’</p> +<p>She followed him thither.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘What a strange business! I don’t think I +much like it, Mr. Derriman,’ she said, seating herself.</p> +<p>He had by this time begun to write, and murmured as he +wrote—</p> +<p>‘“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.’</p> +<p>‘What does it mean?’ she asked, as she received +the paper.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘No, no,’ she said, much depressed by the words he +had uttered. ‘I can find my way. You need not +trouble to come down.’</p> +<p>‘Then take care of the paper. And if you outlive +me, you’ll find I have not forgot you.’</p> +<h2>XXV. FESTUS SHOWS HIS LOVE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Good afternoon t’ye, ma’am,’ said +Festus, throwing a sword-and-pistol air into his greeting. +‘You are out for a walk?’</p> +<p>‘I <i>am</i> 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.</p> +<p>‘From the town?—I’d swear it, ma’am; +’pon my honour I would!’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I am from the town, sir,’ said she.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘I don’t see that it is such a critical +time?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>The lady smiled. ‘The King is coming this year, +anyhow,’ said she.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Festus surveyed her with interest. ‘Faith! and is +it so? Well, ma’am, what part do you play?’</p> +<p>‘I am mostly the leading lady—the heroine,’ +she said, drawing herself up with dignity.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I must be off. Good-day to ye, dear +creature!’ he exclaimed, hurrying forward.</p> +<p>The lady said, ‘O, you droll monster!’ as she +smiled and watched him stride ahead.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘He is in a swoon!’ she murmured.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’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.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You seem frightened, dearest Anne,’ said Bob +tenderly.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘What’s the matter, Bob?’</p> +<p>‘I haven’t been yet to offer myself as a +sea-fencible, and I ought to have done it long ago.’</p> +<p>‘You are only one. Surely they can do without +you?’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation225"></a><a +href="#footnote225" class="citation">[225]</a></p> +<p>‘It is dreadful!’ said Anne. ‘I +don’t like to see it.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XXVI. THE ALARM</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Who goes there?’ said Corporal Tullidge, +shouldering a pike with his sound arm. ‘O, ’tis +neighbour Loveday!’</p> +<p>‘Did you get your signal to fire it from the +east?’ said the miller hastily.</p> +<p>‘No; from Abbotsea Beach.’</p> +<p>‘But you are not to go by a coast signal!’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘But is he here?’</p> +<p>‘No doubt o’t! The beach light is only just +gone down, and Simon heard the guns even better than +I.’</p> +<p>‘Hark, hark! I hear ’em!’ said +Bob.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What’s the matter?’ he cried to a butcher +who was flying past in his cart, his wife sitting behind him +without a bonnet.</p> +<p>‘The French have landed!’ said the man, without +drawing rein.</p> +<p>‘Where?’ shouted Bob.</p> +<p>‘In West Bay; and all Budmouth is in uproar!’ +replied the voice, now faint in the distance.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘’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.’</p> +<p>‘And I?’ said Bob.</p> +<p>‘Thou’st better run to the church, and take a pike +before they be all gone.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Bother it all!’ he exclaimed, looking at his +stock of flints.</p> +<p>‘What?’ said Bob.</p> +<p>‘I’ve got no ammunition: not a blessed +round!’</p> +<p>‘Then what’s the use of going?’ asked his +son.</p> +<p>The miller paused. ‘O, I’ll go,’ he +said. ‘Perhaps somebody will lend me a little if I +get into a hot corner?’</p> +<p>‘Lend ye a little! Father, you was always so +simple!’ said Bob reproachfully.</p> +<p>‘Well—I can bagnet a few, anyhow,’ said the +miller.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘O no, sir; O no!’</p> +<p>‘But sometimes there are false alarms?’</p> +<p>‘Well, sir, yes. There was a pretended sally +o’ gunboats last year.’</p> +<p>‘And was there nothing else pretended—something +more like this, for instance?’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>He slowly mounted, and Uncle Benjy, in the meantime, sang to +himself as he looked on, ‘<i>Twen-ty-three and half from +N.W.</i> <i>Six-teen and three-quar-ters from +N.E.</i>’</p> +<p>‘What’s that old mummy singing?’ said Festus +savagely.</p> +<p>‘Only a hymn for preservation from our enemies, dear +nephew,’ meekly replied the farmer, who had heard the +remark. ‘<i>Twen-ty-three and half from +N.W</i>.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘A woman, sir?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘It is something like that.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I will, Cripplestraw, now you put it like +that!’</p> +<p>‘Thank ye, thank ye heartily, Maister Derriman. Go +now and hide with her.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘’Tis true, Cripplestraw, in a sense. But +will it be understood that way? Will they see it as a brave +hiding?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>Cripplestraw opened the hurdle which closed the arch under the +portico gateway, and Festus passed under, Uncle Benjamin singing, +<i>Twen-ty-three and a half from N.W.</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Well, granny, have ye seen the French?’ asked +Festus.</p> +<p>‘No,’ she said, looking up at him through her +brazen spectacles. ‘If I had I shouldn’t +ha’ seed thee!’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘It ist false report!’ said the officer.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>‘Well said, Derriman, well said!’ replied the +foremost of the riders. ‘Have you heard anything +new?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O Lord!’ said Noakes, with a slight falling of +the lower jaw.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘I’ll take three frog-eating Frenchmen +single-handed!’ rejoined Derriman, still flourishing his +sword.</p> +<p>‘They have as good swords as you; as you will soon +find,’ said another of the yeomen.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘I am afraid not,’ said Brownjohn gloomily.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘I suppose so.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘I suppose not.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘I shall be bayoneted first,’ said Festus. +‘Now let’s rally, and on!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XXVII. DANGER TO ANNE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Anne looked as if she doubted the news.</p> +<p>‘Come,’ said Festus.</p> +<p>‘No, I cannot let you in,’ she murmured, after a +pause.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Why do you wish it?’ she said faintly.</p> +<p>‘I have told you I want to sit down; and I want to ask +you a question.’</p> +<p>‘You can ask me from where you are.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>There was no sign on the down of anybody’s return, and +she said, ‘I’ll think of it, sir.’</p> +<p>‘You have thought of it long enough; I want to +know. Will you or won’t you?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘Thank you, I don’t value it,’ said +Anne.</p> +<p>‘Because you hate him who would make it +yours?’</p> +<p>‘It may not lie in your power to do that.’</p> +<p>‘What—has the old fellow been telling you his +affairs?’</p> +<p>‘No.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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—</p> +<p>‘Are you going to unfasten it?’</p> +<p>Anne did not speak.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>He ran off, and was lost to her view.</p> +<h2>XXVIII. ANNE DOES WONDERS</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Are you hurt?’ he said hastily, having turned +quite pale at seeing her fall.</p> +<p>‘O no; not a bit,’ said Anne, gathering herself up +with forced briskness, to make light of the misadventure.</p> +<p>‘But how did you get in such a place?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘But how did you come upon his back, and whose horse is +it?’</p> +<p>‘I will tell you.’</p> +<p>‘Well?’</p> +<p>‘I—cannot tell you.’</p> +<p>John looked steadily at her, saying nothing.</p> +<p>‘How did you come here?’ she asked. +‘Is it true that the French have not landed at +all?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Again he asked himself, what did it all mean?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Anne was just becoming conscious.</p> +<p>‘O, Mr. Derriman, never, never!’ she murmured, +sweeping her face with her hand.</p> +<p>‘I thought he was at the bottom of it,’ said +John.</p> +<p>Anne opened her eyes, and started back from him. +‘What is it?’ she said wildly.</p> +<p>‘You are ill, my dear Miss Garland,’ replied John +in trembling anxiety, and taking her hand.</p> +<p>‘I am not ill, I am wearied out!’ she said. +‘Can’t we walk on? How far are we from +Overcombe?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, appeal to him, do! Perhaps he will be better +then.’</p> +<p>They walked on together, Loveday seeming to experience much +quiet bliss.</p> +<p>‘I came to look for you,’ he said, ‘because +of that dear, sweet letter you wrote.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Ah, you are going back to get into some danger on my +account?’</p> +<p>‘I can’t get into much danger with such a fellow +as he, can I?’ said John, smiling.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘No, nunc. What made ye think that?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Bless your dear old heart for being so anxious! +And what pretty picture were you drawing just now with your +walking-stick!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Or the place where something is hid away—money, +for instance?’</p> +<p>‘Festy,’ said the farmer reproachfully, ‘you +always know I use the old glove in the bedroom cupboard for any +guinea or two I possess.’</p> +<p>‘Of course I do,’ said Festus ironically.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘No, Mr. Loveday, sir—yes, I mean, I +do.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘A good Providence has watched over us,’ said Mrs. +Loveday cheerfully. ‘Yes, in all times and places we +are in God’s hand.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘There’s none,’ said David, coming forward +with a drawn face.</p> +<p>‘What!’ said the miller.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘But you shouldn’t have done it till you was sure +he’d come!’ said the miller, aghast.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XXIX. A DISSEMBLER</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Jack,’ said the sailor ingenuously, +‘I’m terribly sorry that I’ve done +wrong.’</p> +<p>‘How?’ asked his brother.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O, I see your mistake!’ said John, laughing +forcedly.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>When they had passed by John continued, ‘I <i>am</i> in +love, Bob; but—not with Anne.’</p> +<p>‘Ah! who is it then?’ said the mate hopefully.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O, one of the actresses!’ said Bob, with open +mouth.</p> +<p>‘But don’t you say anything about it!’ +continued the trumpet-major heartily. ‘I don’t +want it known.’</p> +<p>‘No, no—I won’t, of course. May I not +know her name?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You have been a long time coming, sir,’ said she, +in sprightly tones of reproach.</p> +<p>‘Yes, dearest; and you’ll be glad to hear +why. I’ve found out the whole +mystery—yes—why he’s queer, and +everything.’</p> +<p>Anne looked startled.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘We help him?’ she asked faintly.</p> +<p>‘He’s lost his heart to one of the play-actresses +at Budmouth, and I think she slights him.’</p> +<p>‘O, I am so glad!’ she exclaimed.</p> +<p>‘Glad that his venture don’t prosper?’</p> +<p>‘O no; glad he’s so sensible. How long is it +since that alarm of the French?’</p> +<p>‘Six weeks, honey. Why do you ask?’</p> +<p>‘Men can forget in six weeks, can’t they, +Bob?’</p> +<p>The impression that John had really kissed her still +remained.</p> +<p>‘Well, some men might,’ observed Bob +judicially. ‘<i>I</i> couldn’t. Perhaps +John might. I couldn’t forget <i>you</i> 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.’</p> +<p>‘Did he say he didn’t?’</p> +<p>‘Yes. He assured me himself that the only person +in the hold of his heart was this lovely play-actress, and nobody +else.’</p> +<p>‘How I should like to see her!’</p> +<p>‘Yes. So should I.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I don’t know so much as her name. He is +very close, and wouldn’t tell a thing about her.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Yes, Bob; I should very well like to go to the +theatre,’ he replied heartily. ‘Who is going +besides?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes. I wonder you didn’t propose to +take us before, Jack, and let us have a good look at +her.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘We’ll be content with guessing,’ said his +brother.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘It must be because his suit don’t fay,’ +said Captain Bob.</p> +<h2>XXX. AT THE THEATRE ROYAL</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Is your master here?’ said John.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘O! where is he now?’</p> +<p>‘Never mind,’ said Anne impatiently, at which the +trumpet-major obediently moved on.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Portland Road the King aboard, the King +aboard!<br /> +Portland Road the King aboard,<br /> +We weighed and sailed from Portland Road!’ <a +name="citation272"></a><a href="#footnote272" +class="citation">[272]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘This must be the one,’ whispered Anne +quickly. ‘See, he is agitated!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What is it?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>One thought rushed into both their minds on the instant, and +Bob was the first to utter it.</p> +<p>‘What—is she the woman of his choice after +all?’</p> +<p>‘If so, it is a dreadful thing!’ murmured +Anne.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘No, I would rather not.’</p> +<p>‘Shall we go home, then?’</p> +<p>‘Not unless her presence is too much for you?’</p> +<p>‘O—not at all. We’ll stay here. +Ah, there she is again.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Bob, I’ll go home if you wish to,’ said +Anne quickly.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What boat is that?’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘How I love them!’ she said, treading the initial +step of her walk onwards with a vehemence that walking did not +demand.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘You—who are you?’ she asked.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘In a queer way?’</p> +<p>‘Well, as if you hated them.’</p> +<p>‘I don’t mind your knowing that I have good reason +to hate them. You do too, it seems?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Yes. Our boatmen dread ’em.’</p> +<p>‘Well, we have only to tell him that Loveday is a seaman +to be clear of him this very night.’</p> +<p>‘Done!’ said Festus. ‘Take my arm and +come this way.’ They walked across to the +footway. ‘Fine night, sergeant.’</p> +<p>‘It is, sir.’</p> +<p>‘Looking for hands, I suppose?’</p> +<p>‘It is not to be known, sir. We don’t begin +till half past ten.’</p> +<p>‘It is a pity you don’t begin now. I could +show ’ee excellent game.’</p> +<p>‘What, that little nest of fellows at the “Old +Rooms” in Cove Row? I have just heard of +’em.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘That buck in pantaloons and half-boots—a looking +like a squire?’</p> +<p>‘Twelve months ago he was mate of the brig Pewit; but +his father has made money, and keeps him at home.’</p> +<p>‘Faith, now you tell of it, there’s a hint of sea +legs about him. What’s the young beau’s +name?’</p> +<p>‘Don’t tell!’ whispered Matilda, impulsively +clutching Festus’s arm.</p> +<p>But Festus had already said, ‘Robert Loveday, son of the +miller at Overcombe. You may find several likely fellows in +that neighbourhood.’</p> +<p>The marine said that he would bear it in mind, and they left +him.</p> +<p>‘I wish you had not told,’ said Matilda +tearfully. ‘She’s the worst!’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>Matilda’s acrimony returned. ‘I was down on +my luck, or he wouldn’t have had the chance!’ she +said.</p> +<p>‘Well, then, let things be.’</p> +<h2>XXXI. MIDNIGHT VISITORS</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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).</p> +<p>‘The Black Diamond?’ said Bob; and Anne turned +pale.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Bob reflected. ‘Then there’ll be a press +to-night; depend upon it,’ he said.</p> +<p>‘They won’t know you, will they, Bob?’ said +Anne anxiously.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘They can’t make you go, now you are a gentleman +tradesman, can they?’ she asked.</p> +<p>‘If they want me they can have me, dearest. I have +often said I ought to volunteer.’</p> +<p>‘And not care about me at all?’</p> +<p>‘It is just that that keeps me at home. I +won’t leave you if I can help it.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I am not sure that we are in the right place,’ he +said.</p> +<p>‘This is a mill, anyhow,’ said another.</p> +<p>‘There’s lots about here.’</p> +<p>‘Then come this way a moment with your light.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘“Loveday and Son, Overcombe Mill,”’ +continued the man, reading from the waggon. +‘“Son,” you see, is lately painted in. +That’s our man.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Bob, dear Bob!’ she said, through the +keyhole. ‘Put out your light, and run out of the +back-door!’</p> +<p>‘Why?’ said Bob, leisurely knocking the ashes from +the pipe he had been smoking.</p> +<p>‘The press-gang!’</p> +<p>‘They have come? By God! who can have blown upon +me? All right, dearest. I’m game.’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘This gentleman can’t be the right one,’ +observed a marine, rather impressed by Bob’s +appearance.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Where are you going to take me?’ said Bob.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Bob’s temper began to rise. ‘Don’t you +talk so large, about your pinioning, my man. When +I’ve settled—’</p> +<p>‘Now or never, young blow-hard,’ interrupted his +informant.</p> +<p>‘Come, what jabber is this going on?’ said the +lieutenant, stepping forward. ‘Bring your +man.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Here he is!’ shouted several below who had seen +Bob’s figure flying like a raven’s across the +sky.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘He’s here, he’s here!’ the men +exclaimed, running back from the tree.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Perhaps he’s buried himself in the +corn.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Your son is a clever fellow, miller,’ said the +lieutenant; ‘but it would have been much better for him if +he had come quiet.’</p> +<p>‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ said +Loveday.</p> +<p>‘I have no doubt that he’s in the +house.’</p> +<p>‘He may be; and he may not.’</p> +<p>‘Do you know where he is?’</p> +<p>‘I do not; and if I did I shouldn’t +tell.’</p> +<p>‘Naturally.’</p> +<p>‘I heard steps beating up the road, sir,’ said the +sergeant.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘We are on the track,’ cried the sergeant, +deciding for this direction.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What do you want?’ she said, showing her +frightened face.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XXXII. DELIVERANCE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What clothes has he got on?’ said the miller.</p> +<p>‘His lovely new suit,’ said his wife. +‘I warrant it is quite spoiled!’</p> +<p>‘He’s got no hat,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Has the press-gang been here?’ she gasped. +‘If not they are coming!’</p> +<p>‘They have been.’</p> +<p>‘And got him—I am too late!’</p> +<p>‘No; they are coming back again. Why did +you—’</p> +<p>‘I came to try to save him. Can we save him? +Where is he?’</p> +<p>Anne looked the woman in the face, and it was impossible to +doubt that she was in earnest.</p> +<p>‘I don’t know,’ she answered. ‘I +am trying to find him before they come.’</p> +<p>‘Will you not let me help you?’ cried the +repentant Matilda.</p> +<p>Without either objecting or assenting Anne turned and led the +way to the back part of the homestead.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘You needn’t mind me,’ said Matilda +bitterly. ‘I am on your side now. Shake him +again.’</p> +<p>Anne shook him again, but he slept on. Then she noticed +that his forehead bore the mark of a heavy wound.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>Matilda did not reply, but running to the end of the seat on +which Bob lay, tried its weight in her arms.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘We will go down inside this field,’ said Anne +faintly.</p> +<p>‘No!’ said the other; ‘they will see our +foot-tracks in the dew. We must go into the +road.’</p> +<p>‘It is the very road they will come down when they leave +the mill.’</p> +<p>‘It cannot be helped; it is neck or nothing with us +now.’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘When we get to that little field of corn,’ said +Anne.</p> +<p>‘It is so very far. Surely there is some place +near?’</p> +<p>She pointed to a few scrubby bushes overhanging a little +stream, which passed under the road near this point.</p> +<p>‘They are not thick enough,’ said Anne.</p> +<p>‘Let us take him under the bridge,’ said +Matilda. ‘I can go no further.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘If they look under the arch we are lost,’ +murmured Anne.</p> +<p>‘There is no parapet to the bridge, and they may pass +over without heeding.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Matilda broke the silence. ‘I wonder if they have +left a watch behind?’ she said doubtfully.</p> +<p>‘I will go and see,’ said Anne. ‘Wait +till I return.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Anne regarded the speaker for a moment, and promised; after +which she waded out from the archway.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘How can you!’ cried Anne reproachfully. +When leaving the mouth of the arch she had bent back and seen the +act.</p> +<p>Matilda flushed. ‘You jealous baby!’ she +said scornfully.</p> +<p>Anne hesitated for a moment, then went out from the water, and +hastened towards the mill.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Are they all gone?’ said Anne softly.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You are all right, my boy!’ said his +father. ‘What hev happened to ye? Where did ye +get that terrible blow?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I wondered who had picked ’em!’ said +Molly. ‘I noticed they were gone.’</p> +<p>‘Why, you might never have woke again!’ said Mrs. +Loveday, holding up her hands. ‘How is your head +now?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘You are at home, dear Bob,’ said Anne, bending +over him, ‘and the men are gone.’</p> +<p>‘Come along upstairs: th’ beest hardly awake +now,’ said his father and Bob was assisted to bed.</p> +<h2>XXXIII. A DISCOVERY TURNS THE SCALE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ Bob would say uneasily. ‘It +will trouble him, I know.’</p> +<p>Being also quite aware how it would trouble her, he would +again postpone, and thus another week passed away.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Why, this,’ he said, smacking his +breast-pocket. ‘A lock of hair that Matilda gave +me.’</p> +<p>Anne sank back with parted lips.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Will you see her to-day, Bob?’ Anne asked with an +uncertain smile.</p> +<p>‘O no—unless it is by accident.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Thank you, Bob; what is it?’ said John, looking +absently at an awkward squad of young men who were drilling in +the enclosure.</p> +<p>‘’Tis a young woman’s lock of +hair.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Black!’ said John.</p> +<p>‘Yes—black enough.’</p> +<p>‘Whose?’</p> +<p>‘Why, Matilda’s.’</p> +<p>‘O, Matilda’s!’</p> +<p>‘Whose did you think then?’</p> +<p>Instead of replying, the trumpet-major’s face became as +red as sunset, and he turned to the window to hide his +confusion.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘O no—that’s nothing,’ said John +hastily.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘What does it matter?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation303"></a><a +href="#footnote303" class="citation">[303]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Captain Hardy,’ replied a bystander.</p> +<p>‘What of him?’</p> +<p>‘Just gone in—waiting to see the King.’</p> +<p>‘But the captain is in the West Indies?’</p> +<p>‘No. The fleet is come home; they can’t find +the French anywhere.’</p> +<p>‘Will they go and look for them again?’ asked +Bob.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘That’s not much to remember. I can remember +it too,’ said Mrs. Loveday.</p> +<p>‘’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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Will the captain allow me to wait on him +to-night?’ inquired Loveday, explaining who and what he +was.</p> +<p>The servant went away for a few minutes, and then told Bob +that he might see the captain in the morning.</p> +<p>‘If that’s the case, I’ll come again,’ +replied Bob, quite cheerful that failure was not absolute.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Loveday replied modestly that he had done so.</p> +<p>‘Then will you come in?’ He followed the +speaker into a small study or office, and in a minute or two +Captain Hardy entered.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Robert Loveday, sir, son of the miller at +Overcombe,’ said Bob, making a low bow.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Quite well, thank ’ee.’</p> +<p>‘You used to have a brother in the army, I think? +What was his name—John? A very fine fellow, if I +recollect.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, cap’n; he’s there still.’</p> +<p>‘And you are in the merchant-service?’</p> +<p>‘Late first mate of the brig Pewit.’</p> +<p>‘How is it you’re not on board a +man-of-war?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘He painted that view of our village here,’ said +Captain Hardy, looking towards a dark little picture in the +corner of the room.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘There has been a severe impressment. It is of +course a disagreeable necessity, but it can’t be +helped.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Captain Hardy took Bob’s altitude more carefully. +‘Are you a good practical seaman?’ he asked +musingly.</p> +<p>‘Ay, sir; I believe I am.’</p> +<p>‘Active? Fond of skylarking?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘My thanks to you, sir,’ said Loveday.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Sir, I quite see it.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>They were all sitting up for him, and at his approach +anxiously raised their sleepy eyes, for it was nearly eleven +o’clock.</p> +<p>‘There; I knew he’d not be much longer!’ +cried Anne, jumping up and laughing, in her relief. +‘They have been thinking you were very strange and silent +to-day, Bob; you were not, were you?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘He’s in his mate’s clothes, just as when he +came home!’ observed Mrs. Loveday.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘Going?’ said Anne faintly.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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 <i>must +go</i>. 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.’</p> +<p>‘Captain Hardy?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Bob then opened his tale in order, relating graphically the +conversation to which he had been a party, and they listened with +breathless attention.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘That’s just the shape of it, Mrs. Loveday,’ +said Bob.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘When be you going, Bob?’ his father inquired.</p> +<p>‘To-morrow, if I can. I shall call at the barracks +and tell John as I go by. When I get to +Portsmouth—’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘She is not coming back to-night,’ he said.</p> +<p>‘You will see her to-morrow before you go?’ said +her mother.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XXXIV. A SPECK ON THE SEA</h2> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘There are two things,’ she said, with almost +childish eagerness in her tired eyes.</p> +<p>‘They shall be done.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You look tired, John,’ said his father.</p> +<p>‘O no.’ He went through the house till he +had found Anne Garland.</p> +<p>‘I have only done one of those things,’ he said to +her.</p> +<p>‘What, already! I didn’t hope for or mean +to-day.’</p> +<p>‘Captain Hardy is gone from Pos’ham. He left +some days ago. We shall soon hear that the fleet has +sailed.’</p> +<p>‘You have been all the way to Pos’ham on +purpose? How good of you!’</p> +<p>‘Well, I was anxious to know myself when Bob is likely +to leave. I expect now that we shall soon hear from +him.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Then he’s aboard her,’ said Anne, as she +eagerly took the letter.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What do you see, sailor?’ she asked.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Why,’ she said quickly.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Shall I look for you?’ said Anne, after a +pause.</p> +<p>‘Certainly, mis’ess, if so be you +please.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘I guessed as much.’</p> +<p>‘There is a little flag in front—over her +bowsprit.’</p> +<p>‘The jack.’</p> +<p>‘And there’s a large one flying at her +stern.’</p> +<p>‘The ensign.’</p> +<p>‘And a white one on her fore-topmast.’</p> +<p>‘That’s the admiral’s flag, the flag of my +Lord Nelson. What is her figure-head, my dear?’</p> +<p>‘A coat-of-arms, supported on this side by a +sailor.’</p> +<p>Her companion nodded with satisfaction. ‘On the +other side of that figure-head is a marine.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘And now I can see the other side; it is a soldier where +a sailor was before. You are <i>sure</i> it is the +Victory?’</p> +<p>‘I am sure.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>Anne’s tender bosom heaved, but she said nothing, and +again became absorbed in contemplation.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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—”’</p> +<p>‘“These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders +in the deep,”’ was returned by a man’s voice +from behind her.</p> +<p>Looking round quickly, she saw a soldier standing there; and +the grave eyes of John Loveday bent on her.</p> +<p>‘’Tis what I was thinking,’ she said, trying +to be composed.</p> +<p>‘You were saying it,’ he answered gently.</p> +<p>‘Was I?—I did not know it. . . . How came +you here?’ she presently added.</p> +<p>‘I have been behind you a good while; but you never +turned round.’</p> +<p>‘I was deeply occupied,’ she said in an +undertone.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘His coffin!’ said Anne, turning deadly +pale. ‘Something terrible, then, is meant by +that! O, why <i>would</i> Bob go in that ship? doomed to +destruction from the very beginning like this!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What, what, crying?’ his Majesty inquired +kindly. ‘How is this!’</p> +<p>‘I—have seen a dear friend go away, sir,’ +she faltered, with downcast eyes.</p> +<p>‘Ah—partings are sad—very sad—for us +all. You must hope your friend will return soon. +Where is he or she gone?’</p> +<p>‘I don’t know, your Majesty.’</p> +<p>‘Don’t know—how is that?’</p> +<p>‘He is a sailor on board the Victory.’</p> +<p>‘Then he has reason to be proud,’ said the King +with interest. ‘He is your brother?’</p> +<p>Anne tried to explain what he was, but could not, and blushed +with painful heat.</p> +<p>‘Well, well, well; what is his name?’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘Loveday—a good name. I shall not forget +it. Now dry your cheeks, and don’t cry any +more. Loveday—Robert Loveday.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XXXV. A SAILOR ENTERS</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I’m from aboard the Victory,’ said the +sailor. ‘My name’s Jim Cornick. And your +lad is alive and well.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I’ve come from Spithead to Pos’ham,’ +the sailor continued, ‘and now I am going on to father at +Budmouth.’</p> +<p>‘Ah!—I know your father,’ cried the +trumpet-major, ‘old James Cornick.’</p> +<p>It was the man who had brought Anne in his lerret from +Portland Bill.</p> +<p>‘And Bob hasn’t got a scratch?’ said the +miller.</p> +<p>‘Not a scratch,’ said Cornick.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘We heard afore that the Victory was near knocked to +pieces,’ said the miller.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘We rather expected a letter from Bob before +this.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Ah!’ said Mrs. Loveday, in a warning tone.</p> +<p>‘Courting—wife?’ said the miller.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Do you speak of Robert Loveday as courting a +wife?’ she asked, without the least betrayal of +emotion.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Not in the least,’ she said, with a stage +laugh. ‘I am interested, naturally. And what is +she?’</p> +<p>‘A very nice young master-baker’s daughter, +honey. A very wise choice of the young +man’s.’</p> +<p>‘Is she fair or dark?’</p> +<p>‘Her hair is rather light.’</p> +<p>‘I like light hair; and her name?’</p> +<p>‘Her name is Caroline. But can it be that my story +hurts ye? If so—’</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes,’ said John, interposing +anxiously. ‘We don’t care for more just at this +moment.’</p> +<p>‘We <i>do</i> care for more!’ said Anne +vehemently. ‘Tell it all, sailor. That is a +very pretty name, Caroline. When are they going to be +married?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Shall we go dance the round, the round, the +round,<br /> + Shall we go dance the round?’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘Your sister is lively at the news,’ observed Jim +Cornick.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ murmured John gloomily, as he gnawed his +lower lip and kept his eyes fixed on the fire.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Did I hear a noise when I went out?’ asked the +elder, in a tone of misgiving.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>John continued looking at the red coals, till hearing Mrs. +Loveday’s foot on the staircase, he went to meet her.</p> +<p>‘She is better,’ said Mrs. Loveday; ‘but she +won’t come down again to-day.’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<h2>XXXVI. DERRIMAN SEES CHANCES</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Bob Loveday going to be married?’ repeated +Festus.</p> +<p>‘You all seem struck of a heap wi’ +that.’</p> +<p>‘No; I never heard news that pleased me more.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Thank you, Mr. Derriman,’ said the mother +placably. ‘But she is ill at present. +I’ll mention it to her when she is better.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Mrs. Loveday replied that that was very plain speaking.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Then it was very unmannerly of him to trifle with her +so,’ said Mrs. Loveday warmly. ‘Who did he give +her up to?’</p> +<p>Festus replied with hesitation, ‘He gave her up to +John.’</p> +<p>‘To John? How could he give her up to a man +already over head and ears in love with that actress +woman?’</p> +<p>‘O? You surprise me. Which actress is +it?’</p> +<p>‘That Miss Johnson. Anne tells me that he loves +her hopelessly.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Derriman!’ he shouted.</p> +<p>Festus started and looked round. ‘Well, +trumpet-major,’ he said blandly.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘<i>You</i> pull my ears? How can you tell that +lie, when you know ’twas somebody else pulled +’em?’</p> +<p>‘O no, no. I pulled your ears, and thrashed you in +a mild way.’</p> +<p>‘You’ll swear to it? Surely ’twas +another man?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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 +<i>’twas</i> you, I wouldn’t have insulted you by +denying it.’</p> +<p>‘That was why you didn’t challenge me, +then?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘We must, I suppose,’ said John, smiling +grimly. ‘Who did you think I was, then, that night +when I boxed you all round?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘As you wish,’ said the trumpet-major +loftily. ‘But if you ever <i>should</i> think you +knew it was me, why, you know where to find me?’ And +Loveday walked away.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.”’</p> +<p>‘Cr-r-ripplestraw! I have been wounded to the +heart,’ replied Derriman, with a lurid brow.</p> +<p>‘And the man yet lives, and you wants yer horse-pistols +instantly? Certainly, Maister F---’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Play-actress, Maister Derriman?’</p> +<p>‘Yes. I saw her this very day, met her by +accident, and spoke to her. She’s still in the +town—perhaps because of him. I can meet her at any +hour of the day— But I don’t mean to marry her; +not I. I will court her for my pastime, and to annoy +him. It will be all the more death to him that I +don’t want her. Then perhaps he will say to me, +“You have taken my one ewe lamb”—meaning that I +am the king, and he’s the poor man, as in the church verse; +and he’ll beg for mercy when ’tis too +late—unless, meanwhile, I shall have tired of my new +toy. Saddle the horse, Cripplestraw, to-morrow at +ten.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Who do you mean?’ In Matilda’s +ever-changing emotional interests, John Loveday was a stale and +unprofitable personality.</p> +<p>‘Why, that trumpet-major man.’</p> +<p>‘O! What of him?’</p> +<p>‘Come; he loves you, and you know it, +ma’am.’</p> +<p>She knew, at any rate, how to take the current when it +served. So she glanced at Festus, folded her lips +meaningly, and nodded.</p> +<p>‘I’ve come to cut him out.’</p> +<p>She shook her head, it being unsafe to speak till she knew a +little more of the subject.</p> +<p>‘What!’ said Festus, reddening, ‘do you mean +to say that you think of him seriously—you, who might look +so much higher?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘We will talk of this,’ said Festus, much +affected. ‘Let us walk to the Look-out.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘Halves, then?’ said Matilda tenderly.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<h2>XXXVII. REACTION</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>An inward excitement had risen in John; but he suppressed it +and said firmly—</p> +<p>‘Fairness to Bob before everything!’</p> +<p>‘He hev forgot her, and there’s an end +on’t.’</p> +<p>‘She’s not forgot him.’</p> +<p>‘Well, well; think it over.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Are you never going to turn round?’ he at length +asked good-humouredly.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘How like summer it is getting to feel, is it +not?’ she said.</p> +<p>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—</p> +<p>‘Have you ever in these last weeks thought of how it +used to be between us?’</p> +<p>She replied quickly, ‘O, John, you shouldn’t begin +that again. I am almost another woman now!’</p> +<p>‘Well, that’s all the more reason why I should, +isn’t it?’</p> +<p>Anne looked thoughtfully to the other end of the garden, +faintly shaking her head; ‘I don’t quite see it like +that,’ she returned.</p> +<p>‘You feel yourself quite free, don’t +you?’</p> +<p>‘<i>Quite</i> 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?’</p> +<p>‘I am not?’</p> +<p>‘Miss Johnson!’</p> +<p>‘O—that woman! You know as well as I that +was all make-up, and that I never for a moment thought of +her.’</p> +<p>‘I had an idea you were acting; but I wasn’t +sure.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘You are generous and good, John,’ she said, as a +big round tear bowled helter-skelter down her face and +hat-strings.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>She lifted her eyes. ‘John, I cannot!’ she +said, with a cheerless smile. ‘Positively I +cannot. Will you make me a promise?’</p> +<p>‘What is it?’</p> +<p>‘I want you to promise first— Yes, it is +dreadfully unreasonable,’ she added, in a mild +distress. ‘But do promise!’</p> +<p>John by this time seemed to have a feeling that it was all up +with him for the present. ‘I promise,’ he said +listlessly.</p> +<p>‘It is that you won’t speak to me about this for +<i>ever</i> so long,’ she returned, with emphatic +kindliness.</p> +<p>‘Very good,’ he replied; ‘very good. +Dear Anne, you don’t think I have been unmanly or unfair in +starting this anew?’</p> +<p>Anne looked into his face without a smile. ‘You +have been perfectly natural,’ she murmured. +‘And so I think have I.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘Thank you, John. You need not have said worry; it +isn’t that.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘Well, that is something,’ he said, smiling. +‘You say I must not speak about it again for ever so long; +how long?’</p> +<p>‘Now that’s not fair,’ Anne retorted, going +down the garden, and leaving him alone.</p> +<p>About a week passed. Then one afternoon the miller +walked up to Anne indoors, a weighty topic being expressed in his +tread.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>Anne innocently inquired what it could be.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Anne shook her head; not in forcible negation, but to imply a +kind of neutrality.</p> +<p>‘Can’t you? Come now,’ said the +miller.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The day was fine, and they went out of doors, where Anne +endeavoured to seat herself on the sloping stone of the +window-sill.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Perhaps I have,’ she said gaily—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘“Do whatever we may for him, dame, we +cannot do too much!<br /> + For he’s one that has guarded our +land.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I want you to go somewhere with me if you will,’ +he said, still holding her hand.</p> +<p>‘Yes? Where is it?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I see little figures of men moving about. What +are they doing?’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Whenever you please,’ said she.</p> +<p>‘John!’ cried Mrs. Loveday from the front +door. ‘Here’s a friend come for you.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In barracks that evening he read the letter again. It +was from Bob; and the agitating contents were these:—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘<span class="smcap">Dear +John</span>,—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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Robert</span>.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XXXVIII. A DELICATE SITUATION</h2> +<p>‘I am ready to go,’ said Anne, as soon as he +arrived.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘O no!—it was only a thought. We will start +at once.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Why don’t he clasp her to his side, like a +man?’ said the biggest and rudest boy.</p> +<p>‘Why don’t he clasp her to his side, like a +man?’ echoed all the rude smaller boys in a chorus.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘They said no harm, poor boys,’ she replied +reproachfully.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What are you staying for, Miss Garland?’ asked +John.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I hope it is right now?’ he said, looking +gingerly over his shoulder.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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—</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘I am very sorry,’ said John, coming towards her +with incredible slowness and an air of unutterable +depression.</p> +<p>‘O, I can do without <i>you</i>. David is +best,’ she returned, as the old man approached and removed +the obnoxious shoes in a trice.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘The shipping news is very full and long to-day, though +the print is rather small.’</p> +<p>‘I take no further interest in the shipping news,’ +she replied with cold dignity.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘No,’ she said at last, ‘I’ll hear no +more! Let me read to you.’</p> +<p>The trumpet-major sat down. Anne turned to the military +news, delivering every detail with much apparent +enthusiasm. ‘That’s the subject <i>I</i> +like!’ she said fervently.</p> +<p>‘But—but Bob is in the navy now, and will most +likely rise to be an officer. And then—’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘No, no! I would rather be interrupted by +<i>you</i> than—O, Miss Garland, excuse me! +I’ll just speak to father in the mill, now I am +here.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Trumpet-major,’ she said, recalling him.</p> +<p>‘Yes?’ he replied timidly.</p> +<p>‘The bow of my cap-ribbon has come untied, has it +not?’ She turned and fixed her bewitching glance upon +him.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She came nearer, and asked, ‘Will you tie it for me, +please?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Your hand shakes—ah! you have been walking +fast,’ she said.</p> +<p>‘Yes—yes.’</p> +<p>‘Have you almost done it?’ She inquiringly +directed her gaze upward through his fingers.</p> +<p>‘No—not yet,’ he faltered in a warm sweat of +emotion, his heart going like a flail.</p> +<p>‘Then be quick, please.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, I will, Miss Garland! B-B-Bob is a very good +fel—’</p> +<p>‘Not that man’s name to me!’ she +interrupted.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘O good God!’ ejaculated the trumpet-major in a +whisper, turning away hastily to the corner-cupboard, and resting +his face upon his hand.</p> +<p>‘What’s the matter, John?’ said she.</p> +<p>‘I can’t do it!’</p> +<p>‘What?’</p> +<p>‘Tie your cap-ribbon.’</p> +<p>‘Why not?’</p> +<p>‘Because you are so—Because I am clumsy, and never +could tie a bow.’</p> +<p>‘You are clumsy indeed,’ answered Anne, and went +away.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Have you heard the news? Matilda Johnson is going +to be married to young Derriman.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘It was kind of you to come,’ she said, with an +inviting smile.</p> +<p>‘It was quite by accident,’ he answered, with an +indifferent laugh. ‘I thought you was at +home.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘A church once stood here,’ observed John in a +matter-of-fact tone.</p> +<p>‘Yes, I have often shaped it out in my mind,’ she +returned. ‘Here where I sit must have been the +altar.’</p> +<p>‘True; this standing bit of wall was the chancel +end.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘Do you know, John, what you once asked me to do?’ +she continued, not accepting the digression, and turning her eyes +upon him.</p> +<p>‘In what sort of way?’</p> +<p>‘In the matter of my future life, and yours.’</p> +<p>‘I am afraid I don’t.’</p> +<p>‘John Loveday!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Well—need I say more? Isn’t it +sufficient?’</p> +<p>‘It would be sufficient,’ answered the unhappy +man. ‘But—’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Fie, John; pretending religion!’ she said +sternly. ‘It isn’t that at all. +<i>It’s Bob</i>!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>As soon as the trumpet-major reached the nearest pen-and-ink +he flung himself into a seat and wrote wildly to Bob:—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘<span class="smcap">Dear +Robert</span>,—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—<i>or she will be +gone</i>! Somebody else wants her, and she wants him! +It is your last chance, in the opinion of—</p> +<p style="text-align: right">‘Your faithful brother and +well-wisher,<br /> +‘<span class="smcap">John</span>.</p> +<p>‘P.S.—Glad to hear of your promotion. Tell +me the day and I’ll meet the coach.’</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>XXXIX. BOB LOVEDAY STRUTS UP AND DOWN</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘You little think what risks you’ve run,’ +said his brother. ‘However, try to make up for lost +time.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘She knows all about it,’ said John seriously.</p> +<p>‘Knows? By George, then, I’m ruined!’ +said Bob, standing stock-still in the road as if he meant to +remain there all night.</p> +<p>‘That’s what I meant by saying it would be a hard +battle for ’ee,’ returned John, with the same +quietness as before.</p> +<p>Bob sighed and moved on. ‘I don’t deserve +that woman!’ he cried passionately, thumping his three +upper ribs with his fist.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Bob shook his head. ‘Officers are scarce; but +I’m afraid my luck won’t carry me so far as +that.’</p> +<p>‘Did she ever tell you that she mentioned your name to +the King?’</p> +<p>The seaman stood still again. ‘Never!’ he +said. ‘How did such a thing as that happen, in +Heaven’s name?’</p> +<p>John described in detail, and they walked on, lost in +conjecture.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Not a word!’</p> +<p>‘What, didn’t I tell ’ee? Ah, no; I +meant to, but I forgot it.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>John soon rose to take his departure.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘He’s a lieutenant, you know, dear,’ said +her mother on the same side; ‘and he’s been +dreadfully wounded.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘I am glad to see you,’ he said contritely; +‘and how do you do?’</p> +<p>‘Very well, thank you.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He repeated the programme on the next afternoon, and on the +next, never saying a word within doors about his doings or his +notice.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘O, it is nothing,’ said Anne indifferently; +‘only that Bob has got his uniform.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>‘No, indeed. As I take no interest in him I shall +not let people come into my room to admire him.’</p> +<p>‘Well, you called me,’ said her mother.</p> +<p>‘It was because I thought you liked fine clothes. +It is what I don’t care for.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I am picking elderberries for your mother,’ said +the lieutenant at last, humbly.</p> +<p>‘So I see.’</p> +<p>‘And I happen to have come to the next bush to +yours.’</p> +<p>‘So I see; but not the reason why.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘I beg pardon,’ he said, when a further swing than +usual had taken him almost in contact with her.</p> +<p>‘Then why do you do it?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I wear gloves.’</p> +<p>‘Ah, that’s a plan I should never have thought +of. Can I help you?’</p> +<p>‘Not at all.’</p> +<p>‘You are offended: that’s what that +means.’</p> +<p>‘No,’ she said.</p> +<p>‘Then will you shake hands?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I wish you to let me go!’</p> +<p>He accordingly did, and she flew back, but did not by any +means fall.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Me, or some other woman!’ retorted Anne +haughtily.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘You didn’t think that when you landed after +Trafalgar.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I can’t believe it, and won’t,’ said +Anne firmly.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘O dear!’ said Anne, with a sudden start away.</p> +<p>‘How nervous you are, child, to be startled by fireworks +so far off,’ said Mrs. Loveday.</p> +<p>‘I never saw rockets before,’ murmured Anne, +recovering from her surprise.</p> +<p>Mrs. Loveday presently spoke again. ‘I wonder what +has become of Bob?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Poor girl, you certainly must have change of scene at +this rate,’ said Mrs. Loveday.</p> +<p>‘I suppose I must,’ murmured the dutiful +daughter.</p> +<p>For some minutes nothing further occurred to disturb +Anne’s serenity. Then a slow, quiet +‘a-hem’ came from the obscurity of the apartment.</p> +<p>‘What, Bob? How long have you been there?’ +inquired Mrs. Loveday.</p> +<p>‘Not long,’ said the lieutenant coolly. +‘I heard you were all here, and crept up quietly, not to +disturb ye.’</p> +<p>‘Why don’t you wear heels to your shoes like +Christian people, and not creep about so like a cat?’</p> +<p>‘Well, it keeps your floors clean to go +slip-shod.’</p> +<p>‘That’s true.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>Anne’s only reply was crying and shaking her head.</p> +<p>‘Let’s make it up. Come, say we have made it +up, dear.’</p> +<p>She withdrew her hand, and still keeping her eyes buried in +her handkerchief, said ‘No.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XL. A CALL ON BUSINESS</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘O, Squire Derriman, you frighten me!’</p> +<p>‘All alone?’ he asked in a whisper.</p> +<p>‘My mother and Mr. Loveday are somewhere about the +house.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘What, obliged to dig it up from the cellar?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘I’ll put it here till I can think of a better +place,’ said Anne, lifting the box. ‘Dear me, +how heavy it is!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>Anne looked at Uncle Benjy. She had known for some time +that she possessed all the affection he had to bestow.</p> +<p>‘Why do you wish that?’ she said simply.</p> +<p>‘Now don’t ye argue with me. Where +d’ye put the coffer?’</p> +<p>‘Here,’ said Anne, going to the window-seat, which +rose as a flap, disclosing a boxed receptacle beneath, as in many +old houses.</p> +<p>‘’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!’</p> +<p>She opened it and found twenty new guineas snugly packed +within.</p> +<p>‘Yes, they are for you. I always meant to do +it!’ he said, sighing again.</p> +<p>‘But you owe me nothing!’ returned Anne, holding +them out.</p> +<p>‘Don’t say it!’ cried Uncle Benjy, covering +his eyes. ‘Put ’em away. . . . Well, if +you <i>don’t</i> 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.’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘I will not,’ said Anne. ‘I wish you +would have them.’</p> +<p>‘No, no,’ said Uncle Benjy, rushing off to escape +their shine. But he had got no further than the passage +when he returned again.</p> +<p>‘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 +<i>exactly</i> as they be, and not spend ’em on any +account. Shall I lock them into my box for ye?’</p> +<p>‘Certainly,’ said she; and the farmer rapidly +unlocked the window-bench, opened the box, and locked them +in.</p> +<p>‘’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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>As they both looked at her, she could no longer keep the +secret.</p> +<p>‘It is my fault,’ she cried; ‘I have driven +him away! What shall I do?’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘For love, I hope,’ said Anne’s mother.</p> +<p>‘For money, I suppose, since he’s so short,’ +said the miller.</p> +<p>‘No,’ said Bob, ‘for <i>spite</i>. 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!”’</p> +<p>‘O!’ said Anne, having approached behind him.</p> +<p>Bob turned and saw her, and at the same moment Mr. and Mrs. +Loveday discreetly retired by the other door.</p> +<p>‘Is it peace?’ he asked tenderly.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘I am yours obedient—in anything,’ cried +Bob. ‘But am I pardoned?’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>It would be superfluous to transcribe Bob’s answer.</p> +<p>Footsteps were heard without.</p> +<p>‘O begad; I forgot!’ said Bob. +‘He’s waiting out there for a light.’</p> +<p>‘Who?’</p> +<p>‘My friend Derriman.’</p> +<p>‘But, Bob, I have to explain.’</p> +<p>But Festus had by this time entered the lobby, and Anne, with +a hasty ‘Get rid of him at once!’ vanished +upstairs.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘What—Uncle Benjy—haw, haw! Here at +this time of night?’</p> +<p>Uncle Benjy’s eyes grew paralyzed, and his mouth opened +and shut like a frog’s in a drought, the action producing +no sound.</p> +<p>‘What have we got here—a tin box—the box of +boxes? Why, I’ll carry it for ’ee, +uncle!—I am going home.’</p> +<p>‘N-no-no, thanky, Festus: it is n-n-not heavy at all, +thanky,’ gasped the squireen.</p> +<p>‘O but I must,’ said Festus, pulling at the +box.</p> +<p>‘Don’t let him have it, Bob!’ screamed the +excited Anne through the hole in the floor.</p> +<p>‘No, don’t let him!’ cried the uncle. +‘’Tis a plot—there’s a woman at the +window waiting to help him!’</p> +<p>Anne’s eyes flew to the window, and she saw +Matilda’s face pressed against the pane.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Now, look here, hearties; what’s the meaning +o’ this?’ he said.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>XLI. JOHN MARCHES INTO THE NIGHT</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>She then shyly advanced, and every man felt that he must make +some pretty speech as he shook her by the hand.</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Good-night! Health, wealth, and long life to +ye!’ said Sergeant-major Wills, taking her hand from +Brett.</p> +<p>‘I trust to meet ye again as the wife of a worthy +man,’ said Trumpeter Buck.</p> +<p>‘We’ll drink your health throughout the campaign, +and so good-bye t’ye,’ said Saddler-sergeant Jones, +raising her hand to his lips.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘But I thought you were going to look in again before +leaving?’ she said gently.</p> +<p>‘No; I find I cannot. Good-bye!’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote207"></a><a href="#citation207" +class="footnote">[207]</a> <i>Vide</i> Preface.</p> +<p><a name="footnote211"></a><a href="#citation211" +class="footnote">[211]</a> <i>Vide</i> Preface.</p> +<p><a name="footnote225"></a><a href="#citation225" +class="footnote">[225]</a> <i>Vide</i> Preface.</p> +<p><a name="footnote272"></a><a href="#citation272" +class="footnote">[272]</a> <i>Vide</i> Preface.</p> +<p><a name="footnote303"></a><a href="#citation303" +class="footnote">[303]</a> <i>Vide</i> Preface.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUMPET-MAJOR***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 2864-h.htm or 2864-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/6/2864 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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